No matter how scientific and technological engineering is widely known to be, that is, the use of advanced computers and advanced calculators. there are various aspects of engineering which require the use of some safety measures. For instance, in civil engineering, civil engineers are required to wear safety attire like the helmet. This is veryvery important especially in This branch of engineering because it has to do mainly with building development and construction work. Safety engineering is also an applied science related to industrial engineering.

Analysis Techniques

Analysis techniques are mainly used to find out the various casual dependencies between a hazard on a system level and failures of individual components. These Techniques can be grouped into two, they are; qualitative and quantitative Techniques.  The qualitative aspect  focuses really on what must go wrong for a hazard to occur on a particular system. While the quantitative aspect focuses on the estimation on the severity of the hazard.

Safety Analysis  

There are two main types of  safety analysis, they are;

Failure modes and effects analysis and the fault tree analysis

  When preventing failures, extra and redundant parts are added to the system when failure is found. And also When trying to contain some failures, a practice known as containing failure is used, this practice is used to plan for the failure of safety systems through the use of isolation methods.

REFERENCE :

http://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/safety_engineering

Alternative delivery methods are classified into two methods of construction, they are, (a) Design/build method and (b) Design bid- build method.

The traditional bid-build method consists of the overall owner of the project, then it is further connected to a resident engineer who does the day to day oversight of the construction. This further leads to the designer, the construction manager (this is the adviser during construction) and the general contractor these people can also be called the sub contractors.

In this kind of method, advertisement is done to promote their products, there are open bids for who should or can take ownership of the project. The lowest bidder gets the job.

Advantages of bid- build method include;

1. It is a familiar delivery method.
2. It has a simpler process to manage
3. It is a fully designed scope for both design and construction
4. Both the design team and the contractor are accountable to the owner

Disadvantages of bid-build method

1. Linear process equals longer schedule.
   
2. There is no control over contractor selection.
3. No design or cost input from contractor
4. It can create adversarial relationships

For the design/ build method, a single entity provides for both the design and construction of the project. The owner contracts the architect/engineering firm at the same time as the contractor, as a team. The design is not complete without procurement of design. This usually requires plans to be at 25-30% completion, and is a non-linear process in which design and construction overlap

Advantages of design/build method

1. Single point of accountability for design and construction.
2. Enables fast-track delivery because   construction begins before design is   complete.
3. Project cost defined early in the process.

Disadvantages of design/build method

1. Design-Build firm controls contingency
   
2. Not suited for small projects
3. Requires additional design effort
4. Change management may be expensive.

Green buildings are buildings/ structures that have a lot of resource efficiency. They are environmentally responsible when it comes to how long the structures last. Green buildings can also be called green construction or sustainable buildings. The resource efficiency spans from the construction to the demolition of the buildings. Constructing a green building requires massive cooperation between the design team, the architects, the engineers, and the client at all stages of the construction project. A common objective for the construction of green buildings is that green buildings are mainly designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment. This is done by doing the following;

• Usage of  energy, water, and other resources very effectively and efficiently.
• Maintaining good health of occupants and improving the productivity of employees.
• Reduction of waste, pollution.

Benefits of Green Buildings

Green buildings impact greatly on human health. They also impact enormously on the economy and environmental well being.

Some of the environmental benefits include:

• It enhances and protects biodiversity and ecosystems.
• It improves air and water quality.
• It reduces waste streams.
• It conserves and restore natural resources.

Some of the economic benefits are:

Some of the social benefits include:

• It enhances occupant comfort and health.
• It heightens aesthetic qualities.
• It minimizes strain on local infrastructure.
• It improves overall quality of life.

The image above is the anatomy of a green building, in more details.

As we all know, the amount of waste water available to the biological life is increasing and growing every single day. Scientists and Engineers have come up with different ways that would get rid of waste water. How does this have to do with Engineering? It is in fact the Engineers that actually design and develop the plants used to treat waste water and put it online to make it usable. While the operators are the individuals who operate/work the plants developed. This blog will indicate the processes involved in treating waste water.

