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An Emerging Field - Ecological Engineering Education

by Andreas Schönborn, EcoEng-online editor, Switzerland

E-mail:

"I have applied to various universities for doing M.S. program in Civil& Environmental Engineering starting FALL-2000 with Ecological Engineering as my Major. I am very enthusiastically looking forward to work in this field. In this regard, I require your valuable assistance to achieve my dream of contributing something substantial in the field of Environmental Engineering." (Email request from India)

Why this article?

In the old days (which is 5-10 years ago...), the only way to get in touch with interesting programs or good teachers was by personal contacts, e.g. via a professor or teacher, or by long brainsplitting research sessions in the local university library. Provided it was good.

Today, the internet offers much better and easier opportunities for anyone. It is the easiest way to get in touch with schools all over the world. This is a great chance for a scattered community like ours.

I considered it worth while to make a survey of the institutions present in the internet and assess them according to their compliance with the definition of Ecological Engineering.

For the benefit of whom? Or: What is Ecological Engineering?

• Some define it as the "design of sustainable eco-systems that integrate human society with its natural environement, for the benefit of both" (e.g. Texas A&M University).
  
  
• At UC Berkeley the "essence of the subject is to provide the quantitative information needed for engineered solutions to ecological problems", and applied limnology and oceanography are regarded as the backbone of the field.
  
  
• The Graduate Ecological Engineering Society of the University of Maryland, sees it as goal, "to observe and exploit the evolutionary wisdom of biological systems".
  
  
• The probably most open-hearted definition comes from Japan's Toyohashi University:"To sustain the development of human acivities and ensure the future of mankind, [Ecological Engineering] aims to provide technological support for redressing, maintaining and improving the ecological cycle on the earth".

The definition I consider the most comprehensive, yet ethically acceptable is by Bergen et al., 1997 (found on Texas A&M’s website):

"Ecological Engineering is the design of sustainable systems consistent with ecological principles that integrates human society with its natural environment for the benefit of both".

Even this short choice of citations shows the great divide: "Exploitation" versus the "benefit of both" This is the old question: Are we allowed to do what we are able to do? It is – like always – a matter of attitude.

The assessment

Fig. 1: Elements of the assessment: Blue filling stands for that specific requirement being present. Yellow filling indicates some doubts that the respective element is taken seriously into account. Blank stands for the absence of any hint, that that element is part of the program offered.

Certificate in Ecological Engineering at the University of Florida, USA

Graduate coursework focuses heavily on engineering skills (in the areas of wastewater treatment, potable water systems, groundwater, solid waste containment, groundwater, air quality), and on aquatic and wetland ecology. Social sciences and ethical questions are not adressed on their website. UF’s research projects have a strong focus on practical problems, e.g. the development of sewage treatment systems.

Masters in "Ingenieuroekologie" at the Fachhochschule Magdeburg, Germany

Coursework focuses on engineering skills (e.g. hydraulic engineering, water management, resource management, eco-balancing, eco-controlling, landscape planning etc.) and on environmental science (e.g. hydrology, environmental biotechnology). Environmental politics and environmental law are part of the schedule. German technical colleges traditionally have a strong focus on practical issues. Ethical questions are not part of the schedule – at least they are not visible on the website.

Masters in Ecological Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, USA

The little information published on the website suggests, that the main focus is put on "all kinds of wet habitats" and – more than in the other institutions described so far – on aquatic science and ecology. Social sciences and ethical questions are not being adressed on the website. I assume that the practical training at UCB will focus on good science as well.

A whole range of potential applications of Ecological Engineering (e.g. urban planning, urban hydrology, air quality issues, ecology of buildings...) seems to be neglected at UCB. It would be interesting to know why.

Ecological Engineering Graduate Program at the U. of Maryland, USA

Ecological Engineering is offered as part of the BRE program. It is open to engineering graduates from a variety of disciplines, and to nonengineering graduates (under certain conditions). The program folows a "multidisciplinary approach to problem solving", and integrates "field studies, basic research, modeling, product design, and system construction". Research includes practical issues such as "flood prevention using wetlands, restoration of damaged or degraded ecosystems, creation of new wildlife habitat, use of vegetation communities in waste water treatment, and use of sludge or other waste to restore degraded ecosystems".

The presentation on the web does not mention social sciences and disregards ethical issues. However, the program is flexible enough so that individiual students will probably be able to include both issues on their own. There is a Graduate Ecological Engineering Society at UMd (however, with a rather outdated website...).

