Issues Affecting Study of Environment

Issues that will affect Study 

of Environment in the Future

1.Population and Urbanization (increasing needs forinfrastructures and utilities and better quality of life)

The current global population is expected to increase by 40million a year or reach by 10 billion by this century

It is expected that by 2030, more than 60 percent of thepopulation will be living in the urban areas. The growth of megacities likeMetro Manila with 13 t0 15 million population

It has great impact on how we manage our natural resourcesand design and investment in infrastructure

• Population and Urbanization

-         an empirical correlation exists between the rateof population growth and the level of economic development, which is oftenequated to quality of life

-         Meeting and stabilizing population growth ispossible through improving quality of life and expanded development that isequitable and sustainable

-         The challenge is how do we improve quality oflife?

2. Health (unclean air, water and land)

World Health Organization

estimates that poor environmental quality contributes to 25percent of all preventable illness in the world.

reports that 900 million people lack access to an improvedwater supply

for people living in poverty, illness and disabilitytranslate directly to loss of income. This can be devastating for individualsand their families who are dependent on health for their income

Health is linked to Sustainable Development –” Health is theoutcome of sustainable development. The goals of sustainable development cannotbe achieved when there is high prevalence of debilitating illness and poverty,and health of the population cannot be achieved without a responsive healthsystem and healthy environment. Environmental degradation, mismanagement ofnatural resources, and unhealthy consumption patterns and lifestyles impacthealth. Ill health in turn, hampers poverty alleviation and economicdevelopment (WHO, 2005)

Ecosystem provides the fundamental stepping stone in theeconomic empowerment of rural poor.

3. Water Scarcity, Conflict and Resolution (limitedresource and distribution)

Water scarcity is a situation where there is insufficientwater to satisfy normal human requirements. WHO defines normal humanrequirements as reasonable access to a water source: availability of at least20 L/capita-day from a source within 1 km of the user’s dwelling.

A country is defined as experiencing water stress whenannual water supplies drop below 1,700 m³ per person and waterscarce when annual water supplies drop below 1,000 m³.

The Philippines is expected to have water scarcity by 2025(World Meteorological Org.)

Water is expected to be a source of source of both tensionand cooperation in the future.

Finding sustainable economic solution to the waterinfrastructure problems is another challenge.

4. Energy and Climate (GHG emissions)

Energy consumption of the country has increased for the pastten years due to commercial and industrial development and improveaccessibility.

It is expected that supply of energy will further declinedue to increase in demand and limited energy development projects

Energy consumption is one reason why greenhouse gas iscausing change to our climate. Majority of these emissions aree associated withburning fossil fuels.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change expects thatGlobal Temperature will likely rise from a range of 2.4 ^oC to 6.4 ^oC.

Impact of Climate Change differs in every location –drought, floods, typhoons, loss of species

GHG can be curbed if overall emissions are reduced by 80% by2050 (some scientists)

5. Toxic Chemical and Finite Resources (release of toxicchemicals and reliance to non-renewable 

resources)

The release of toxic chemicals to the environment remains aglobal issue (Nuclear disaster in Fukushima)

These poses great health risk to human health and theecosystems

Reliance to non-renewable resources will increase in largemagnitude due to population growth

It could be mitigated by integrating in the design the useof green technologies

6. Materials flow and built environment (the embodiedenergy used by the materials and urban heat islands)

The built environment is where we live, work, shop, studyand play. It requires tremendous amount of water, energy and natural resourcesfor its construction and operation.

Materials used in building the built environment usestremendous resources and energy

The built environment also affects the local heating ofurban areas – termed as the “Urban Heat Island” – as well as the quantity ofwater that cycles

Impervious structures affects the filtration of water to theaquifers

A strategy to mitigate effect is through “smart growth ornew urbanism”. Both of these approaches to urban development are focused ondesigning communities that preserve natural lands, protect water and airquality and reuse developed land.

Urgency to Act and the IPAT

Urgency to Act

• —   “Spaceshipearth carrying capacity to sustain life will be soon exceeded”
•  —  Theworlds population exceeds 6 billion, and 80 million people are added each year.Resource consumption per capita also is in the rise. For example, over 25percent of the possible terrestrial and aquatic solar energy captured inphotosynthesis by primary producers (plants and cyanobacteria) in nowappropriated by humans. Just two more doublings of the human impact on theworlds natural resources – through a combination of population increase andconsumption-fueled economic growth – would result in 100 percent of the netprimary production being utilized by humans.