• Primary treatment:

During the primary treatment, the waste water is diverted into tanks where the waste water solids or materials denser than water will settle out. These tanks might be rectangular or triangular. Also, substances which are less dense than water are removed, such as; grease, oils and other floatable substances. The solid sediments which settle are called primary sludge. These primary sludge is removed along with the floating grease and scum and they are transported to anaerobic digesters for further treatment.

• Secondary treatment:

In the secondary stage, the water from the primary stage is mixed with a population of bacteria and a certain amount of  oxygen supply because they digest the suspended and soluble organic substances, removing them from the water treated. Without oxygen these bacteria perish. Pipes are driven under the tank for the production of oxygen, bubbles indicate oxygen is pumped in. The water treated is then transported to the tertiary treatment.

• Tertiary treatment:

This is an additional treatment to remove the dissolve and suspended substances from the secondary treatment. This could be done using a variety of physical, biological and chemical treatments o the targeted pollutants. Other advanced treatments may be used in this process to remove unusual things like color, metals, organic chemicals and nutrients like nitrogen.

• Disinfection:

This process is very important as it kills pathogenic diseases like typhoid, cholera, dysentery e.t.c.  an effective way of doing this is by using a chlorine based disinfectant such as Sodiumhipochloride. This is a cheap disinfectant and it usually takes about thirty minutes to an hour for contact. Another is the Ultra violet light, this disinfects better than the previous but it uses a lot of electricity.

In waste pollution, the process is just about making pollutants float of sink and the removing them thoroughly. Therefore we can safely say that treatment of waste water undergo three steps, the primary step, the secondary step, the tertiary step and the disinfection.

In the 1920’s and 1970’s the United States government took acres of land, usually far away from the normal population carry out experiments and test various equipments. After the war was over, and with no immediate use of weapons and the properties/lands acquired the properties languished and was abandoned. This is mainly because the Department of Defense do not necessarily like the spending of money without a mission.

During a presentation I had on Environmental pollution for the United States Navy from a profound engineer, I learned some additional and useful information that will be very much put into play after my college schooling. This information was titled “Career opportunities and disciplines”.

In other to develop soundly during ones career in engineering you have to be ready to be dynamic, that is, you should be able to switch to different fields at any given time. One has to be dynamic because after graduation, you may not really go on to partake in what you think you will do. This is because jobs changes frequently due to political changes, social and technological changes.

For career development, you need to have some certain points to guide you, these are:

• Finding a path
• Flexibility
• Find your core strengths
• Determine your weakness and figure how to compensate them
• Keep training after graduation
• Get certification
• Market your skills
• Be a team player
• Develop “the brand called you”

With these guidelines known to you, there are various career opportunities which are available to engineers and I shall name a few and further state the expertise needed.

• Flood Management;
• Ground water treatment – Geology, Hydro geology,soil science, engineering.
• Ports and Harbor – G.P.S instrumentation mapping, chemistry and toxicology.

• Site Investigation – Geologists, Hydro geology, engineer, chemist.
• Restoration and water management – engineering, regulatory permitting, hydrology.
• Mines and Minerals;

• Marketing and business management – engineering, business development, marketing, business management.
• Monitoring and compliance – Vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, regulatory permits.
• Sustainability – Planning, design and construction management.
• Policy and Law – Team building skills, policy and regulatory programs, infinite patience.

• Construction management – Design planning, construction management.

Switching attentions back to the Navy installation restoration program done in New England, the government took lands in the 1920’s and 1970’s for the Department of Defense. At that particular period, military bases put away all useless materials, be it toxic or not into river and were not subject to environmental law until the 1980’s when the “right to know” act and CERCLA was enabled.

In this blog, I will introduce you to the process by which the drinking water facilities and distribution networks got more or less destroyed in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. And also how various aid organizations and their environmental engineering unit with the help of citizens of Haiti brought about the rain water harvesting system, an alternative way to gather water to be used for domestic and other use.