URL	http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/bioreng/
Last update of site	13 March 2000
Undergrad studies	No (Biological Resources Engineering offered)
Graduate studies	Yes
Ph.D.	Yes
Financial support	Assistantships and fellowships are available on a competitive basis

Bio-Resource Engineering at the University of Maine, USA

In the undergrad curriculum - assessed in the figure on the left - science classes (e.g. chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics) and engineering classes (e.g. thermodynamics, applied mechanics, bioresource engineering...) form a balanced equilibrium with classes like "Fundamentals of Public Communication" and "General Education Electives". The curriculum is finished with a two semester design project. Students can concentrate on: 1) aquacultural engineering 2)biomedical engineering 3) bio-resource engineering 4) fluid power 5) food engineering 6) forest engineering 7) land and water resource engineering.

Compared to the other institutions assessed so far, ecology seems to play a minor role in this program.

The information available on their graduate program is much less comprehensive. Students can specialize in "engineering for biological process control, land and water resources engineering, food engineering, mechanization of aquaculture, harvesting and processing of marine species, use of biomass, and engineering of agricultural and forest production systems".

Planned programs

The Ohio State University, USA, academic home of William Mitsch, is developing a "new multidisciplinary academic program in ecological engineering", according to their publication "onCampus online" (Feb.25, 1999, Vol 28, No.15) and has been looking for staff (see EcoEng Newsletter 1/2000). Unfortunately, these efforts are not presented on the web.

Texas A&M University Kingsville, USA, is planning to "implement a formalized specialty area in Ecological Engineering by the year 2001". The driving force behind this new field is Dr. David Tilley, who recently graduated at the University of Florida. The information published on their website looks very promising. Potential course modules are covering a wide range of topics, including e.g. "Ecological Decision Sciences", "Complex Systems Design under Ecological Constraints", "Ecological Engineering Ethics"

In Germany the Technical University of Munich at Weihenstephan is currently developing an Ecological Engineering program at the chair of vegetation ecology (Prof. Jörg Pfadenhauer). It will probably focus on the major research themes of the chair of vegetation ecology, which are: Agriculture Ecology, Wetlands, Restoration Ecology , and Population Biology.

The EcoEng Newsletter will report on these programs as soon as more information is available.

Some more findings

• The Lincoln University at Canterbury, New Zealand, (home of the next Ecological Engineering conference in 2001) offers Ecological Engineering I & II lectures as part of "Advanced Human Ecology"
  
  
• The School of Civic Engineering and Environment at the University of Western Sydney, Australia offers an Ecological Engineering course.
  
  
• The Department of Civil Engineering at Tokohu University, Japan, is active in Ecological Engineering and seems to educate students. However, the information available in English does not allow any assessment.
  
  
• The same holds true for Toyohashi University in Japan. This school even has a Department of Ecological Engineering.

What can we learn from this websearch?

Disclaimer

• I had no access to information available in other languages than English or German, particularly not to information in Japanese, Chinese or other asiatic languages.
• The search engines I have chose have a focus on websites in Europe, North America and Australia.
• Some institutions, particularly in India or China, may not yet have a website.

If you feel that your institutions is missing or misrepresented, contact me. You may possibly present it in one of the next issues of the EcoEng Newsletter.

How the data for this article were compiled

I used four common search engines (Fast: http://www.alltheweb.com, Google: http://www.google.com , Alta Vista: http://www.altavista.com, Yahoo: http://www.yahoo.com). I looked for "ecological engineering" and "ecological engineering education" and browsed through the first 50-100 of the sometimes more than 10'000 matches I got. I also followed the links in linklists given in interesting websites. I consider this similar to how potential students would proceed.

References

Mitsch, W.J., 1996, Ecological Engineering: The Roots and rationale of a New Ecological Paradigm, in: Etnier, C., Guterstam, B., Ecological Engineering for Wastewater Treatment, Lewis Publishers

Bergen, S.D., Bolton, S.M., Fridley, J.L., 1997, Ecological Engineering: Design based on Ecological Principles. Presented at the 1997 Annual ASAE Meeting, August 10-14, Paper No. 975035 (reference from Texas A&M website)

Websites used for this article

Fachhochschule Magdeburg, Germany: http://www.fh-magdeburg.de/studium/moegl/stgioe.html
Lincoln University at Canterbury, New Zealand: http://kauri.lincoln.ac.nz
Texas A&M University Kingsville, USA: http://www.even.tamuk.edu/ecoengr/
Tokohu University, Japan: http://www.civil.tohoku.ac.jp/english/chiiki/chiiki.html
Toyohashi University in Japan: http://ita.tutkie.tut.ac.jp/anbo/www/english/8keiE.html
University of Califonia, Berkeley, USA: http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/Programs/Environment/
University of Florida, USA: http://www.enveng.ufl.edu/homepp/brown/syseco/default.htm
University of Maine, USA: http://www.engineering.umaine.edu/bre
University of Maryland, USA: http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/bioreng/
University of Western Sydney, Nepean, Australia: http://www4.eng.nepean.uws.edu.au/ce/