Environmental Engineering 101
How Science and Technology are Used to Improve the Environment
Feb 14, 2009
Environmental engineering is a multi-disciplinary field whose focus is on maintaining or improving the quality of the environment. This includes air quality, water quality, and land/soil quality, and how human activities are intertwined with quality. Environmental quality affects public health, so environmental engineering is a vital part of system design.
Environmental Engineering Education
In the past, people in the environmental engineering field came from other engineering professions and guided their careers into environmental concerns. However, more and more engineering schools are developing specific environmental engineering curricula and degree programs. Students who elect to earn a degree in environmental engineering generally begin with a strong base in biology and chemistry courses.
Basic engineering courses such as heat transfer and fluid mechanics are generally included. Advanced courses depend on the specific area of study, but could include wastewater treatment system design, soil quality, hazardous material handling, or even environmental management topics such as urban planning.
Branches of Environmental Engineering
- Air Quality – In this field, engineers focus on improving the quality of air in localized areas and develop methods to remove emissions from industrial processes, eliminating their discharge into the environment. These emissions can include particulate matter, organic compounds, and even carbon dioxide emissions.
- Environmental Impact – This field of environmental engineering focuses on understanding how human activities and operations affect the environment, including the air, water, and soil, and developing processes to reduce or eliminate these effects.
- Water Supply Quality – This area focuses on maintaining and/or improving the quality of public water sources, including those for home, industrial, and agricultural purposes.
- Waste Water Treatment – This branch of environmental engineering is concerned with the developments of systems and methods for treating water that has already been used in a residential, commercial, or industrial setting and collected via a municipal sewer system. This is also applicable to closed loop systems within a single industrial facility as well.
Environmental Engineering Professional Societies
The Society of Environmental Engineers (SEE) is a UK-based organization that “exists to promote awareness of the discipline of environmental engineering, and to provide members of the Society with information, training and representation within this field.”
The Association of Environmental Professionals (AEP) is “dedicated to the enhancement, maintenance and protection of the natural and human environment.” This California-based organization was created to facilitate the progressive climate change initiatives that were begun in California in the 1970s.
Beyond these two organizations, many other engineering professional societies have sub-divisions that focus on environmental engineering issues and interests. To learn about the different types of engineers and what they do, please read Engineering 101: The Basics.
Sources
WPI Environmental Engineering Department website
SEE website