Carrying Capacity

Refers to the upper limit to population or community sizeimposed through environmental resistance (availability of renewable landnon-renewable resources)

Renewable resources are those that can be  produced for consumption

Non-renewable resources are resources that are finite suchas space and could not be produced- once used, it could not be recreated

In the past, society evolved with the principle of “fightingagainst limits rather than learning to live with them.” ( The Limits to Growth,Meadows, et.al, 1972)

IPAT equation

                                I= P * A * T

(Environmental Economic model of Paul Ehrlich and JohnHoldren Ehrlich Identity )

Human Impacts on the Environment (I) can be estimatedfrom three (3) general factors:

The number of people (P)

Resources consumed per person (A for"affluence")

Effects of the Technologies used to obtain those resources (T)

The impact of any group or nation on the environment isrepresented qualitatively by P*A*T

“I = P * A * T” where ‘I=environmental impact’  ‘P=population,’  ‘A=affluence’ ‘T=technology’ expresses that growth in population, affluence, andtechnology are jointly responsible for environmental problems

Example: Multiply the population (P) times the number ofcars per person (A) times the average CO₂ emissions per user (T)

Existing and Emerging Environmental Issues

•  —  Globalization,Trade, and Development
•  —  Copingwith climate change and viability
•  —  Growthof megacities
•  —  Humanvulnerability to climate change
•  —  Freshwaterdepletion and degradation
•  —  Marineand Coastal degradation
•  —  Populationgrowth
•  —  Risingconsumption in developing countries
•  —  Bio-diversitydepletion
• —   Bio-security

Source: United Nations Environment Programme, 2002

We have to act urgently

As population and per capita consumption increase, so doesthe urgency for architects/ professionals/ ordinary persons to protectand enhance the environments and communities where people reside.

Role of Engineers

It has a unique role to play, because they have a directeffect to on the design and development of products, processes, andsystems, as well as on natural ecosystems through material selection,project siting, and the end-of-life handling of products.

(adopted from Environmental Engineering by James R. Milhelcand Julie Beth Zimmerman)

Ecological Footprint

Dr. William Rees: Ecological Footprint

Every individual, process, and activity has an impact on theearth via (1) resource use, (2) generation of waste and (3) use of serviceprovided by nature. These inputs can be converted into biologically productivearea, on a per hectare basis.

Ecological footprint approximates the amount ofproductive land and water resources needed to sustain a population in producingall the goods we consume and to get rid of the wastes and pollution generated.It accounts the use of energy, food, water, building materials and all otherconsumables. Calculations are presented as a measure of land area in globalhectares (gha) per capita. It is used as an indicator of environmentalsustainability

“How much land in various categories is required to supportthe region’s population indefinitely at a given material standard?” This variesdepending on a region’s standard of living and is a per capita index which isan indication of the land area required (or consumed) to support a givenpopulation (Dr. William Rees & Wackernagel, Ecological Footprint onAppropriated Carrying  Capacity EF/ACC,1992).

Every major category of consumption of waste dischargerequires the productive or absorptive capacity of a finite area of land orwater (ecosystem). In accounting for this land, the total area becomes theecological footprint or the carrying capacity ‘appropriated’ by that economy.The concept of the ecological footprint describes how much carrying capacity isappropriated by any region, based on its standard of living, through theimporting of resources from around the globe. Ecological Footprint providessociety with a tool which indicates resource consumption and can be used inranking development options based on their ecological impact.

Calculating your ecological footprint gives an estimate ofhow much “nature” is consumed from your everyday life choices and if theplanet, given its limited resources, can actually sustain this lifestyle.

Human population and average consumption are increasingwhile the total area of productive land and stocks of natural capital are fixedor in decline

Human induced ecological stress is a function not onlypopulation but also of per capita consumption

Consumption is growing more rapidly than population

Ecological Footprint is intended as a quantitative measureof sustainability. EF may be used by civic groups to measure how sustainabilityis exceeded

It is summation of a land use/consumption matrix

Faces of Safety and Environmental Engineering

Rachel Louise Carson (1907-1964) 

• first modern “eco-feminist” who sparked the environmentalmovement in the United States
• American biologist who wrote Silent Spring (1962);  book’s title suggested a time when birdpopulations are greatly reduced as a result of pesticides bio-accumulation andcould no longer be heard singing in the Spring.
• Principle of ‘bio-magnification’ - the process by which apollutant becomes increasingly concentrated as it moves up the food chain andbuilds up in the human body over an individual’s lifetime.
• Carson’s advocacies led to the formation of US EnvironmentalProtection Agency (USEPA) in 1970, the Environmental Impact Assessment System,the Council of Environmental Quality; the Environmental Defense 
• Fund wascreated in 1967 with money from her estate (first ENGO)testified before the US Congress and campaigned againstpesticide DDT -DichloroDiphenylTrichloroethane –– that weakens the eggshells ofraptors; results in bioaccumulation of toxic chemicals in the food chain
• Ironically Carson died of cancer in 1964 before she saw thefruit of her labor:
• In 1992, a panel of distinguished Americans declared RachelCarson's Silent Spring as one of the most influential books ofthe last century.
• She was a superwoman who almost single-handedly alertedAmericans to the dark side of industrial technology. 

