Basic Concepts of Environmental Engineering

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Basic Concepts of

Environmental Engineering


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BIOTIC AND ABIOTIC

ENVIRONMENT

In general the surroundings of an organism

living in its natural habitat is termed as

environment.

These surroundings include all; physical,

mental and spiritual conditions.

The human beings are so complex in nature

that it is a combined effect of every thing,which exists, far or near them, affects their

life (mental, physical and spiritual).


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The gravitational forces of distant planetsaffect each other and these movement orrotation is based on the balance between

them. Tides come because of the gravitational

attraction of moon and sun, which movethe bodies of water on the earth as well asthe water, which is the main constituent ofhuman body (75%).


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It has been well established that the non-living things and the living beings aretotally interrelated and dependent on each

other. It is only a matter of time that something is

nonliving or somebody is living being.

We consume the food, which becomespart of our body cells and gets changedinto living being.


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After the death of those cells or the whole

body it again becomes non-living.

So it is a combination or synthesis of

various elements with some unknown

factor like soul that demarcates the living

beings and non-living things

But it is sure that nature is in dynamic

equilibrium of both of them.


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Classification of

Environment

Physical or Abiotic Environment

Living or Biotic Environment


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Physical or abiotic

environment

It consists of physical factors Land(minerals, toxic elements, nutrients), sky(sink of various things, noise) and air

(useful and other gases). Anciently, we have realized this

combination as Ksiti (Earth), Jal (Water),Pavak (Fire), Gagan (Sky), Sameera (Air):the five basic elements (Panch Tatva)which influence life.


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Living or biotic

environment

It consists of plants, animals (including

human beings) and micro-organisms

Life in the form of micro-organisms is very

strange and subtle (strong).

Fungus is available up to 3 km below the

earth.

Thus the earth is not made for human

beings alone.


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All these constituents of environment arereferred to as the environmental factors or anecological factor, which is defined as anecological condition, which directly or

indirectly affects the life of an organism. These biotic and abiotic components are in a

dynamic state i.e. they constantly dependand affect each other and cannot be dealt in

isolation with each other. This is the fundamental of Environmental

Science or Engineering.


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Wherever we have not considered thisinterdependence and interrelation, knowinglyor unknowingly, we have destroyed the verystructure of a factor.

This unthoughtful use of a resource, dealt inisolation, pollutes the other environmentalfactor, which in turn affects the polluting one,as all of them are interrelated and

interdependent. This is the fundamental of environmental

pollution.


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THE ORIGINS OF

ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING


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The roots of environmental engineering reachback to the beginning of civilization.

Providing clean water and managing wastes

became necessary whenever peoplecongregated in organized settlements.

For ancient cities, the availability of adependable water source often meant the

difference between survival and destruction,and a water supply became a defensivenecessity.


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The builders of wells and aqueducts were thesame people who were called on to build the city

walls and moats, as well as the catapults and

other engines of war.

These men became the engineers of antiquity.

It was not until the mid-1700s that engineers

who built facilities for the civilian population

began to distinguish themselves from theengineers primarily engaged in matters of

warfare, and the term civil engineering was

born.


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In the formative years of the United States,engineers were mostly self-educated or weretrained at the newly formed United States

Military Academy. Civil engineersthe builders of roads,

bridges, buildings, and railroadswere calledon to design and construct water supplies for

the cities, and to provide adequate systemsfor the management of waterborne wastesand storm water.


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The advent of industrialization brought

with it unbelievably unsanitary conditions

in the cities because of the lack of water

and waste management.

There was no public outcry, however, until

it became evident that water could carry

disease.


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From that time on, civil engineers had tomore than just provide an adequate supply ofwater; they now had to make sure the waterwould not be a vector for disease

transmission. Public health became an integral concern of

the civil engineers entrusted with providingwater supplies to the population centers, and

the elimination of waterborne diseasebecame the major objective in the late 19thcentury.


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The civil engineers entrusted with the

drainage of cities and the provision of

clean water supplies became public health

engineers (in Britain) and sanitaryengineers (in the United States).


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ENVIRONMENTALENGINEERING TODAY


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Sanitary engineers have achieved

remarkable reductions in the transmission

of acute disease by contaminated air or

water.

In the United States, the acute effects of

pollution are for all intents and purposes

eliminated.


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These acute concerns have been replaced, however,by more complex and chronic problems such as: climate change;

depleting aquifers;

indoor air pollution; global transport of persistent, bio accumulating and toxicchemicals;

synergistic impacts of complex mixtures of human-madechemicals from household products and pharmaceuticalsin wastewater effluents, rivers and streams;

endocrine-disrupting chemicals; and a lack of information on the effect on human and

environmental health and safety of rapidly emerging newmaterials, such as nanoparticles.


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Challenges to individual environmental

media such as air and water can no longer

be considered and managed within

individual compartments.

They must be managed at the ecosystem

level to avoid shifting pollution concerns

from one environmental medium toanother.


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To address these chronic problems beforethey become acute, scientists andengineers are:

seeking to understand the environment, cities,and industry as interacting systems (i.e., asinterconnected ecosystems, social systems,and industrial systems)

think proactively and preemptively so that wecan avoid unintended consequences ratherthan having to manage them reactively.


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In most developed countries today, public

opinion has evolved to where the direct and

immediate health effects of environmental

contamination are no longer the soleconcern.

The cleanliness of streams, for the benefit of

the stream itself, has become a driving force,and legislation has been passed addressing

our desire for a clean environment.


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The protection of wildlife habitat, thepreservation of species, and the health ofecosystems have become valid objectives

for the spending of resources. Such a sense of mission, often referred to

as an environmental ethic, is a majordriving force behind modern environmentalengineering and is demanded by thepublic as a public value.


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In the 20th century, an environmental ethic

was often pitted against the desires of

those who wished to exploit natural

resources for human gain.

Common thinking assumed that a trade-off

had to be made: One had to choose

between the economy or theenvironment.

Basic Concepts of Environmental Engineering

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