#Environmental Engineering

[cybercity-sunrise]

1.25.2024

Hello friends :) The new semester is underway, and off to a good start so far. For classes, I'm taking Biotransformations, Soil and Groundwater Remediation, Carbon Storage, and the environmental engineering seminar. I've also been in the lab a lot more, and am almost ready to begin my first major experiments here. It's nice to feel like I am settling into my program and new city; both have been bringing me a lot of happiness lately. Wishing everyone a fulfilling 2024!

#studyblr #studyspo #grad school journey #gradblr #phd #phdblr #sunrise says #environmental engineering

[justonecitizenoftheearth]

#nature #environment #climate change #environmental engineering #hope for the future #energy #energy production #solarpunk

[queenwendy]

My engineering senior design project is due in less than 2 hours and while I, incredibly, have all of my work done despite the procrastination for some reason my group mates largely don’t and a lot of what we have to do is based on each other’s work!!! Why the hell did I agree to study civil engineering?!

#civil engineering #environmental engineering #college #fucking group projects #i am going to scream #wendy's posts

[fawnonthelam]

It’s that time of year again and snowy Davos is being enjoyed from the cozy chalet and lodge rooms of an interior human world, warmed by a variety of sources.

Given that Environmental issues always gets its time at the World Economic Forum gatherings, I think it would be refreshing if they discussed trying something new with their cultural influence: Positive reinforcement. Celebrating what people of different regions and classes do well, regarding environmental stewardship and resource use.

I return to Donella Meadows’ classification of interest dominant groups regarding environmental management over and over again, not because I retained nothing else from my studies (🤣) but because it really cut through to me on the essential conflict of sharing a world: Even in a perfect world, everyone can be good, everyone can be fair but still see a competition between good things (feeding poor people, protecting wildlife, giving people a means of supporting their children, honoring ancestors, protecting an open space because it is beautiful and inspires a search for meaning) as a challenge.

A class warrior can point to wealthy people with lots of property and goods as greedy consumers while ignoring that high investment land/habitat management, rare herd and heritage tree protection or conservation of ancient stands of trees often accompanies that way of life; an ultra wealthy person can look down their nose at lower class people as needing their guidance on resource management, when they’re likely already more successful at a low resource use lifestyle, in trailers, small homes and apartments.

City dwellers can celebrate their low impact personal transportation use but “farm to table” is just regular life in the country.

The person in an open floor plan mansion can be lectured about heating but their aesthetic relationship between outdoors and in, might keep them inspired to protect wildlife, forests and public parks.

Meeting people where they are, as who they are and putting a positive spotlight on what they already do really well, regarding environmental protection, resource use and interaction with other species, encouraging even more in strong areas is how I think environmental issues will become better abated, managed and at most ideal, actually solved.

Give people their due. Humbly acknowledge what someone else is doing better than you are.

#world economic forum #enviromental #environmentalism #A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down #Positive reinforcement #celebrating what people do well #Economics #Science #environmental management #environmental engineering #civil engineering #urban planning

[mivolasvivi]

SCOTUS basically just nerfed the EPA’s ability to regulate under the Clean Water Act. This is INFURIATING as a hydrologic engineer since it shows a fundamental lack of understanding of basic hydrology, hydraulics, and ecosystem dynamics in a changing climate.

Basically the definition of a wetland is now limited to areas connected to federally regulated waters by a “continuous surface connection”. The legal history of groundwater rights in the US is a whole different story, but this is such a narrow definition that shows a surface level (no pun intended) understanding of hydrology. People like to think of rivers and lakes as discrete units. But they’re not. They’re part of a larger interconnected watershed. Hence why federal regulations make sense in the context of wetlands. Not to mention that it’s just ridiculous to classify wetlands based on flowing surface water, when several key wetlands really aren’t related to any rivers.

This shows a greater trend about our unwillingness to adapt to climate change as well. Basically a couple built a house on an area that wasn’t a wetland, but was later classified as one, and regulatory agencies wanted them to return and restore the land. Obviously that’s shitty, and it’s probably a good thing that SCOTUS sided with them. But the legal precedent for reclassifying wetlands is insane.

