19-MT INDUSTRIAL SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING ROLL NO: 19MT34

ASSINGMENT NO: 02

Q.1: Define environmental engineering and types of environment (with examples)?

Ans: Environmental engineering is the branch of engineering that is concerned with protecting people from
the effects of adverse environmental effects, such as pollution, as well as improving environmental quality.
Environmental engineers work to improve recycling, waste disposal, public health, and water and air
pollution control, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The practice of environmental engineering dates back to the dawn of civilization. Ever since groups of
people began living in semi-permanent settlements, they have had to deal with the challenges of providing
clean water and disposing of solid waste and sewage. With the growth of cities and the advent of large-scale
farming and manufacturing, people have also had to worry about air quality and soil contamination.

The first environmental engineer is said to have been Joseph Bazalgette. According to an article in the
Postgraduate Medical Journal, Bazalgette oversaw the construction of the first large-scale municipal sanitary
sewer system in London in the mid-19th century. This was prompted by a series of cholera epidemics, as
well as a persistent unbearable stench, that were attributed to the discharge of raw sewage into the Thames
River, which was also the main source of drinking water for the city. This "great stink," which was so
noxious that it caused Parliament to evacuate Westminster, gave then-Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli
grounds to ask for 3.5 million pounds to improve the city's sewage disposal system.

Types of Environment
There are two different types of environment:

 Geographical Environment
 Man-made Environment

Geographical Environment
It consists of all components provided by nature and hence can be called as the natural
environment. It is also referred to as the physical environment as it pertains to the
physical requirements of life. These physical or geographic conditions are not dependent
on the existence of humans. Sometimes, humans have no control over the physical
conditions of the environment.

It includes natural resources, the earth’s surface, mountains, plains, land, water, deserts,
storms, cyclones, volcanoes, oceans, climatic factors, and so on. It is also used to refer to
biological situations such as complexities associated with plants and animals. The
sustainability of the natural resources is known to contribute towards the economy of a
country.

Man-Made Environment
This environment is used to refer to the one created by man in order to regulate and
monitor certain environmental conditions. Some address it as a social-cultural
environment. It can further be divided into two types of environments.

Inner Environments

Outer Environment

The Inner Environment

It is a social environment and it exists as long as a particular society exists. It pertains to

the regulations, traditions, organizations and institutions. It involves customs and
folkways which is existent in every human group. It is addressed with names such as non-
material culture, social heritage etc. This heritage is essential for the social life of humans
to flourish, it is known to have an influence on an individual’s life. The altered form of the
economic and physical environment – artificial environment, are seen as two different
aspects of the man-made environment.

The Outer Environment

Through advancement in the field of science and technology, humans have attempted to
alter conditions of their physical environment. This outer environment is as a result of
these modifications which includes modern infrastructure in cities, our homes and their
associated amenities, our modes of communication and transport, our resorts to
conveniences and luxury, different kinds of industry manufacturing luxurious commodities,
electrical appliances and so on which ultimately aims at civilization and urbanization.

Q.2: Describe segments of Natural Environments in detail?

Ans: Segments of Environment.
Environment is divided in following segments:
1. Lithosphere

2. Hydrosphere
3. Atmosphere
4. Biosphere

(1) Lithosphere:

The lithosphere consists of upper mantle and the crust.

The crust is the earth's outer skin that is accessible to human.
The crust consists of rocks and soil of which the latter is the important part of lithosphere.

The solid component of earth is known as lithosphere. Lithosphere means the mantle of rocks
constituting the earth's crust. It includes the soil, which covers the rock crust. Soil plays an
important role as it provides food for man and animals. Soil is usually defined as "any part of
earth's crust in which plants root."

Muddy bottoms of ponds, ravines or glacial deposits, porous rock surface, bottoms of lakes peat
etc., all are thus soil. A typical productive soil contains approximately 95 per cent inorganic
matter and 5 per cent organic matter. Organic matter in the soil provides food for
microorganism. This matter includes amino sugars, organic sulphur, organic phosphate, and
polysaccharides.

