Environment

When in comes to protecting the environment, few professions offer as many opportunities to make a difference as engineering.

Engineers strive to develop the best solutions possible with available resources and within the limits of the environment. Today they are creating better packaging to reduce waste; more fuel-efficient engines to reduce emissions; more effective water treatments to ensure clean water for people, plants, and animals.

As the world population grows, climate changes, and nonrenewable resources dwindle, we will face big challenges that will demand creative solutions. Engineers will provide them.

View only: | Fun Facts(7) | Historical Engineers(2) | Engineers(4)

Mary Walton

Inventor and Pioneer in the fight against pollution

Independent Inventor
Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards

Founder of home economics and First woman admitted to MIT

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Folake O Akintayo

Lecturer

University of Ibadan, Ibadan, NIGERIA

Ibadan, (No State Selected), Nigeria
Pam McLeod

Education & Outreach Manager

Re-Inventing the Nation's Urban Water Infrastructure (ReNUWIt)

Stanford, CA, United States
- E-mail:
  
  pamelamc@stanford.edu
Cheeta Soga

Consultant

Nitsch Engineering

Boston, MA, United States
Dr. Kara Kockelman

Professor of Transportation Engineering

University of Texas at Austin

Austin, TX
Crystal Bridge

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Egirl Team

In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the Crystal Bridge Conservatory is the focus of the Myriad Botanical Gardens. Engineers designed a cloud-making system to provide the necessary environment for a rainforest. A path next to a 35-foot waterfall leads up a "mountain" of rock formations, which are really latex molds from actual rock outcroppings. The conservatory is made from over 3,000 acrylic panels. It is seven stories tall and 224 feet long.
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Resource Added: May 11, 2012
Latest Update: September 5, 2012
Draper Prize

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Egirl Team

Given each year by the National Academy of Engineering, The Draper Prize was established in 1988 and is awarded for outstanding achievement, particularly innovation and reduction to practice, in engineering and technology contributing to the advancement of the welfare and freedom of humanity.
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Resource Added: May 11, 2012
Latest Update: October 17, 2012
Galveston Seawall

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Egirl Team

On September 8, 1900, a hurricane sent an 8-foot high wave crashing into the city of Galveston, Texas. This hurricane killed 6,000-8,000 people and is considered to be the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. After the hurricane, the city asked retired Army engineer Henry Robert to design a seawall that would be seven miles long and seventeen feet high. Robert designed the wall as asked and also raised the city by pumping sand underneath the buildings. In 1915, the seawall was tested by another hurricane. This time, all but 8 people survived.
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Resource Added: March 27, 2012
Latest Update: September 21, 2012
Hoover Dam

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Simil Raghavan

The Hoover Dam is one of the tallest concrete dams ever built and it created one of the largest manmade lakes in the United States. At 726.4 feet tall, it took 200 engineers from several consulting firms and the Bureau of Reclamation to design the dam. It has 3,125,000 cubic yards of concrete and weighs more than 6.6 million tons! Construction of the dam, power plant, and related works took five years to build and was finished two years ahead of schedule. The reservoir created can hold enough water to cover the entire state of Pennsylvania with water one foot deep.
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Resource Added: March 27, 2012
Latest Update: September 6, 2012
Mississippi River

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Egirl Team

If it weren't for the work of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Mississippi River would not flow past New Orleans. Recently, the main channel of the Mississippi was attempting to change its course and flow down the Atchafalaya River. This would have left Baton Rouge and New Orleans, both important ports without a navigable connection to the Gulf of Mexico. To prevent this, the Old River Control Structure (ORCS) was built in 1963 to let only 30% of Mississippi River volume into the Atchafalaya basin. Such controls have enormous impacts on the coastal wetlands of Louisiana.
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Resource Added: March 27, 2012
Latest Update: September 5, 2012
Royal Gorge Bridge

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Egirl Team

The Royal Gorge Bridge is the highest suspension bridge in the USA. It held the world record as the highest suspension bridge in the world until the Liuguanghe Bridge was built in China in 2001. At 956 feet above the Arkansas River, the Royal Gorge Bridge was completed in only six months with no fatalities. In 1907, the federal government deeded Royal Gorge to the town of Canon City, Colorado for use as a municipal park. To enhance the appeal as a tourist attraction, a bridge was needed to cross the gorge. So, in 1929, the Royal Gorge Bridge and Amusement Company undertook the construction of a one-lane toll bridge. The bridge is 1,260 feet long and 18 feet wide. It is suspended from two 200-ton cables. Each cable has 2,100 strands of No. 9 galvanized wire in it. The floor of the bridge contains 1,000 tons of steel and almost 1,300 wooden planks. It took only $350,000 to build the Royal Gorge Bridge. To replace it today, it would cost over $10 million.
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Resource Added: March 27, 2012
Latest Update: September 5, 2012
Taum Sauk Hydroelectric Storage Plant

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Egirl Team

The Taum Sauk Hydroelectric Storage Plant, one of the largest stand-alone pumped storage plants, overflowed causing catastrophic flooding.
The Taum Sauk Hydroelectric Storage Plant in Missouri was engineered to take power from other sources during part of the day and supply energy during other hours. The facility was made of four parts: a 55-acre reservoir at the top of a mountain, a 7000-foot-long tunnel, a powerhouse with two reversible pump-turbine units, and a lower reservoir formed by a dam. The plant produced 350 megawatts by releasing water through the plant into a 400-acre lower lake. Then, at night, the water was pumped back into the upper pool to store energy for the following day when demand would be high again (like a giant battery). The process was directed by remote control in St. Louis, 120 miles away.
In December of 2005 however, a catastrophic failure of the upper reservoir released more than a billion gallons of water in less ...
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Resource Added: March 27, 2012
Latest Update: September 6, 2012

Engineer Girl

Environment