We’re already seeing pushback from homeowners buying land in FEMA designated floodplains, and this certainly won’t help matters. The sad reality is that we will not be able to create a sustainable built environment in areas where we historically may have been able to. Like Florida coastlines, for example. Sticking our head in the sand and pretending that wetlands aren’t important, floodplains aren’t changing, and the climate is stationary is just a road to disaster in the long term that will have serious consequences.

When it’s legal to build in a floodplain or wetland, who do you think ends up in these high-risk areas? Often it’s the most underprivileged members of society who can’t afford to live elsewhere. This is just as much of a socioeconomic catastrophe as it is an environmental one.

The way we regulate water in the US is already insane, with agencies like the EPA, USACE, state governments, and interstate compacts causing a mess of tangled legislation. The complexities of our hydrologic cycle in a changing climate really can’t be left to individual stakeholders since we all live here and drink the same water that goes through the water cycle at the end of the day.

#me #civil engineering #hydrology #watersheds #environmental engineering #environmental justice

[jayelf]

Plastic pollution

Landfills can take up space and can emit toxins, while plastic trash incinerators are costly to build and maintain. Reusing 10% of plastics is estimated to save nearly half of all plastic garbage from entering the ocean.

Plastics are a vast range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that are mostly composed of polymers. Plastics, due to their fluidity, may be formed into a variety of shapes and forms. This feature, along with others such as its lightweight, has contributed to the widespread usage of plastics. Alexander Parkes exhibited the first plastics at the London International Exhibition in 1862.…

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#Environmental Engineering #Environmental Health #Plastic disposal methods #Plastic Pollution #Plastic Waste

[fungifusion]

We’ve been playing with Bing AI image generator to make some promotional material and we got some pretty wacky stuff

#environmentalism #plastics #mushrooms #fungi #pollution #mycology #fungifusion #fungus amongus #fungus among us #engineering #environmental engineering #research paper #design #ai #ai art #ai generated #ai image #ai artwork #aiartcommunity #ai art gallery #bing ai

[xtruss]

A bulldozer works to maintain Chicago's underground. More frequent and intense storms pose danger to aging infrastructure like these tunnels. Photograph By Keith Ladzinski, National Geographic Image Collection

Here’s What Worries Engineers The Most About U.S. Infrastructure

Water and sewer systems built in the mid-19th century weren't meant to handle the demands of modern cities, and many bridges and levees have aged well past their intended lifespan.

— By Alissa Greenberg | July 17, 2023

Christine Kirchhoff’s family were preparing to move into a new house when Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in 2017. Then the massive storm dumped 50 inches of rain on the area in just a few days, leaving two nearby reservoirs so full that their operators were forced to open the floodgates. Kirchhoff’s family had to be evacuated by boat. Both their original and new houses were inundated.

As an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Pennsylvania State University, Kirchhoff spent a lot of time thinking about water even before it swallowed her family’s livelihood. She is part of the legion of professionals behind the complex, often invisible systems that support American life: dams, roads, the electric grid, and much more.

For the last 25 years, the American Society of Civil Engineers has been sounding the alarm on the state of that infrastructure across the country. In their most recent assessment, for example, transit scored a D- and hazardous waste a D+. It’s an expensive problem to ignore. The ASCE estimates current infrastructure conditions cost the average family $3,300 a year. “Everyone is paying whether they know it or not,” Kirchhoff says.

Train derailments, highway and bridge collapses, and dam failures have become increasingly common. But which areas are civil engineers most concerned could cause imminent catastrophe, and what can we do about it? Kirchhoff and other infrastructure experts weigh in.

Water Contamination Crises are Already Here

The engineers we talked to agreed: our water systems are in trouble. Both those that protect us from water as a hazard (stormwater, dams, levees, bridges) and those that help us manage water as a resource (drinking water, wastewater, inland waterways) are in grim shape.

