Environmental Engineering MSc

• Dr Simon Jude

Over the past decade environmental regulators and the public have aimed to improve the quality of environmental management by basing choices on reliable data and assessment. However risk analysts often develop their competencies from their specific profession, for which the requirements can vary across industries, government bodies and geographical boarders. There is therefore little consensus on the competencies risk analysts require to be considered proficient. This module aims to provide an understanding of the theory and practice of effective management of all phases of environmental hazards. The module covers key topics including conceptual model development, probability, risk characterisation, and informatics. In doing so, this module will provide a means of improving the capability and capacity of students to perform European-wide risk assessments.

• Current legislation for environment (water, air and land) protection and pollution control;
• qualitative, quantitative and probabilistic risk analysis tools;
• systemic risks;
• problem definition and conceptual models;
• spatial analysis and informatics;
• risk screening and prioritisation;
• assembling strength and weight of evidence;
• evaluating and communicating sources of uncertainty.

On successful completion of this module a student should be able to:

• identify, analyse and evaluate the wide range of environmental risks within the UK (e.g. animal disease, chemical spills, high winds, flooding) and be able to identify and apply appropriate methods of assessing these risks;
• critically evaluate the decision process underpinning the management of such risks and provide justification for the prioritisation and application of different risk management actions;
• examine and interpret the relationship between risk, social, economic, political and technological trends and be able to provide appropriate suggestions for communication of assessment and management of environmental risks related to the influencing factors;
• analyse and explain the possible consequences in a given situation where environmental risks will occur and their likely impacts on a population and the potential secondary impacts; and
• review, critique and suggest improvements for other risk assessment and management methodologies within the given scenarios.

• Dr Raffaella Villa

The aim of this module is to provide specialist understanding of the major processes used for municipal waste management and their role within an integrated – circular - waste management system. In particular the module will focus on the bottom three points of the waste hierarchy: recycle, recover and dispose.

• Integrated waste management: appraisal of national and international legislation and policy.
• Circular economy in the waste context.
• Waste properties and characterisation. Mechanical biological treatment, pre-treatment, biodegradable wastes, coupled technologies, technology performance and managing environmental impacts.
• Landfill: biochemistry, leachate and gas production
• Biowaste technologies: composting, AD and other biorefinery processes
• Thermal treatment: incineration, gasification, pyrolysis, combined heat and power, waste to energy, solid recovered fuel.

On successful completion of this module a student should be able to:

• Appraise the role of waste treatment technologies under the circular management agenda - drivers, selection, pre-requisites requirements, waste types treated;
• Identify the properties (physical, chemical, and biological) commonly associated with Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and integrate them into waste management calculations;
• Critically assess the performance of treatment processes including how wastes are analysed and data interpreted;
• Apply the concepts and principles of the biological processes for treating organic waste to the waste degradation context and evaluate and calculate energy potential;
• Explain why landfill gas (LFG)is treated and how to control, collect and treat the gas. Appraise the parameters contributing to LFG production and composition, the risks and production controls and calculate their potential impact;
• Evaluate specific process parameters critical to the design of non-landfill treatment processes (e.g. thermal destruction efficiencies; flue gas desulphurisation requirements);
• Critically assess specific waste/feedstock treatment processes involved into a circular economy (e.g. MBT, AD, biorefinery)
• Apply concept and principle of waste management into a circular economy. 

• Dr Iq Mead

The aim of this module is to provide an understanding of the major air pollutants emitted by key industrial processes, the associated regulatory frameworks and monitoring and control techniques.  A further element of this module is for students to gain an in-depth knowledge of emission control strategies currently applied by industry, e.g. processes modification and implementation of appropriate control mechanisms. 

• Air Quality Parameters indoor and outdoor, pollution sources, their impact and regulation (UK and EU)
• Air sampling and sampling strategies
• Advanced data analysis and dispersion modelling
• Specific pollutants: dust and particulates, odour, bioaerosols and biogas.

On successful completion of this module a student should be able to:

• Explain the extent, impact and implications of emissions from industrial processes.
• Describe the linkage between major emissions that contribute to air pollution to their related industrial processes
• Discuss emission abatement strategies currently applied in industry and design principles for each of the strategy
• Analyse a specific emission control scenario and apply the design principles to design an appropriate emission control systems.
• Critically evaluate the efficiency of emission control systems based on operational and design parameters through case examples.

• Dr Robert Simmons

The control of water pollution and sedimentation needs to be based on the correct identification of source areas of sediment, a knowledge of the processes by which water and sediment are moved over the land surface, and an understanding of how these processes are affected by the physical environment and socio-economic factors.  Soil conservation can be achieved through within-field and catchment management by targeting erosion control measures at critical locations in the landscape, producing appropriate designs and gaining the support of interested groups and organisations for their implementation. 

