Environmental Engineering

What is the role of Solving specific problems related to the environment.

environmental Involved heavily in design
engineers?

What is a hazard? Probability of negative effects in a certain situation.

What is a risk? It is a measure of the probability that an adverse effect or outcome

will occur.

What are examples - Risk of tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, droughts, landslides,

of environmental and forest fires.
phenomena that - Risk of chemicals released to the environment on human
environmental health.
engineers make an
estimate of?

Can risk perception Yes

be both quantitative - Qualitative: vary due to people’s different perception of risk
and qualitative? - Quantitative: expressed numerically and has no units

What is quantitative is an in-depth process of estimating risk.

risk assessment?

What are examples ● Well defined risks: frequency and severity of vehicle
of risks that are well accidents.
defined and ones ● Risks difficult to document: alcohol and tobacco use.
that are not?

What is a common People often rely on their experiences for making inferences.
issue related to risk
evaluation?

What are two ways Lifetime risk

of expressing risk Annual risk
perception?

When was the In 1989 by EPA

formal process of
conducting a
baseline risk
assessment
implemented?

What is - Human health risk assessment

environmental risk - Ecological risk assessment
assessment
composed of?

When should When it is determined that a management action may have

environmental risk consequences to either humans or the environment.
assessment be
conducted?

What does baseline ● Data collection and evaluation

risk assessment ● Toxicity assessment
include? ● Exposure assessment
● Risk characterization

What does data Gathering and analyzing site-specific data relevant to human health
collection and concerns for the purpose of identifying substances of major interest.
evaluation involve?

What does data ● Gathering background and site information

collection and ● Preliminary identification of potential human and ecosystem
evaluation step exposure through sampling
include? ● Development of a sample collection strategy

What should be 1. Potential contaminants

identified when 2. Concentration of the contaminants in key sources and media,
gathering characteristics of sources, and information related to the
background chemical’s release
information? potential.
3. Characteristics of the environmental setting that could affect
the fate, transport, and
persistence of the contaminants.

What is the use of To identify potential exposure pathways and exposure points.
information on site
characteristics?

What is toxicity is the process of determining the relationship between the exposure
assessment? to a contaminant and the increased likelihood of the occurrence or
severity of adverse effects.
What does this Hazard identification: determines whether exposure to a
procedure include? contaminant causes increased adverse effects for humans and to
what level of severity.

Does-response evaluation: uses quantitative information on the

dose of the contaminant and relates it to the incidence of adverse
reactions in an exposed population.

What is the factor Dosage

that determines the
degree of
harmfulness of a
compound?

What is dose? Dose: is the mass of chemical received by the animal or exposed
individual. It has units of kg of body per mass (mg*kg^-1).

What toxicologists They must be able to observe quantitative effects.

have to observe in
order to establish
the “degree of
harmfulness” of a
compound?

What is the ultimate Death of the organism

effect that can be
manifested?

What are subtle Effects on body weight, blood chemistry, and enzyme inhibition or
effects that can be induction.
observed?

What are examples Mortality and tumor formation

of quantal
(all-or-nothing)
responses?

What is a It is a statistical relationship of organism response to dose that is

dose-response expressed in the form of a cumulative-frequency distribution.
curve?

Why is toxicity a There is no fixed scale for establishing toxicity.

relative term?
Under what - When the chemical or biological mechanism is the same.
conditions can - When the quantitative effect used for comparison is the same.
comparisons of
different chemicals
be informative?

Why is it difficult to - The shape (slope) of the dose-response curve may differ for
establish a toxic different compounds.
relationship? - There is no fixed dose that can be relied on to produce a given
biologic effect in every member of a population.
- Single-point comparisons can be misleading.

How are all data By conducting animal studies.

used in hazard
identification and
quantification
derived?

What is the purpose To estimate the magnitude of exposure to chemicals of potential

of exposure concern.
assessment?

What is the Chemical intake and pathways of exposure.

magnitude of
exposure based
on?