Streets were flooded after Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in 2017. Photograph By Ilana Pancih-Linsmam, The New York Times/Redux

The United States’ 2.2-million-mile drinking water and 800,000-mile sewer system was developed in part in response to the widespread waterborne diseases of the mid nineteenth century, Kirchhoff says. Maintenance has lagged woefully behind since then; some older areas, including some cities in the northeast, still use century-old wooden pipes. And many more of our pipes nationwide are still made of lead.

A water system designed for yesterday’s climate and to filter yesterday’s contaminants is especially problematic in a world of increasing demand, fiercer and more frequent storms, and “forever” chemicals. The result: boil orders, water main breaks, and sewer overflow, plus 15 percent of our water treatment plants working at or over capacity. These issues, combined with the toxicity of lead pipes, lead to water crises like the one that continues to plague Flint, Michigan.

Amlan Mukherjee, the director of sustainability focusing on infrastructure at WAP Sustainability Consulting, recommends focusing on these pipes—swapping lead for PVC or other materials and fixing the leaks that spill some 6 billion gallons of treated water a day—as one high priority fix.

Our coastline is also dotted with facilities storing hazardous oil and other chemical waste cocooned in donut-shaped earthen structures, adds Bilal Ayyub, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Maryland at College Park—structures that, he notes, could be made of concrete. Because of soil’s vulnerabilities, he worries that dramatic rainfall or a storm surge could destroy these structures, resulting in a release of toxic chemicals “bigger than the Exxon Valdez spill by orders of magnitude.”

His worst-case scenario has already happened at least once, when floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey ate through the earthen container at the San Jacinto River Waste Pits, releasing noxious waste into a nearby river.

Physical Collapse is Happening Now

Meanwhile, the number of high-hazard-potential dams in the United States now tops 15,000. Many were built during or before the WWII era and have been widely neglected since then. And when it comes to bridges, “there are cautionary tales all over,” says Maria Lehman, president of ASCE and vice chair of the Biden Administration’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council. “Every county in the country has a list of bridges that, if they had money, they would replace tomorrow.”

Our 617,000 bridges include not just those spanning mighty rivers but also every highway overpass and minor link across a stream—and close to one tenth of them are significantly compromised. “If you have to think in terms of catastrophe, we’re already there,” Mukherjee says. In 2007, the collapse of an I-35W bridge in Minnesota killed 13 people and injured 145. More recently, a six-lane bridge over the Mississippi was closed for three months in 2021, disrupting interstate travel and shipping because an inspector missed a significant crack. Americans drive 178 million trips on structurally deficient bridges each day.

Every day, millions of Americans travel across bridges and overpasses, like the Marquette Interchange in Milwaukee, that may be structurally deficient. Photograph By Keith Ladzinski, National Geographic Image Collection

Yet the US spends only 1.5-2.5 percent of its GDP on infrastructure, proportionately less than half of what the European Union spends, Lehman says. This long-term lack of funding has run out the clock on many solutions. Many of our bridges were built to last 30-50 years, but nearly half are at least half a century old. The average age of our levees is also 50; our dams average 57.

Now, extreme weather is intensifying just as structures fail. We’ve already seen consequences in the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, for example, when collapsing levees inundated 80 percent of New Orleans, killing hundreds, or in the failure of an under-inspected dam in Edenville, Michigan, which flooded the region and destroyed thousands of homes in 2020. The trend is set to continue: after Superstorm Sandy engulfed New York City transit, Ayyub helped study similar risks in Washington, D.C and Shanghai. His models showed widespread flooding that could swamp D.C. metro stations and in severe cases even reach “the backyard of the White House.”

The Future of U.S. Infrastructure

Mukherjee is optimistic about the use of new technology to solve some of these issues, though adoption has been slow. Drones can provide human inspectors with up-close views of areas they can’t reach themselves and reduce chance of human error; a drone on an unrelated project captured footage of the Mississippi bridge crack two years before its discovery.

Ayyub has also worked with North American freight railroads to find weak links using computer modeling, combing through thousands of stations to “identify exactly which point if it fails will have the biggest impact,” he says. Why not do the same with our power grid and waterways?