Aldo Leopold (1898-1948)

• Father of wildlife ecology – contributed to environmentalethics.
• A Sand County Almanac (1948)
• Leopold’s Personal Land Ethic
• each person must become a steward of the land.
• humans need to integrate themselves into the pyramid oflife, rather than attempt to control it, and personal ethics should extend tothe natural world. This is necessary for the healthy existence of both humansand the natural world
• “That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology,but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics.”
• “A land ethic changes the role of homo sapiens fromconqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it…it impliesrespect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such.”
• Environmental Ethics and Philosophy of stewardship and“adaptive management” in ENR conservation was of profound importance to theenvironmental movement
• “Leopold’s matrix”

Dr. Eugene Pleasants Odum (1913-2002)

• Father of Systematic Ecology
• Coined the word ‘ecosystem’
• Holistic approach in the study of the environment –interrelating biology, geology, geography, hydrology, climatology, etc.
• Suggested a hard-nosed scientific approach to regionalplanning
• The first Earth Day in 1970 adopted his concept of the‘Living Earth’ as a global set of interlaced ecosystems

Dr. Garret Hardin (1915-2003)

• Redefined ‘Malthusian K’ as ‘Carrying capacity’ referring“the maximum population of a given species that can be supported indefinitelyin a defined habitat without permanently impairing the productivity of thathabitat.”
• “Tragedy of the Commons (Science, 1968)
• When environmental resources have poorly defined propertyrights, individuals enjoy free unlimited access and the right to use withoutexclusion, each individual is motivated to maximize his or her own benefitsfrom exploiting the resource, to the point that uncontrolled demand acceleratesthe depletion of the resource. When no individual has adequate incentive toconserve the environment, there arises free-rider problem.
• Hardin’s parable illustrates how free access anduncontrolled demand for a finite resource ultimately leads to over-exploitationof that resource
• The costs of exploitation are distributed between all thoseto whom the resource is available as well as third parties – such as pollution(externalities)

Dr. Barry Commoner (1917- )

• Ecologist and educator who studied effects of radiation onliving tissue and their chemical and biological damage to the biosphere.
• Among those who called for end to nuclear bomb tests asearly as 1953
• Formulated the Four Laws of Ecology (National Geographic,1970)
• “Nature knows best.”
• “There is no such thing as a free lunch.”
• “Everything is connected to everything else” “We cannever do merely one thing”
• “Everything goes somewhere.” “There's no away to throwto”
• an outspoken, sometimes radical motivator of change on suchenvironmental issues as energy conservation, pesticide use, waste managementand control of toxic chemicals, Commoner founded the Center for the Biology ofNatural Systems (CBNS). 

Environmental Engineering

Environmental Science

Environmental Science is that branch of knowledge thatinvolves the study of different components of the environment that interact andresult in such phenomena, which can be either beneficial or harmful for theenvironment and the beings dependent on it for their sustenance.

Defined as the study of all living and non living factors inan ecosystem and how human activity impacts the natural cycles.

(industry, government, daily living)

WHAT IS ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING?

Engineering

It is a profession that applies science and mathematics tomake the properties of matter and sources of energy useful in structures,machines, products, systems, and processes

EnvironmentalEngineering is manifest by sound engineering thought and practice in the solutionof problems of environmental sanitation, notably in the provision ofsafe, palatable, and ample public water supplies; the proper disposal ofor recycle of wastewater and solid wastes; the adequate drainage ofurban and rural areas for proper sanitation; and the control of water,soil, and atmospheric pollution, and the social and environment impact of thesesolutions. Furthermore, it is concerned with engineering problems in thefield of public health, such as control of athropod-borne diseases, theelimination of industrial health hazards, and the provision of adequatesanitation in urban, rural, and recreational areas, and the effect oftechnological advances on the environment. (ASCE) 

Focus

• Provision of safe, palatable, and ample public watersupplies
• Proper disposal of or recycling of wastewater and solidwastes
• Control of water, soil, and atmospheric pollution (includingnoise as an atmospheric pollutant)

Environmental Code of Ethics 

• Use knowledge and skill for the enhancement and protectionof the environment
• Hold paramount the health, safety and welfare of theenvironment
• Perform services only in areas of personal exercise
• Be honest and impartial in serving the public, youremployers, your clients, and the environment
• Issue public statements only in an objective and truthfulmanner. 

Results of Industrialization

• Polluted Environment
• Health Hazards
• Dwindling Resources
• Hazardous Chemicals
• Over-consumption
• Environmental disasters