End-semester exam

CE 241A: Sustainable Built Environment

Total marks (100)

1. List the major causes of biodiversity loss in the world? What does IUCN do? What are the
different IUCN Red List threat categories under which a species can be categorized? (3)
2. Compared to 30 years ago, rarely any vulture is seen in Delhi now-a-days? Why? Has it or can it
have any impact on the ordinary citizens of India like you, how? (3)
3. How much solid waste an average Indian person generates in a day? What is the cost of handling
this waste by municipality? Describe what happens to the different types of municipal solid waste
thrown by households everyday (write 4 major techniques used in detail). (3)
4. What are the major pollutants in wastewater and their impact on the environment? Suppose U.P.
government wants to set up a new smart city. Describe in detail how they can ensure that the
wastewater generated from this city does not pollute nearby Ganga. What are steps involved? (3)
5. A lot of species in India are on the verge of extinction. List some ways in which we can save them
and increase their population. (4)
6. Kanpur has a big leather industry but it generates chromium that pollutes both the soil and the
groundwater and can cause cancer in people. Discuss how can you clean this pollution. (5)
7. Suppose after graduating from IIT and getting a job, you donate Rs. One Lakh to your village
school so that they can install solar panels instead of using electricity produced from coal-fired
power plant. Calculate the social return on investment (SROI) over a 10-year period assuming that
school uses 10000 units of electricity per year and the carbon footprint of one unit produced using
solar power is 5 kg CO2 and that of coal power is 10 kg CO2. The social cost of CO2 is Rs 3/kg. (5)
8. List the major air pollutants in India, their classification, sources and monitoring techniques.
Delhi’s air was not so bad in the month of November 10 years ago. Discuss what changed so that
now it has worst air/smog in this time of the year. (5)
9. What are four types of ecosystem services provided by Nature to us? What is the approximate
value of these services in monetary terms (in US$) globally right now? IIT Kanpur has a green
campus with lot of trees/Nature. How will you calculate approximate value its Nature in $? (5)
10. Suppose you set up a factory that produces both particulate and gaseous air pollutants. What
technologies are available to remove these so that your emissions do not pollute the air? (5)
11. Briefly describe environmental impact assessment (EIA) and steps involved in carrying it out. (5)
12. What are the major pollutants found in Indian groundwater and their sources? Suppose the aquifer
supplying water to IIT Kanpur gets polluted due to nearby industries. What steps will the geo-
environment engineer take and what methods are available to remediate/treat the groundwater? (5)
13. Suppose you set up a company selling and exporting natural mineral water with healing properties
as a niche expensive product. This water comes from Gangotri Himalayan mountains but now
farmers in that area have started to pollute the river. How can you solve this situation? (5)
14. What is LCA? Suppose you want to calculate the environmental impact of your daily diet using life
cycle assessment (LCA) tool. What stages would you consider and describe how each stage impacts
different environmental domains. (10)
15. Describe how railways, road, pharma, power, and leather industries damage the environment and
what can be done to reduce these impacts? (10)
16. Discuss in detail different narratives prevalent in India currently and which ones are dominant
over the others and how do they influence the environment. Apply the concept of ‘Cui Bono’ and
identify who is behind these narratives and benefitting the most. Which kind of people fall for
which narrative in general in your opinion? What in your opinion should be the ideal narrative for
India? (12)
17. What is a sustainable diet? List the average amounts (in gram/capita/day) of fruits, vegetables,
whole grains, dairy, red meat, white meat, eggs, fish, and legumes that one should have in his/her
daily diet so that it complies with the recommendations of recent EAT-Lancet report on
sustainable diet. What eating habits should Indians adopt and intakes of which of these items
should they increase or decrease to improve our health? What amounts of different vitamins and
minerals a person needs on a daily basis for healthy functioning of body? What are the five food-
related planetary boundaries for carbon, water, cropland, nitrogen, and phosphorus? (12)