One piece of good news: in 2021, Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which provides $1.2 trillion over five years for the ailing systems that help American society run, the largest federal investment in US history. It was a major victory. “Every president for the last eight presidents said we should spend a lot of money—like a trillion dollars—on infrastructure, and none of them delivered,” Lehman says.

Unless it is renewed regularly, though, this funding will barely stop the bleeding. And meanwhile, across the country, families like Kirchhoff’s (who after a difficult year were able to rebuild both the destroyed houses) struggle to recover from a relentless march of disasters, many of them preventable. It’s time for the US to learn the lessons drawn from of a century of neglect, Lehman argues, and begin maintaining the systems that makes so much of American life possible while they’re still in working condition.

“If you have a leak in your roof, you go up there, find it, replace the shingles, put on a little tar” she says. “If you let it go, it’s not going to be a little fix: it’s going to be a replacement.”

#US 🇺🇸 #Infrastructure #Alissa Greenberg #Engineers #Christine Kirchhoff #Environmental Engineering #Pennsylvania State University #American Society of Civil Engineers #Contamination #Bilal Ayyub #University of Maryland #Amlan Mukherjee #Exxon Valdez #Hurricane Harvey #Biden Administration’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council #Mississippi River #European Union 🇪🇺 #Hurricane Katrina #New Orleans #Superstorm Sandy #New York City #Washington D.C. #White House #Infrastructure Law

[gleichschenklig]

#usgs #nasa #river #gis #remote sensing #environmental engineering #lena delta #color composition #satellite image

[stonerstudying]

Life Update:?

Currently studying for the FE exam :P pray 4 meeee I'm on Chapter 3, Probability, Statistics, and Sampling :(( ( ,,thinking of skipping it and going to engineering economics bc i hate stats more :///) lmk if anyone has any tips! It would be greatly appreciated <3

#fe exam #studieingbrb #omg i graduated btw:) #studyblr #environmental engineering #life is hard #stonerstudying

[annieboltonworld]

Role of Micro Nutrients Bio- Fortification in Agriculture: A Review

Abstract

Calcium, Zinc and iron are in the list of essential plant nutrients for growth and development. Bio fortification or foliar fertilization is very important strategy for crop management, which is very useful for obtaining maximum crop yield and quality. Bio fortification is used as a way of providing additional doses of macro- and micro-nutrients, stimulants, plant hormones and other favorable elements. The present review describes the role of calcium, zinc and iron in agricultural crop production and impact of bio-fortification of nutrients on crops.

Read More about this Article: https://juniperpublishers.com/ijesnr/IJESNR.MS.ID.556141.php

Read More Juniper Publishers Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=4WXzQFMAAAAJ&citation_for_view=4WXzQFMAAAAJ:4fKUyHm3Qg0C

#Juniper Publishers Google Scholar #Juniper Publishers in USA #earth science #waste management #sustainable development #environmental engineering

[cybercity-sunrise]

i need a support group for environmental engineers tbh because idk how to read about the horrible effects of compounds still used WIDELY and not have a fucking meltdown like. it's in my blood it's in everyone's blood it will be in our babies' blood.

#vent #sunrise says #environmental engineering #environmental science

[solar-industry]

#Environmental Engineering #Engineering #SgurrEnergy #Renewable Energy #Renewable Energy Consultants

[reasonsforhope]

"With “green corridors” that mimic the natural forest, the Colombian city is driving down temperatures — and could become five degrees cooler over the next few decades.

In the face of a rapidly heating planet, the City of Eternal Spring — nicknamed so thanks to its year-round temperate climate — has found a way to keep its cool.

Previously, Medellín had undergone years of rapid urban expansion, which led to a severe urban heat island effect — raising temperatures in the city to significantly higher than in the surrounding suburban and rural areas. Roads and other concrete infrastructure absorb and maintain the sun’s heat for much longer than green infrastructure.

“Medellín grew at the expense of green spaces and vegetation,” says Pilar Vargas, a forest engineer working for City Hall. “We built and built and built. There wasn’t a lot of thought about the impact on the climate. It became obvious that had to change.”

