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.