Course overview
This course will provide an introduction to global environmental issues, environmental model development and assessment of model limitations. The course also aims to provide a practical overview of ethical, legal and political issues that influence best practice environmental management of engineered developments and engineering works and gives students an opportunity to investigate an environmental engineering design in detail. The course offers a theoretical background in fundamental global environmental problems, including calculation-based analysis and model development and critique. It also provides an industry-led overview of practical issues that influence environmental management, and a group project investigating and reporting on the design of a novel engineered environment. The core topics to be covered are: (i) Environmental Fundamentals and Modelling; (ii) Environmental Protection and Remediation; and (iii) Design of Engineered Environments.
Course learning outcomes
- Build transient and steady state mass and heat balance models based on principles of accumulation, input, output and reaction rates, and apply them to environmental problems. (PO1,4)
- Critically analyse, reflect on, and communicate the results of models in terms of assumptions, uncertainty and limitations. (PO2,7)
- Conduct and communicate risk in terms of consequence and likelihood, and apply probabilistic modelling methods in the context of quantitative risk assessment. (PO1,9)
- Use appropriate, professionally relevant software for advanced computations and analysis. (PO5)
- Apply simple mathematical models to develop a quantitative context for evaluating global sustainability challenges (such as limits to growth, depletion of finite resources, and climate change) and their potential solutions. (PO3,4,6)