BES 401-ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

01 - INTRODUCTION

A.) ES 01 lecture objective - deleted to save space

B.) ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
It is the application of science and engineering principles to protect and enhance the quality of the
environment i.e. the air, water, and land resources; to sustain the health of humans and other living
organisms.
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
It is that branch of chemical science that deals with the production, transport, reactions, effects,
and fates of chemical species in the water, air, terrestrial, and biological environment and the
effects of human activities thereon.
Examples of how/where environmental engineering amd environmental chemistry work can be useful:
n Conservation of the environment, n Clean up sites that are already polluted.
n Waste reduction, n Dealing with a variety of pollutants—chemical,
n Waste prevention biological, thermal, radioactive, and mechanical.
n Pollution abatement & control
Environmental engineering is multi-disciplinary. It incorporates elements from various disciplines of:
n chemistry, n ecology, n civil engineering, n mechanical engineering,
n biology, n geology, n chemical engineering, n and public health.
C.) ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN:
Ever since people first recognized that their health and well-being were related to the quality of their
environment, they have applied thoughtful principles to attempt to improve the quality of their environment:
n The ancient Harappan civilization (3000-1500 BC, along Indus river, present-day Pakistan) utilized early
sewers in their cities.
n The ancient Romans constructed aqueducts to supply a clean water to the metropolis of Rome.
n In the 15th century, Bavaria created laws restricting the development and degradation of alpine country
that constituted the region's water supply.
The field emerged as a separate environmental discipline during the middle third of the 20th century in
response to widespread public concern on water pollution & increasing environmental quality degradation.
Modern environmental engineering began in London in the mid-19th century when the first major sewerage
system that reduced the incidence of waterborne diseases such as cholera. The introduction of drinking
water treatment and sewage treatment in industrialized countries reduced waterborne diseases from leading
causes of death to nil.
D.) ENVIRONMENT
1.) Environment generally refers to the surrounding conditions that affect people and other organism. In a
broader sense, it is everything that affects an organism during its lifetime. This includes the air we
breath, the water we drink, the land, the ocean, the rivers, and the forests that covers the earth. To an
increasing extent it also includes the building, the highways, and the modern infrastructures of the
urban settings in which the greater portion of the growing population resides. The state of this physical
environment directly and indirectly affects the viability of all living things on the planet - the people,
plants, birds, fish, trees, forest, animals, & all other living things.
2.) The natural environment is a term that comprises all living and non-living things that occur naturally on
Earth or some part of it (e.g. the natural environment in a country). This term includes a few key
components :
a.) Complete landscape units that function as natural systems without massive human intervention,
including all plants, animals, rocks, etc. and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries.
b.) Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air,
water, and climate, as well as energy, radiation, electric charge, and magnetism, not originating
from human activity.
3.) The natural environment is contrasted with the "built" environment, which comprises the areas and
components that are heavily influenced by man. A geographical area is regarded as a natural
environment (with an indefinite article), if the human impact on it is kept under a certain limited level
(similar to section 1 above). This level depends on the specific context, and changes in different areas
and contexts. The term wilderness, on the other hand, refers to areas without any human intervention
whatsoever (or almost so).
E.) Environmental Ethics - (not included in this term)
Page 1 of 4
F.) Matter/Energy/Life (just a review - already learned these in Physics, Chemistry, hi-school Biology)
1.) Matter/Elements of Life
a.) Matter is anything that occupies space and has mass or weight.
b.) Atoms - the fundamental sub-units of matter, which is made up of protons, neutrons, & electrons.
c.) Molecules - stable units formed by the bonding of atoms to one another.
d.) Ions - electrcally charged particle (these could be atoms or molecules that lose or gain electrons)
e.) Compounds - matter that are formed when two or more atoms or ions are bonded together.
f.) Chemical reaction is a process by which one or more substances may be transformed into one or
more new substances. Energy is released or is absorbed, but no loss in total molecular weight
g.) Exothermic - chemical reaction in which heat is released.
h.) Endothermic - chemical reaction in which heat is absorbed.
i.) Catalyst - a substance that alters (usually speed-up) the rate of a reaction, but is not itself used-up
or altered in the process.
j.) Organic matter - made up of molecules that contain carbon atoms usually bonded to form chains
or rings.
k.) All living organism are made up of cells which contain organic matter as well as inorganic matter
in a very specific arrangement. Cells are minute conpartments within which processes of life are
carried out. Organism such as bacteria, protozoa, and some algae are made-up pf single cell.
Higher organism (such as plants, animals, including man) are made up of several trillion cells of
about 200 distinct types.
l.) Enzymes - molecular catalyst made of protein molecules that regulates the chemical reactions
occuring in living organism.
m.) Metabolism - complex biochemical processes occurring within a living cell or organism that are
necessary for the maintenance of life. In metabolism some substances are broken down to yield
energy for vital processes while other substances, necessary for life, are synthesized. Metabolism
is a necessary process, without which living organisms would die.
n.) Respiration - a process where living organisms gathers the energy in food molecules to
make energy. It involves the use of atmospheric oxygen to breakdown large molecules (sugar, fats,
and protein) into smaller inorganic molecules (water, CO2) with release of energy.
(C6H12O6+ 6O2––> 6CO2+ 6H2O + energy)

