Week 2
Define the design problem >> study and clarify the problem >> generate potential solutions >> identify most promising solution >> iterate >> test >> implement
Describe an environmental engineering design process
"development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future to meet its needs"
What is one possible definition of sustainability?
“that which surrounds, and gives meaning to something else”
What is context in engineering design?
It is thought of as a plan to intervene in a system instead of a plan used to create something.
In what way does systems thinking change the way we conceive of the role of design?
Shows the components and boundary of a system and the components of the environment at a point in time
What is a systems map?
The management of natural elements within ecosystems so as to provide one or more local government services.
What is municipal natural asset management?
CO2 and SO2
What are two examples of critical air pollutants?
recreational vehicles and aircraft
What are mobile sources of emissions?
Carbon capture, transportation, and storage.
What is one carbon management technology?
-Generation
-Storage
-collection/transportation
-Processing/disposal
What are the key components of a solid-waste management system?
It resides on the unceded, heritary, territory of the Musqueam people. It respects and supports the deep and central role of food to Indigenous ways of being,.
What is the relationship between Indigenous food sovereignty and the UBC Farm?
Focus on design stakeholders, sustainability considerations, and represent the interests of the environment.
What are the unique features of environmental engineering design?
Air quality, soil structure, habitat and species diversity, ecosystem resilience, energy and material cycling.
What are 5 indicators of ecosystem health?
It is sufficiently broad to ensure no idea is left un-noticed, and sufficiently directed so as to invite a design response.
What are the characteristics of a high-quality design problem statement?
A green roof slows stormwater, insulates the building, and supports biodiversity by providing habitat
What is a single intervention in a system that achieves more than one design goal?
It can be used to identify unintended feedback loops and other unintended consequences of an intervention.
Within the context of environmental engineering design and decision-making, how can a CLD be used?
It may be built elements within a system
What is infrastructure?
It can estimate the time-averaged concentration of an air pollutant downwind of a source
What is a Gaussian plume equation?
Reduces the amount of oxygen reaching the body's organs and tissues
What is the health effect of carbon monoxide exposure?
Without them, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations would be over 500 ppm
Why do we need carbon sinks?
UBCV generates food waste (in cafeterias, residences, etc), stores the food waste in bins, transports the bins to its in-vessel composter, and applies the compost to its gardens.
Describe an example of a solid-waste management system.
It is the right of Indigenous people to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agricultural systems.
What is Indigenous food sovereignty?
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
What is SDG 13?
-Waste decomposition
-climate and radiation regulating
-Habitat preservation
-Noise control
-Air and water purification
-Esthetics and culture
What are ecosystem services?
-rainwater intensity
-location coordinates of pooling water
-land slope
When designing a stormwater management system in a residential area, what you will measure on-site, in order to determine the capacity of the system?
It is an element of a natural ecosystem.
What is a natural asset?
It can be used in systems analysis to identify feedback loops and points of interventions
How can a CLD help with systems analysis?
They can support the provisioning of clean water, flood control, transportation systems, passive temperature control, climate change mitigation, and biodiversity support.
What is the possible role of natural assets in providing municipal services?
The Guassian Model and the Lagrangian Model
What are two different air pollution source dispersion models?
fluctuations and outliers
What are indicators of data uncertainties?
Photosynthesis>>organic carbon>>CO2>>Photosynthesis
Describe a carbon cycle?
Mine waste
What is an example of waste not typically found in municipal solid waste?
They are key because of their connection to Indigenous people within creation stories, which results in a reciprocal relationship.
What is the relationship between Indigenous cultures and the land (i.e. and natures ecosystems)?
A design discipline that studies nature's best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to salve human problems.
What is biomimicry?
Conduct a stakeholder analysis and research the history of the area.
What are two things you can do to explore the social context of a design problem?
Pervious surfaces are maximized, thereby slowing the flow of water during storm events. Stormwater system elements, like an emergency retention pond, can be used for other purposes (for example, it might be used as a public plaza when not needed as a retention pond)
Describe two features of a sustainable stormwater management design.
It expands the range of choices available for solving a problem by broadening our thinking and helping us articulate problems in new and different ways
What is systems thinking?
-Education
-Behaviour change
-Sense of community
What are intangible elements in a systems map?
It requires the ENVL engineer to review and rethink earlier design decisions in the light of new information.
What is the role of iteration in the environmental engineering design process?
It increases with height and is also influenced by different surface elements that vary in toughness
What is wind speed?
Air parcel in the atmosphere is encouraged upward or downward
What is vertical mixing?
Biochar
Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage
Direct air capture
Enhanced weathering
Grassland restoration
What are some commercially viable designs that can likely permanently remove GHGs from the atmosphere?
A constraint is that the temperature of the material must be at least 40oC
What is a design issue related to composting?
Design, discovery, and implementation of engineering solutions with an awareness of the potential benefits and impacts of the design throughout its lifetime. The goal is to to minimize adverse impacts while simultaneously maximizing benefits to the economy, society, and the environment.
What is green engineering?
They are involved in every step of a design process.
What role do stakeholders play in the environmental engineering design process?
-Precipitation
-Evapotranspiration
-Infiltration
-Surface Runoff
What are the terms in the water balance equation?
Not considering the indirect and long-term implications of design decisions. Not understanding contextual issues.
What are possible reasons for errors made in environmental engineering?
The municipality, which has several communities-of-interest, aims to provide services, including clean water, stormwater management, and more, while becoming known for addressing climate change and biodiversity loss. It therefore recognizes the need to operationalize, at every level, the lofty goals relating to these to challenges, as described in its strategic plan. The municipality is currently interested in investing to improve public health by reducing the transmission of communicable diseases like cholera, and typhoid.
Provide an example of a design problem statement.
Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
What is SDG 6?