Efforts began in 2016 under Medellín’s then mayor, Federico Gutiérrez (who, after completing one term in 2019, was re-elected at the end of 2023). The city launched a new approach to its urban development — one that focused on people and plants.

The $16.3 million initiative led to the creation of 30 Green Corridors along the city’s roads and waterways, improving or producing more than 70 hectares of green space, which includes 20 kilometers of shaded routes with cycle lanes and pedestrian paths.

These plant and tree-filled spaces — which connect all sorts of green areas such as the curb strips, squares, parks, vertical gardens, sidewalks, and even some of the seven hills that surround the city — produce fresh, cooling air in the face of urban heat. The corridors are also designed to mimic a natural forest with levels of low, medium and high plants, including native and tropical plants, bamboo grasses and palm trees.

Heat-trapping infrastructure like metro stations and bridges has also been greened as part of the project and government buildings have been adorned with green roofs and vertical gardens to beat the heat. The first of those was installed at Medellín’s City Hall, where nearly 100,000 plants and 12 species span the 1,810 square meter surface.

“It’s like urban acupuncture,” says Paula Zapata, advisor for Medellín at C40 Cities, a global network of about 100 of the world’s leading mayors. “The city is making these small interventions that together act to make a big impact.”

At the launch of the project, 120,000 individual plants and 12,500 trees were added to roads and parks across the city. By 2021, the figure had reached 2.5 million plants and 880,000 trees. Each has been carefully chosen to maximize their impact.

“The technical team thought a lot about the species used. They selected endemic ones that have a functional use,” explains Zapata.

The 72 species of plants and trees selected provide food for wildlife, help biodiversity to spread and fight air pollution. A study, for example, identified Mangifera indica as the best among six plant species found in Medellín at absorbing PM2.5 pollution — particulate matter that can cause asthma, bronchitis and heart disease — and surviving in polluted areas due to its “biochemical and biological mechanisms.”

And the urban planting continues to this day.

The groundwork is carried out by 150 citizen-gardeners like Pineda, who come from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds, with the support of 15 specialized forest engineers. Pineda is now the leader of a team of seven other gardeners who attend to corridors all across the city, shifting depending on the current priorities...

“I’m completely in favor of the corridors,” says [Victoria Perez, another citizen-gardener], who grew up in a poor suburb in the city of 2.5 million people. “It really improves the quality of life here.”

Wilmar Jesus, a 48-year-old Afro-Colombian farmer on his first day of the job, is pleased about the project’s possibilities for his own future. “I want to learn more and become better,” he says. “This gives me the opportunity to advance myself.”

The project’s wider impacts are like a breath of fresh air. Medellín’s temperatures fell by 2°C in the first three years of the program, and officials expect a further decrease of 4 to 5C over the next few decades, even taking into account climate change. In turn, City Hall says this will minimize the need for energy-intensive air conditioning...

In addition, the project has had a significant impact on air pollution. Between 2016 and 2019, the level of PM2.5 fell significantly, and in turn the city’s morbidity rate from acute respiratory infections decreased from 159.8 to 95.3 per 1,000 people [Note: That means the city's rate of people getting sick with lung/throat/respiratory infections.]

There’s also been a 34.6 percent rise in cycling in the city, likely due to the new bike paths built for the project, and biodiversity studies show that wildlife is coming back — one sample of five Green Corridors identified 30 different species of butterfly.

Other cities are already taking note. Bogotá and Barranquilla have adopted similar plans, among other Colombian cities, and last year São Paulo, Brazil, the largest city in South America, began expanding its corridors after launching them in 2022.

“For sure, Green Corridors could work in many other places,” says Zapata."

