Under the study area of Environmental Engineering there are there possible areas of concentration; Environmental Processes, Environmental & Water Resources Systems Engineering and Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology. It should be noted that some of the design projects described are often collaborative and students from more than one concentration are involved. One example of this collaborative effort is the AguaClara project that is described under Environmental Processes.
Research and instruction in this area address the development and application of scientific principles, economic theory and mathematical techniques to the management and planning of public infrastructure, and environmental and water resource systems. Research projects include evaluation of engineering projects, groundwater contaminant modeling and remediation optimization, statistical analysis of hydrologic processes, hydropoer systems optimization, water supply systems management, water quality planning, risk analysis, river basin and groundwater systems planning and operation, ecological systems management, sustainable development, and computer graphics-oriented decision support systems. Possible projects in the EWRS area included:
AguaClara is an award winning, multi-year international engineering project in CEE that makes it possible for M.Eng. students to contribute to the research, design, and implementation of Sustainable Municipal Water Treatment Plants in the Global South. The AguaClara project includes opportunities for a 2 week educational trip to project sites during the January intersession and for 3 month to 2 year international internships as AguaClara Engineers.
Making Cornell Carbon- Neutral: Cornell has proposed to become carbon neutral. This project explores various ways that such a goal could be pursued and focuses on some of these options in more detail, determining their effectiveness in reducing emissions, their costs per unit reduction, and their probable environmental and social impacts.
Reducing Transportation CO2 Emissions: Explores technological changes that would allow the transportation sector of our economy to make dramatic reductions in CO2 emissions, and how these technologies could be phased in as well as the cost and investment implications of different technological paths.
Calibration and Sensitivity Analysis for Complex Watershed Models: This project considers the problems posed by calibration of complex watershed models and how to evaluate the uncertainty in model predictions and estimated parameters so as to inform the model development process and decisions based upon model simulations.
Regional Models for Flood Frequency Analysis: Flood flow frequency relationships are often needed at ungauged sites, and at gauged sites regional relationships are often used to specify key parameters. This project will consider the use of generalized least squares methods for such regional flood frequency studies.