2.) Energy Principles

a.) Energy - ability to do work
b.) Kinetic energy - energy contained by a moving objects
c.) Potential energy - energy an oject has due to its position.
d.) Sensible heat - heat energy used to change the temperature of a substance or matter without
changing its state.
e,) Latent heat - heat energy used to changed the state of a substance or matter with changing its
temperature.
f.) First law of Thermodynamics - energy can neither be created or destroyed. It can only be
transformed from one form to another.
g.) Second law of Thermodynamics - in the transformation of energy from one form to another, some
of the useful energy are lost. The energy that cannot be use to do useful work is called "entropy"
The 2'nd law can be stated as - when energy is converted from one form to another, entropy
increases. Entropy is a measure of disorder, anf the amount of disorder increases when energy
conversion takes place.
G.) Five (5) Laws of Nature
1.) Nature if left to itself is balanced.
2.) Everything must go somehwere
n when something is released to the environment, it will soon find its way and settle
somewhere.
n If absorbed in the food chain, it will often end up in human beings ( in biomagnified form -
Biomagnification = concentration levels increase several folds as it moves up on the food
chain)
3.) Everything is related to something else.
4.) All forms of life are important.
n all organism have functions/purpose
n diversity is the characteristic of nature
n Biodiversity is vital to and support human existence.
Page 2 of 4
 5.) Our earth is finite
n there's limit to earth's resources.
H.) The Spheres of the Earth
Traditionally, the area near the surface of the earth can be divided up into four inter-connected
"geo-spheres". The names of the four spheres are derived from the Greek words for stone (litho), air (atmo),
water (hydro), and life (bio).
1.) The lithosphere is the solid, rocky crust covering entire planet. This crust is inorganic and is composed
of minerals. It contains the hot semi-solid rock that lies underneath the crust, the hot liquid rock
near the center of the planet, and the solid iron-nickel core (center) It covers the entire surface of the
earth from the top of Mount Everest to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Contained in the lithosphere
* geographical structures - rocks, mountains, beaches,
* underlying structures - mantle, ocean basins, core, magma, mineral resources such as iron,
copper, etc.

2.) The hydrosphere is composed of all of the water on or near the earth. This includes the oceans, rivers,
lakes, and even the moisture in the air. Ninety-seven percent of the earth's water is in the oceans. The
remaining three percent is fresh water; three-quarters of the fresh water is solid and exist in ice sheets.
Included in the hydrosphere are :
* water bodies - oceans, lakes, rivers, streams, ground water, ...
* frozen structures - ice caps, snow, ..
* water vapor in the atmosphere

3.) The atmosphere is the body of air which surrounds our planet. It contains all of the planet/s air. Most of
our atmosphere is located close to the earth's surface where it is most dense. The air of our planet is
79% nitrogen and just under 21% oxygen; the small amount remaining is composed of carbon dioxide
and other gasses.