-via Reasons to Be Cheerful, March 4, 2024

#colombia #brazil #urban #urban landscape #urban planning #cities #civil engineering #green architecture #green spaces #urban heat #urban heat island effect #weather #meteorology #global warming #climate change #climate hope #climate optimism #climate emergency #climate action #environment #environmental news #city architecture #bicycling #native plants #biodiversity #good news #hope #solarpunk #ecopunk #hopepunk

[market-insider]

Water and Wastewater Treatment Equipment Market, Analyzing Market Forces, Technological Advancements, and Environmental Impacts

The global water and wastewater treatment equipment market size is anticipated to reach USD 90.0 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 4.6% over the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is driven by increasing demand for clean and safe water in both developed and emerging economies. This is due to growing concerns over water pollution and scarcity, and the need for effective wastewater management.

Water And Wastewater Treatment Equipment Market Report Highlights

Asia Pacific accounted for the largest revenue share of the global market in 2023, accounting for 35.1%, and is expected to maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period. This can be attributed to the presence of a strong consumer base that has led to significant demand for water and wastewater treatment equipment

By application, the municipal segment dominated the market with a revenue share of 66.0% in 2023. The increasing initiatives undertaken by governments, strict environmental regulations, and increasing awareness regarding water treatment are some of the factors contributing to the growth of the municipal segment over the forecast period

By process, the tertiary treatment segment dominated the market with a revenue share of 44.2% in 2023. Some of the drivers for the increasing demand for tertiary wastewater treatment are environmental protection, water scarcity, and the increasing demand for clean water. As these issues continue to be major concerns across the world, the demand for tertiary wastewater treatment is expected to grow over the forecast period

Major key players frequently engage in mergers & acquisitions and new product launches to maintain their market shares. For instance, in March 2022, Pentair plc, announced the definitive agreement to acquire Manitowoc Ice. The move was taken by the company to enhance its commercial water solutions platform and cater to the demand from the food service industry

For More Details or Sample Copy please visit link @: Water And Wastewater Treatment Equipment Market Report

Furthermore, the demand for decentralized wastewater treatment systems is expected to increase over the projected period, as these systems offer several advantages such as low operating costs, high treatment efficiency, and easy maintenance. Several companies are focusing on developing innovative decentralized wastewater treatment systems that can be easily installed in residential and commercial buildings.

Population growth, urbanization, increasing industrialization, and the need for clean water for various purposes such as drinking, agriculture, and industrial processes all drive demand for water and wastewater treatment equipment. Government regulations aimed at protecting the environment and ensuring public health also have an impact on the demand for water and wastewater treatment equipment.

The market players are constantly undertaking strategic initiatives such as mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, and new product launches to gain a competitive advantage. For instance, Ceco Environmental, a provider of air pollution control solutions, announced the acquisition of Compass Water Solutions, a provider of water and wastewater treatment equipment. The acquisition will enable Ceco Environmental to integrate Compass Water Solutions’ critical engineered solutions with its industrial water capabilities.

WaterAndWastewaterTreatmentEquipmentMarket #WaterAndWastewaterTreatmentEquipment #WaterTreatment #WastewaterManagement #EnvironmentalEngineering #SustainableTechnology #CleanWaterSolutions #IndustrialWaterTreatment #WaterPurification #GreenInfrastructure #InnovationInWaterManagement #WaterQualityControl #WastewaterRecycling #MarketTrends #EnvironmentalCompliance #SmartWaterTechnologies #RegulatoryFrameworks #EcoFriendlySolutions #EmergingTechnologies #ResourceRecovery

#Water and Wastewater Treatment Equipment Market #Water and Wastewater Treatment Equipment #Water Treatment #Waste water Management #Environmental Engineering #Sustainable Technology #Clean Water Solutions #Industrial Water Treatment #Water Purification #Global Market Analysis #Green Infrastructure #Innovation In Water Management #Water Quality Control #Waste-water Recycling #Environmental Compliance #Smart Water Technologies #Regulatory Frameworks #Eco-Friendly Solutions #Emerging Technologies #Resource Recovery

[jayelf]

Different colours for hydrogen gas

Using the right type of hydrogen gas can help achieve net zero. Energy gotten from hydrogen gas is the only available energy that produces water, electricity, and heat when consumed in a fuel cell.

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#Climate Change #Environmental Engineering #Environmental Health #Green Hydrogen #Hydrogen Gas