• Definitions and agents of water and wind erosion
• On and offsite consequences ad impacts of erosion
• Erosion processes: Detachment, entrainment, transport and deposition
• Rainfall erosivity
• Soil erodibility
• Slope and landcover/management factors affecting erosion
• Role of grass roots for erosion control
• Soil compaction and role in runoff generation
• Socio-economic, regulatory and policy contexts of soil erosion control
• Soil conservation approaches including, soil management, agronomic measures, waterway design, cover crops and terraces
• Soil conservation planning integrating technical and consultation-based multi-stakeholder approaches. 

On successful completion of this module a student should be able to:

• Describe the processes of soil erosion, and of sediment transport and deposition.
• Define the environmental impacts of soil erosion, and the need for erosion control and soil conservation.
• Evaluate erosion risk at a field and catchment scale and identify potential sources and sinks of sediment.
• Make appropriate decisions on selection of soil conservation approaches to control erosion, based on a fundamental understanding of erosion processes.
• Select appropriate input parameter values to apply erosion models to predict current erosion status and evaluate different conservation measures.
• Design an erosion control strategy for an individual farm, taking account of its location within a catchment and socio-economic conditions.
• Manage a soil conservation project, set by an external client, which requires, using problem solving techniques, writing a consultancy-style report and meeting deadlines set. 

• Professor Frederic Coulon

The module introduces the extent and consequences of pollution in the environment, identifies and evaluates technologies for prevention and remediation and exposes students in using decision support tool and modelling to deal with pollution prevention and remediation.  

• Environmental pollution and prevention technology
• Contaminated land issues and market size
• Soil and groundwater remediation technologies
• Sustainable remediation practices
• Monitoring and modelling contaminants
• Hazard appraisal and risk assessment
• Decision support tools.

On successful completion of this module a student should be able to:

• Define and discuss the key issues related to environmental pollution prevention and remediation
• Critically appraise the range of remediation technologies for soil and groundwater
• Appraise the key indicators for sustainable remediation approach
• Select and evaluate accepted decision tools to assess remediation performance and end-points.

• Dr Jitka MacAdam

Risk management has become the central function of a utility manager.  Utilities provide essential public health and environmental protection services to society and those working in the sector need to be versed with the context, tools and requirements of good risk governance – meaning the analysis, management, communication and human/organisational processes for managing risk and opportunity.  This module equips technologists with the skills to commission, appraise and review risk assessments within the utility sector, specifically for water, wastewater and solid waste unit processes and their assets.  It will introduce the management and governance of risk within the utility sector – technical, managerial and human factors.

• The module explores risks from the strategic to operational level and both quantitative and qualitative tools and techniques.  It does this by exploring:
• drivers for risk management in the utility sector – why manage risk?
• corporate risk management – structures, tools and techniques
• basic probability and statistics
• the reliability, availability and maintenance of unit processes
• risk analysis tools and techniques
• assets, risk management and public health protection
• regulatory risk assessments in support of environmental permits
• communicating risk, building stakeholder confidence
• risk governance in the utility sector – towards high reliability organisations

On successful completion of this module a student should be able to:

• summarise the context of risk governance in the utility sector and explain organisational structures for risk management; relating these to corporate objectives, e.g. the licence to operate.
• exemplify strategic, tactical and operational risks in the water, wastewater or waste sector and their significance for a modern water utility;
• identify and select from key risk tools and techniques appropriate to a range risk problems under study; be confident about the rules for selecting risk techniques and what level of decision support they can realistically provide.
• undertake reliability analysis calculations, understanding and calculating mean times to failure;
• identify critical control points and devise risk management strategies for managing risks to and from engineered systems; relating these to the development of water safety plans – the key process for ensuring preventative risk management in the sector
• devise risk governance structures and debate risk management competencies for individuals, organisations and specialists; recognising core features of a ‘risk mature’ organisation.
•  scope out and critically evaluate environmental risk assessments in the context of regulatory permitting –sitting, operations and discharge. 

• Dr Jeroen Meersmans

An introduction to the full suite of environmental models and modelling methods that are currently used to describe and predict environmental processes and outcomes. The objective of this module is to give an overview of the different types of models currently being used to describe environmental processes and how they are being applied in practice. The module will offer the students the opportunity to strengthen their analytical abilities with a specific mathematical emphasis, including programming and modelling, which are key skills to launch future careers in science, engineering and technology. In addition, throughout various interactive learning events as well as the group-work based assignment, the student’s social skills will be intensively trained.