Soil contains silicate minerals, which includes nearly 74 per cent Silicon and Oxygen, common
elements in the soil are 46.4 per cent Oxygen, Silicon 27.7 per cent, Aluminium 8.1 per cent,
Iron 5.6 per cent, Calcium 3.6 per cent, Sodium 2.8 per cent, Potassium 2.6 per cent, Magnesium
2.1 per cent. In some soils, manganese oxide and titanium oxide are also available.

(2) Hydrosphere:
This includes all the surface and ground water resources such as oceans, seas, rivers, streams,
lakes, reservoirs, glaciers, polar ice caps, ground water and water locked in rock and crevices
and minerals laying deep below the earth's crust.
1. Earth is called blue planet because 80 per cent of its surface is covered by water (97 per cent
of the earth's water resources is locked up in the oceans and seas, 2.4 per cent is trapped is giant
glaciers and polar ice caps.) Only 1% of the total water supply is available as fresh water in the
form of rivers, lakes, streams and ground water for human consumption and other uses.

2. Water is universal solvent.

3. Water is also the main medium by which chemical constituents are transported from one part
of an ecosystem to others.

4. Water has high specific heat, latent heat and relatively high freezing point.

5. Surface water contains a lot of organic matter and mineral nutrients, which feed large bacteria
population and algae.

(3) Atmosphere:
The gaseous envelope surrounding the earth is composed of an entire mass of air containing N2,
02, H20, C02 and inert gases is known as atmosphere.

1. Soil contains silicate minerals, which includes nearly 74 per cent Silicon.

2. The atmosphere is a reservoir of several elements essential to life and serves many purposes
and functions.

3. The atmosphere is mobile, elastic, compressible and expansible.

4. Atmosphere serves many purposes and functions.

5. It absorbs most of the harmful radiations.

6. It maintains the heat balance of the earth.

7. Different cycles those are present in the atmosphere in the form of water cycle, carbon,
oxygen, nitrogen cycle etc. related to the movement of matter been an organism and its
environment.

8. Atmosphere can be divided into several layers on the basic of temperature variations. They
are troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere and thermosphere.

The following points highlight the vital role played by atmosphere in the survival of life in this
planet.

• The atmosphere is the protective blanket of gases which is surrounding the earth. It protects
the earth from the hostile environment of outer space.

• It absorbs IR radiations emitted by the sun and reemitted from the earth and thus controls the
temperature of the earth.

• It allows transmission of significant amounts of radiation only in the regions of 300

– 2500 nm (near UV, Visible, and near IR) and 0.01 – 40 meters (radio waves). i.e it filters
tissue damaging UV radiation below 300 nm.

• It acts as a source for CO2 for plant photosynthesis and O2 for respiration

• It acts as a source for nitrogen for nitrogen fixing bacteria and ammonia producing
plants.

• The atmosphere transports water from ocean to land.

50% of the atmosphere by mass is below an altitude of 5.6 km (18,000 ft).

90% of the atmosphere by mass is below an altitude of 16 km (52,000 ft). The common altitude
of commercial airliners is about 10 km (33,000 ft) and Mt. Everest's summit is 8,848 m (29,029
ft) above sea level.
(4) Biosphere:

The biosphere refers to the realm of living organisms and their interactions with the
environment (VIZ: atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere)
The biosphere is very large and complex and is divided into smaller units called ecosystems.
Plants, animals and microorganisms which live in a definite zone along with physical factors
such as soil, water and air constitute an ecosystem.
Within each ecosystems there are dynamic inter relationships between living forms and their
physical environment
The biosphere is the part of the earth in which life exists.

Biosphere is biological envelope that surrounds the globe, containing and able to support.

It penetrates into and is dependent on the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. This denotes
the relating of living organism and their interactions with the environment. The biosphere is a
relatively thin and incomplete envelope covering most of the world.