Environmental learning innovation for more knowledge and better jobs

At the global level it is already known our dependence on a healthy environment and the fact that environmental problems go over national and regional borders. To achieve this aim we need adequate training and access to higher and actual skills through better education and training systems. Mutual learning in field of environmental engineering between important and experimented actors in European higher education system using the exchange of good practice and implementing innovative tools and instruments is the rationale of the EnvYJobs project.
EnvYJobs project contributed to the fulfillment of long-term EU objective concerning the environment as to achieve levels of water, air and soil quality "that do not result in unacceptable impacts on, and risks to human health and the environment". This was possible by establishing as a general objective the development of an educational open resource e-learning platform allowing easy understanding of complex environmental engineering issues.

Closing the NEW - Resource Cycle through a Zero-Emission Wastewater Management System

In many parts of the world the access to sufficient and safe water is a challenge. This challenge will increase in the coming decades with increasing world population and urbanisation and the drive towards greening our economy by a transition to bio-based fuels and raw materials. These trends will also effect the design and operation of wastewater treatment plants, opening possibilities to improve the sustainability of the wastewater chain, and to meet the more stringent requirements for the quality of the effluent before discharge or reuse.
Ambitions we are facing, are improving the effluent quality with opportunities for (direct) water reuse, the recovery of energy and raw materials, and the removal of hormonal, medicinal and other micro pollutants. The current concept must be redesigned with new solutions for the conversion of organic components into biogas; the techno-economic recovery of nitrogen and phosphate; the removal of (heavy) metals and micro pollutants; and the production of water-fit-for-use making local water reuse possible. The term wastewater treatment plant can be replaced by the better name the NEW source plant, where NEW stands for Nutrients Energy & Water.

This course will offer students an overview of several membrane technologies being integrated into a wastewater treatment system to get closer to our needs and ambitions for using the technological and economic value of (waste) water, and to the requirements of applying sustainable water technology and durable water management.
The course targets bachelor and master students in Environmental/Civil/Chemical Engineering; besides the academic instructor the course will also host the interventions of process engineers and specialists working in public/private companies in order to illustrate real case studies of the NEW wastewater treatment approach.

Design, Modeling and Simulation Techniques for Wastewater Treatment Processes

One of the main causes of the pollution is the inefficient treatment of the municipal and industrial wastewater. All countries have concerns about the modernization or construction of new wastewater treatment facilities. The wastewater treatment technology is a very complex succession of unit operations and processes, each of them designed to remove a specific pollutant. Design of these processes is very sensitive and multiple standards are available for this purpose.
Wastewater operators should provide good quality effluents at costs as low as possible, under more restrictive legislation. There are a number of problems they have to face, from covering energy costs to finding financing solutions for rehabilitation, modernization or expansion. Moreover, one of the main problems in a WWTP is the resulted sludge that has to be treated.
This course targets Bachelor, Master and PhD students in Environmental/Civil/Energy Engineering and will introduce students in principles of design of unit processes of wastewater treatment, using modeling and simulation for learning, explore design alternatives, optimizing wastewater treatment and evaluate control strategies. The current practice technologies will be considered and measures for improving energy efficiency of wastewater treatment plant will be investigated.

Soil and Air Quality Monitoring Techinique

In air and soil are existing different types and levels of pollutants being emitted by various sources such as coal-fired power plants, major highways, oil and gas refineries, and other anthropic activities. This fact requires the best possible measurement and monitoring capabilities, but also well trained environmental specialists able to face the challenge of managing a wide range of problems concerning air pollution and contaminated land. Soil and Air Quality Monitoring Techniques course provide knowledge about sampling methods, specialized equipment and analytical methods used to establish pollutants concentration in soil and air. These information and expertise are imperative required for environmental responsible in order to determine the impact of any activity on environment and human health, and to protect and improve soil and air quality.
The course targets bachelor and master students in Environmental Engineering; besides the academic instructor the course will also host the interventions of engineers and technicians working in public/private Companies in order to illustrate real case studies of soil and air quality monitoring techniques.

Geoinformation technologies for Environmental Changes and Pressures Assessment

Environmental changes are the result of human activities and interference to the environment, as well as of natural processes. Geoinformation technologies are proved to serve as extremely significant tools for environmental processing, analysis and dissemination purposes.

Flood Hazard Assessment

Floods will always be present since they are an integral part of the environment but when combined with vulnerability and insufficient capacity to reduce the risks, they may lead to disasters. Flood Hazard & Risk Assessment (FH&RA) form the essential stages leading to recognizing the flood danger which may occur in any flood prone area for any given period of time.
This e-book is an introduction to basic FH&R mapping concepts and attempts to provide a brief overview of the current status in FH&RA in terms of standing EU regulations and state of practice. Basic principles related FH&RA, including hydrologic and inundation modeling and uncertainties incorporated into modeling outputs as well as hazard and risk mapping techniques are also presented

Sustainable Drinking Water Supply Systems

The course targets Batchelor and Master students in Environmental/Civil/Energy Engineering and it deals with technical aspects of drinking water transport and distribution, including pump station design.
The course aims at introducing the students the basic principles of functioning, design, management and maintenance of a water supply system. In particular design methodologies and criteria of management and maintenance and control will be analysed during the course, that allow to increase the efficiency of water networks while reducing water (e.g. leakages) and energy consumption and extending the technical life.
On the other side, the course will explain how to perform the laboratory measurements required to guarantee safe drinking water.
The course will also host the interventions of engineers and technicians working in public/private Companies, who will illustrate some particularly significant real case studies of water supply system management and maintenance.