• Introduction to the wide range of applications of numerical models in environmental sciences. Lectures will cover examples of models applied in climate, soil, water, natural ecosystems and atmosphere and others.
• Overview of the types of models applied; mechanistic, semi-empirical and empirical models. Why these different forms exist, their strengths and weaknesses. How they are applied?
• Introduction to systems analysis. Overview of the basic concepts and how this relates to model design.
• Introduction to numerical solutions and empirical solutions to model parameterization and calibration.
• Identifying what makes models powerful. Predictions, Scenario and Sensitivity testing.
• Recognizing limits and uncertainties; validating the model. Recognizing the importance of good data.
• Practical applications of environmental models. How this is done, in what programming language?
• Illustrating the impact of models and model outputs on current policy and scientific discourse from global climate change to local flooding risk.

On successful completion of this module a student should be able to:

• Examine the major environmental models currently being applied in soil, water, ecosystems and atmosphere
• Identify and evaluate the standard types of numerical models in use in environmental sciences
• Formulate the generic process of model design, building, calibration and validation. Recognize some of the uncertainties introduced in this process
• Evaluate the process of model development might be undertaken in different programming environments
• Undertake a systems analysis. Assess the model building process in the context of the system under consideration
• Construct a model of environmental processes and modify it into a user friendly environment
• Determine the impact and relevancy of environmental models to policy and scientific discourse.

• Dr Lynda Deeks

Improvement of land quality and the reclamation of degraded land are needed to ensure the sustainable delivery of ecosystem goods and services. Landscapes can be engineered to deliver these services by application of a base understanding of fundamental environmental properties and interrelationships of soil, vegetation and water. This understanding is grounded in basic soil physics, hydrology, hydraulics, geotechnics and agronomy. Land managers and engineers can design and implement appropriate land, water and vegetation management through interventions such as drainage, soil conservation, slope stabilisation and irrigation. This understanding and skills set are also the basis for management of projects involving land forming, reclamation, restoration and protection, which require selection, design, engineering and maintenance of appropriate structures.

• Managing plant and soil water status through estimates of crop water requirements; development of field water budget. Evapotranspiration, drainage, runoff, seepage, soil water storage, and capillary rise
• Concept of land capability and land quality, criteria used for assessing land capability and its classification. USDA scheme, Canadian Land Inventory.
• Slope stability; mechanisms of slope failure. The stability of shallow slope failures, Taylor’s stability numbers.
• Slope stabilisation principles and processes
• Landscape design, land forming, earth moving and landscape modification. Top and sub soil management and vegetation establishment. Design of earth embankment storage dams.
• Hydrology; peak and catchment yield, design of runoff
• Hydraulics calculation of channel discharge capacity using Manning‟s Equation (and others). The design of channels, waterways weirs, spillways, culverts and control structures
• Drainage; drainage machinery selection and performance, types of drainage problems and their recognition. Design for water table control: use of Hooghoudt and Glover Dumm equations and the Ernst equation for sub irrigation design; the Miers approach; practical issues of drainage design: selection of materials, drainage maintenance, pipe surround, backfill and pipe sizing
• Managing plant and soil water status through estimates of crop water requirements; development of field water budget. Evapotranspiration, drainage, runoff, seepage, soil water storage, and capillary rise
• Crop responses to salinity and sodicity; management of saline and sodic soils; the leaching process.

On successful completion of this module a student should be able to:

• Explain the concept of land capability and carry out land capability classification.
• Calculate the stability of slopes and design of simple support and stabilisation processes
• Undertake an erosion survey and risk assessment
• Design earthworks for landforming, landscaping and water storage.
• Calculate runoff and yield for catchment
• Design channels/ waterways and simple hydraulic structures.
• Design appropriate water table control systems for drainage and sub irrigation
• Calculate irrigation requirements for crops and soil water deficits in different environments

• Dr Pietro Goglio

The goods and services that we consume impose impacts on the environment. These include globally influential ones, like greenhouse gases and local ones, like water pollution. We need to quantify these to compare production or consumption methods and understand what our collective and individual consumption demands impose on the earth’s environment. We must also apply mature, critical thinking to environmental claims.

A life cycle perspective forms the basis of much of the module. 

Frameworks and approaches:

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Carbon and Water Footprints, the Environmental Impact Assessment, LCA, Social aspects of LCA

Application areas:

Manufacturing, businesses, food production and consumption, energy systems, waste management, decision makers (e.g. procurement), fishing and farming. 

On successful completion of this module a student should be able to:

• Apply the principles of environmental Life Cycle Assessment and Water foot printing to production systems.
• Apply life cycle approaches in assessing environmental sustainability to make justifiable claims about environmental sustainability.
• Develop the ability to analyse a production system with regards to environmental, social and economic sustainability.
• Provide insight into real life environmental decision making.