ENVIRONMENTAL & WATER RESOURCES ENGINEERING
Program Description
ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING focuses on the improvement of environmental quality through design, including: the treatment of surface water, groundwater, wastewater, soil, and air; the management of wetlands and watersheds; the treatment and disposal of solid & hazardous wastes; the production of renewable energy; and the design of “green” products. The Penn State Environmental Engineering (EnvE) program has specific strengths in biological processes for energy production, bioremediation of hazardous contaminants, physical/chemical processes for contaminant removal, conventional water and wastewater treatment, green product design, and environmental law.
WATER RESOURCES ENGINEERING is an important sub-discipline of civil engineering that includes hydraulic engineering, surface water and groundwater hydrology, water resources systems analysis, contaminant transport and environmental fluid mechanics. Common to all of these areas of study is the goal of understanding the physical processes responsible for the distribution of water in natural and engineered environments. The main motivation is that, in a world of ever-increasing population and industrialization, our relationships with the water environment surrounding us are of increasing significance.
