Transcript Ecology and Engineering

Ecology and Engineering
CE 3 Introduction to Civil and
Environmental Engineering
What is Ecology?
• Greek “oikos” meaning family household, and logy
meaning the study of.
• Odum (1963) defined it as “The structure and function of
Nature.”
• Krebs (1972) defined “Ecology is the scientific study of
the processes regulating the distribution and abundance of
organisms and the interactions among them, and the study
of how these organisms in turn mediate the transport and
transformation of energy and matter in the biosphere.
Why Ecology?
• Interactions between populations and their
environment.
• Uses a systems approach.
• Movement of energy, water, nutrients, food
(local and global scales).
• Population growth, death, competition,
community response to change.
Concepts from Ecology inevitably lead us to look at
population.
Carrying capacity is the maximum population that
an environment can sustain.
Population is only part of the story.
When you consider that 20% of the world’s
population is consuming 80% of the world’s
resources, it’s not necessarily the quantity that
counts but who the population is.
In last fifty years,
• US population has increased by less
than a factor of 2.
• Energy use has more than tripled.
• Water use has quadrupled.
Even when factoring in considerable
conservation measures.
Ecological Footprint
developed by Rees and colleagues (1996)
• How much land is needed to
grow food, grow energy, absorb
wastes, support recycling,
absorb heat, absorb green house
gases… ?
• Measures the amount of
renewable and non-renewable
ecologically productive land
area required to support the
resource demands and absorb
the wastes of a given population
or specific activity.
Typical components used to
calculate the ecological footprint
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Electricity
Heat
Recycled Waste
Landfill Waste
Water
Food
Wood Products
Transportation (for
travel and for
freight)
Source: World Wide Fund for Nature
UVM’s Ecological Footprint
Swain (2004)
• FY 2000, UVM’s footprint was 59,542 global
acres (5.17 global acres/person).
• Over 75% result of energy consumption (heat,
electricity, transportation).
• Not sustainable by any measure.
• In order to achieve sustainability must reduce
footprint by 73%.
• Campus expansions will increase UVM footprint
by estimated 16%.
Breakdown of ecological
footprint components for UVM
Water
Food
Waste
Heating
Electricity
Transportation
Sustainability
Meeting the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own
needs.
Why Ecology?
• How do our actions change our
environment?
• How can we minimize detrimental effects?
• Limits to growth in order to be sustainable.
• Natural systems are models of
sustainability?