Early 2010, an earthquake of a moderately high magnitude struck the main source of drinking water supplies and distribution networks in Port-Au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. After the occurrence of the earthquake, the emergency response and humanitarian assistance organizations began developing ways to help bring about a reasonable amount of standards for hygiene and water. For water, which is a very important aspect, the rain water harvest was used to revive a considerable amount of water back to be used.

Rain water harvesting is a very useful method of water collection in the sense that it has been used for a very long while in Haiti because of the abundant rainfall available. It all set up with the availability of some materials such as a roof area, gutters, drains, storage tanks and pressure boosting system. Its requires minimal capital and also does not cost a lot to maintain therefore it is affordable. This system also helps evade/prevent erosion as it diverts heavy rainfall to the storage unit. There are factors that affect rain water harvest though, these factors are

1. CONSUMPTION: This is the total number of use by the number of users and it is all added together and the average is gotten.
2. COLLECTION AREA: This is the projected area of the roof that will be used to collect the rain water, the bigger the collection areas are the more water available.
3. HARVEST COEFFICIENT: This is a record of water that avoided collection due to loss by leakage or spillage or were not at all good for use.
4. RAINFALL DATA: This is data collecting and examined after a long while of collection of answers. This data include: volume of rainfall, intensity of rainfall, duration of rainfall and also the frequency of the rainfall.

With  all these collection of rainfall water, there also treatment of these kind of water. This was the water families used for domestic activities and also used in drinking so calculations based on the amount of water collected and the amount of families per unit was taken to make it easier for treatment.

Finally, the main objective of the emergency response unit was to provide first world type drinking water, but this wasn’t possible because of the occurring disasters, funds and also the compact space of the environment for work. Therefore they had to do all that they could and was also accepted by the UN. And although the water being used was not as pure as the ones used in a properly setup city/area, because of the lifestyles of the residents of Haiti  they could tolerate 20-30 CFU of water.

In the  very broad occupation and study of engineering, there are various further aspects and specialties. For instance, Engineering can be divided into different kinds such as; Chemical engineering, Civil engineering, Mechanical engineering and much more. These various types of engineering can still be broken down furthermore. I shall be using Civil engineering as my example because this is what I’m interested in.

Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings. Civil engineering, as said earlier is furthermore divided into various types of civil engineering such as environmental, geotechnical, structural, to mention a few.

Now with knowledge of all I’ve talked about, we go down to the main point which is the career paths for technical professionals in engineering. Now, assume or imagine that you are an environmental engineer, there are different aspects you choose from; The administrative, the construction, the Degreed technical profession and the technical profession. Choosing the  degreed technical professional  career path, for new graduates, one does not go to an engineering company and start practicing their work directly. New graduates will have to undergo foundation projects until they garner the needed experience before actually practicing the job in itself and eventually being a master. This is done to get experience for further jobs as engineering is a complex field. Another reason this is done is to enable more clarity for the newly graduated student to choose which division/career path to undergo. There are three main career paths and they are; technical management, technical specialist (consists of technical gurus and project managers) and the client service management.

• The role of the technical managers is to manage/guide a group of staff and monitoring the projects by the staff they manage.
• The technical gurus of the technical specialist aspect are in charge of the technical operations solely.
• The project managers in the technical aspect are responsible for carrying out environmental projects

• And finally, the client service managers manager clients/consumers of the product.

Finally, for those new graduates or current college students who want to embark on engineering various things should be done. Things such as having a good academic record, having a some experience by doing internships and CO-OP and be sure and specific of what aspect and sub aspect of engineering you wish to embark.

Welcome to Blogs.cas.suffolk.edu. This is your first post. Edit or delete it under Manage>Posts or make a new one under Write>Posts then start blogging! Be sure to visit the Design tab to choose a new look for your blog as well.

Also, for immediate “how-to’s” visit the Tutorials section, or the Getting Started section.