Dr.

Md Shahinoor Islam
Dr. Shoeb Ahmed
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 ChE 481 Environmental Science I
 3.00 credits, 3 hours/week
 Section-1
 Introduction to environmental engineering: environmental
systems; environmental legislations and regulations;
environmental ethics
 Wastewater Characterization; Origin and sources of water
pollutants; source control; Physical, chemical and biological
treatment approaches of wastewater
 Sludge and solid waste management

 Section-2
 Air pollution: origin and fate of air pollutants, atmospheric
dispersion; stationary and mobile sources; source control.
 Noise pollution: noise effects; community noise sources and
criteria; noise control.

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 What is Environment?
Our environment is everything that
surrounds us, both natural and man-made.

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 ENVIRONMENT
 The natural environment, commonly referred to
simply as the environment, is a term
that encompasses all living and non-living things
occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof.

 The concept of the natural environment can be

distinguished by components:
 Complete ecological units including all vegetation,
animals, microorganisms, soil, rocks, atmosphere
 Universal natural resources and physical phenomena
such as air, water, and climate, as well as energy,
radiation, electric charge, and magnetism, not
originating from human activity.
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 Environment: the total of our
surroundings
• All the things around us with which we
interact:
• Living things
• Animals, plants, forests, fungi, etc.
• Nonliving things
• Continents, oceans, clouds, soil, rocks
• Our built environment
• Buildings, human-created living centers
• Social relationships and institutions
 Earth spheres

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 Lithosphere (Land)

The Earth's hard, outermost shell. It comprises the crust and the upper part of
the mantle. It is divided into a mosaic of 16 major plates. This crust is inorganic
and is composed of minerals. It covers the entire surface of the earth from the
top of Mount Everest to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

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 Hydrosphere (Water)
It ranges from 10 to 20
kilometers in thickness. The
hydrosphere extends from
Earth's surface downward
several kilometers into the
lithosphere and upward
about 12 kilometers into the
atmosphere.

The hydrosphere is composed of all of the water on or near

the earth

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 Earth’s Water Budget
All water Fresh water Readily accessible fresh water
Groundwater
0.592% Biota
0.0001%
Rivers
Lakes 0.0001%
0.007%
Fresh water 0.014%
2.6% Atmospheric
Oceans and Ice caps
Soil water vapor
saline lakes and glaciers
moisture 0.001%
97.4% 1.984%
0.005%

Water Sources
• Groundwater
• Surface Water
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• Municipal Water Supplies 12
 Groundwater Systems

Unconfined Aquifer Recharge Area

Evaporation and transpiration Evaporation

Precipitation

Confined
Recharge
Area Runoff

Flowing Recharge
artesian well Unconfined Stream
Aquifer Well
Water requiring Lake
Infiltration
table a pump
Infiltration

Less
permeable material
such as clay

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 Biosphere
 The biosphere contains all
the planet's living things.
This sphere includes all of
the microorganisms, plants,
and animals of Earth
 Biosphere is the sum total of
the ecosystems present in
the world.


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 Atmosphere - Air
 The atmosphere contains all the air in Earth's
system. It extends from less than 1 m below the
planet's surface to more than 10,000 km above the
planet's surface. The upper portion of the atmosphere
protects the organisms of the biosphere from the sun's
ultraviolet radiation. It also traps heat. When air
temperature in the lower portion of this sphere
changes, weather occurs. As air in the lower
atmosphere is heated or cooled, it moves around the
planet. The result can be as simple as a breeze or as
complex as a tornado

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 Atmosphere

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 Ecosystem and Ecology

 An ecosystem is formed by the

interactions between all living
and non-living things
 An ecology study of the
interactions between organisms
and their environment

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What is Environmental Science?
environmental science is the field of science that studies the
interactions of the physical, chemical, and biological
components of the environment and also the relationships
and effects of these components with the organisms in the
environment
 Environmental science: how does the
natural world work?
Environment  impacts 
Humans
• It has an applied goal:
developing solutions to
environmental problems
 An interdisciplinary field
Natural sciences:
information about the world
Social sciences: values and
human behavior, politics,
economy, etc.
 What is Environmental Engineering?

 Environmental Engineering is the integration of science

and engineering principles to improve the natural
environment, to provide healthy water, air, and land for
human habitation and for other organisms, and to
remediate pollution sites.
 Science & Engineering

 Science…improve our
understanding of natural
processes
 Engineering…use this
understanding to develop
and apply technologies that
will maintain or improve
environmental quality

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Natural resources: vital to human survival
Natural resources = substances and energy sources needed for
survival
Renewable Resources
 Sustainable yield
 Highest rate at which a potentially renewable resource
can be used without reducing its available supply
throughout the world or in a particular area.
 Environmental Degradation
 Depletion or destruction of a potentially renewable
resource such as soil, grassland, forest, or wildlife that is
used faster than it is naturally replenished. If such use
continues, the resource becomes nonrenewable (on a
human time scale) or nonexistent (extinct).

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Non-Renewable Resources
 Resource that exists in a fixed amount (stock) in various
places in the earth's crust and has the potential for renewal
by geological, physical, and chemical processes taking
place over hundreds of millions to billions of years.
 Energy, metals, and other minerals
 Examples are copper, aluminum, iron, salt, clay, coal, and
oil.
 Any potentially renewable resource can become non-
renewable if used improperly
 Theoretically, never exhaust due to economic feasibility for
extracting.

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 Extracting, processing and use come at an
environmental expense

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What is an “environmental problem”?

 The perception of what constitutes

a problem varies between
individuals and societies
 Ex.: DDT, a pesticide
 In developing countries: welcome
because it kills malaria-carrying
mosquitoes
 In developed countries: not welcome,
due to health risks
What are the challenges we face?
 What are the environmental issues we are facing
today?
We face challenges in agriculture

• Expanded food production led to

increased population and consumption
• It’s one of humanity’s greatest
achievements, but at an enormous
environmental cost
• Nearly half of the planet’s land surface
is used for agriculture
• Chemical fertilizers
• Pesticides
• Erosion
• Changed natural systems
We face challenges in pollution

• Waste products and artificial chemicals used in farms,

industries, and households

• Each year, millions of people die from pollution

 We face challenges in climate
• Scientists have firmly concluded that
humans are changing the composition of
the atmosphere
• The Earth’s surface is warming
• Melting glaciers
• Rising sea levels
• Impacted wildlife and crops
• Increasingly destructive weather

Since the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric

carbon dioxide concentrations have risen by
37%, to the highest level in 650,000 years
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 We face challenges in biodiversity
• Human actions have driven many species extinct, and
biodiversity is declining dramatically

Biodiversity loss may be our biggest environmental

problem; once a species is extinct, it is gone forever
 Our energy choices will affect our future
• The lives we live today are due to fossil
fuels
• Machines
• Chemicals
• Transportation
• Products

• Fossil fuels are a one-time bonanza;

supplies will certainly decline

We have used up ½ of the world’s oil

supplies; how will we handle this imminent
fossil fuel shortage?
 Sustainable solutions exist
 We must develop solutions that protect both our
quality of life and the environment
 Organic agriculture
 Technology
 Reduces pollution

 Biodiversity
 Protect species

 Waste disposal
 Recycling

 Alternative fuels
 Sustainability: a goal for the future
 Sustainability
 Leaves future generations with a rich
and full Earth
 Conserves the Earth’s natural
resources
 Maintains fully functioning
ecological systems

 Sustainable development: the use

of resources to satisfy current needs
without compromising future
availability of resources