Lecture

The Role of the Environmental Engineer

Graph Chat

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

In course

ENV-304: Treatment and valorization of water and waste

Les systèmes eaux et déchets en Suisse: du traitement end-of-pipe à la fermeture des cycles. Principes de l'adduction, de l'évacuation et du traitement des eaux. Bases du dimensionnement des ouvrages, réseaux et stations d'épuration. Gestion, traitement et ...

Description

This lecture covers the challenges and solutions related to waste, water treatment, and public health from a historical and pandemic perspective. It delves into the changing urban landscape, the cost of infrastructure, and the crucial role of environmental engineers in optimizing production costs, managing change, and ensuring compliance with regulations. The lecture emphasizes the need for technical skills, project culture, and a systemic approach to analyze complex water-waste systems. It also discusses the societal implications, legal guidelines, and the importance of closing material cycles. Various topics such as waste management, water supply networks, wastewater treatment, and environmental impacts are explored, highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of environmental engineering.

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Environmental science

Pollution: Water pollution

Related concepts (32)

Sewage treatment

Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable to discharge to the surrounding environment or an intended reuse application, thereby preventing water pollution from raw sewage discharges. Sewage contains wastewater from households and businesses and possibly pre-treated industrial wastewater. There are a high number of sewage treatment processes to choose from.

Wastewater treatment

Wastewater treatment is a process which removes and eliminates contaminants from wastewater and converts this into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once returned to the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on the environment or is reused for various purposes (called water reclamation). The treatment process takes place in a wastewater treatment plant. There are several kinds of wastewater which are treated at the appropriate type of wastewater treatment plant.

Water treatment

Water treatment is any process that improves the quality of water to make it appropriate for a specific end-use. The end use may be drinking, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water recreation or many other uses, including being safely returned to the environment. Water treatment removes contaminants and undesirable components, or reduces their concentration so that the water becomes fit for its desired end-use. This treatment is crucial to human health and allows humans to benefit from both drinking and irrigation use.

Public health

Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the determinants of health of a population and the threats it faces is the basis for public health. The public can be as small as a handful of people or as large as a village or an entire city; in the case of a pandemic it may encompass several continents.

Sedimentation (water treatment)

Sedimentation is a physical water treatment process using gravity to remove suspended solids from water. Solid particles entrained by the turbulence of moving water may be removed naturally by sedimentation in the still water of lakes and oceans. Settling basins are ponds constructed for the purpose of removing entrained solids by sedimentation. Clarifiers are tanks built with mechanical means for continuous removal of solids being deposited by sedimentation. Clarification does not remove dissolved species.

Related lectures (64)

Water and Waste Treatment: Historical Perspective

Explores the historical challenges and solutions in water and waste treatment, emphasizing the role of engineers in public health and sanitation.

Sanitary Engineering: A Story of Pandemics

Explores the historical and pandemic perspective of sanitary engineering, emphasizing the treatment and recovery of water and waste.

Mechanical and Biological Treatments

Explores water and waste treatment through mechanical and biological methods, focusing on composting and anaerobic digestion processes.

Sanitary Engineering: A Historical Perspective

Explores the historical challenges and innovations in sanitary engineering, focusing on combating infectious diseases and improving public health.

Landfill Design and Management