4.) The biosphere is composed of all living organisms. Plants, animals, and one-celled organisms are all
part of the biosphere. Most of the planet's life is found from three meters below the ground to thirty
meters above it and in the top 200 meters of the oceans and seas. Included in the biosphere are :
* All of the living things on the Earth and in the sky make up the biosphere. From bacteria to people -
all are members.
But it is important to consider the 5'th environmental sphere:
5.) The anthrosphere - is defined as that part of the environment made or modified by humans and used for
their activities. Beginning the last century, humans have built structures and modified the other
environmental spheres, especially the lithosphere, such that it is necessary to consider the
anthrosphere as a separate area with pronounced, sometimes overwhelming influence on the
environment as a whole.

The anthrosphere consists of the many things that humans make or do, The anthrosphere is so
important in determining conditions on Earth, that in 2000 the Nobel Prize winning atmospheric
scientist Paul Crutzen made a convincing argument that we are now leaving the Holocene Epoch,
which began with the latest interglacial period about 12,000 years ago and have entered the
Anthropocene Epoch in which human activities, such as emissions of massive amounts of
global-warming carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, predominate in determining Earth’s environment.
The major components of the anthrosphere are:
* Structures used for manufacturing
* Machines of various kinds, including automoiles, farm machineries , & airplanes
* Transportation systems including railroads, airports, & waterways constructed or modified for
transport
* Structures and devices used for communications, such as telephone lines, radio transmitter towers
* Food production systems including cultivated fields, irrigation systems, & animal feedlots.
* Mines, oil wells and other structures used by extractive industries.
* Utilities including water, fuel & electricity distribution systems, & waste collection systems (sewers)
* Dwellings

These 5 spheres are interacting with each other.

* These spheres are closely connected. For example, many birds (biosphere) fly through the air
(atmosphere), while water (hydrosphere) often flows through the soil (lithosphere).
Page 3 of 4
* A change in one sphere often results in a change in one or more of the other spheres.
* Such changes that take place within an ecosystem are referred to as events which can occur
* naturally, such as an earthquake or a hurricane, or they can be caused by humans, such as an oil
spill or air pollution.
* An event occuring in the lithosphere such as earthquake may cause tsunami (huge tidal wave) in
the hydrosphere. Use of coal by power plants in the anthrosphere emits pollutants (such as CO,
SO2, flyash, etc.) to the atmosphere. Typhoons, cyclones, tornadoes, and other weather events
occuring in the atmosphere have effects (sometimes catastropic) to the biosphere (humans,
animals, and other organism)..

* An event can cause changes to occur in one or more of the spheres, and/or an event can be the
effect of changes in one or more of Earth's four spheres.
* This two-way cause and effect relationship between an event and a sphere is called an interaction
* Interactions also occur among the spheres; for example, a change in the atmosphere can cause a
change in the hydrosphere, and vice versa.
* Interactions that occur as the result of events such as floods and forest fires impact only a local
region, meaning the flood waters can only travel so many miles from the original stream, and only
the trees that lie within the area on fire will be burned.
* On the other hand, the effects of events such as El Nino or ozone depletion may cause
interactions that can be observed worldwide.
* For example, the El Nino event - a change in the ocean currents off the coast of Peru - can cause
changes in weather patterns all the way across North America, while ozone depletion above
Antarctica may result in increased levels of ultra-violet radiation around the world.
* Understanding the interactions among the earth's spheres and the events that occur within the
ecosystem allows people to predict the outcomes of events.
* Being able to predict outcomes is useful when, for example, developers wish to know the
environmental effects of a project such as building an airport before they begin construction.

Page 4 of 4