What are the 3 1. The exposure from a particular pathway is less than that of
criteria that justify exposure through another pathway involving the same media
the elimination of a at the same exposure point
pathway or entry? 2. The magnitude of exposure from the pathway is low, or
3. The probability of exposure is low and incidental risk is not
high

What are the two - Point estimate methods

methods of - Probabilistic methods
quantifying
exposure?

What is a total It is the evaluation of all primary sources of exposure. Revision of

exposure data makes it possible to decrease or increase the level of concern
assessment? for a particular route of entry to the body
How does the EPA By calculating the reasonable maximum exposure (RME).
use the point
estimate method?

Why do some because they result in very conservative estimates.

scientists believe
probabilistic
methods are more
realistic?

What happens in All data collected from exposure and toxicity assessments are
the risk reviewed to corroborate qualitative and quantitative conclusions about
characterization risk.
step? The risk for each media source and route of entry is calculated- which
includes the evaluation of compounding effects due to the presence
of more than one chemical contaminant and the combination of risk
across all routes of entry.

What is risk It is the last step of the risk assessment procedure.

management? Risk managers make decisions using the results of the risk
assessment to minimize the adverse effects of a toxicant, process, or
technology on human health and the environment

Risk limits - entails defining the acceptability of the risk, which can be
classified as acceptable or in need of reduction.
Risk reduction: design and implementation of risk-reducing measures
and controls.
- Cost benefit is estimated for any risk reduction measurement

What is Sustainability is a method of harvesting or using a resource so that

sustainability? the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged.

What is sustainable Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the
development? present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs.

What is sustainable Sustainable economy is sustainability that produces wealth and

economy? provides jobs for many human generations without degrading the
environment.

What are the 2 ● Reduction in the use of both renewable and nonrenewable
principles for the natural resources.
sustainable ● Provision of solutions that are both long-term and
economy market-based.
definition?
What are ways to Increasing efficiency, reuse and recycling, and substituting renewable
reduce resource resources for nonrenewable ones.
consumption?

What is the - Renewable resources: are resources that can be replaced

difference between within a few human generations. EX. timber, surface water,
renewable and non and alternative sources of power such as solar and wind.
renewable - Non renewable resources: are resources that are
resources? replaceable in geologic time scales. EX. Groundwater, fossil
fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil) and metal ores.

What is the “People It refers to the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Problem”?

What creates the

“People Problem” It is caused by continued rapid population growth.
and when will it be Technological solutions will not be able to resolve the consequence of
critical? long-term population growth given limited renewable and
nonrenewable resources.

What are the causes Natural processes: variation in solar output, meteorite impacts, and
of climate change? volcanic eruptions.

What are the Ecosystem changes (extinction of species)

consequences of
climate change?

What is green Green engineering is the design, commercialization, and use of

engineering? processes and products that are feasible and economical while
reducing the generation of pollution at the source and minimizing risk
to human health and the environment.

What are the ● Designers need to ensure materials and energy are as
principles of green non-hazardous as possible
engineering? ● Prevent waste than to clean up waste after it is formed
● Separation/purification should be in the design
● System components should be to maximize efficiency
● System components should be output pulled rather than input
pushed
● Embedded entropy and complexity must be viewed as an
when making design choices
● Durability should be design goal
● Design for unnecessary capability should be avoided
● Minimize material diversity
 ● Design of process should be integrated
● Performance matrics include performance after life
● Design should be based on renewable and available inputs for
life cycle

What does the

concept of green The adaptability to improve sustainability.
engineering
demonstrate?

Where can the In the emergence of whole building assessment systems. EX.
concept of green BREEAM and LEED— which place considerable emphasis on the
engineering be seen selection of green materials or products as an important aspect of
in civil engineering? sustainability.

What did life cycle LCA focused on the costs of building, operating, and closing a facility
assessment focus as a method of comparison of alternatives.
on before?

What is the new Assessing the environmental performance of a product over its full life
LCA approach? cycle.

What does pollution It should focus on increasing the efficiency of a process to reduce the
prevention focus on pollution and stop focusing only on treatment and disposal.
and what should it
stop doing?