EN412: Ocean Environmental Engineering II

Catalog Description

EN412: Ocean Environmental Engineering II (3-0-3)

Basic principles and current issues in environmental engineering as applied to the ocean environment are introduced. Principal focus is on ocean resources: their identification, recovery, and utilization. Topical coverage includes the technological aspects of alternate energy sources; deep-ocean oil and gas recovery; desalinization; dredging and uses for dredge spoil; mineral exploitation; ocean depositories; wetlands, reefs and other coastal developments; and environmental economics, ethics, and regulatory statutes.

Textbook

• Various, depending on course topic.

Goals

1. Develop an understanding how the growth of a quantity can be mathematically represented reflecting populations and the use of natural resources.
2. Appreciate the technical aspects of responding to oil spills and the design oil-boom configurations.
3. Learn about alternative sources of energy from the ocean and investigate the analytical characterization of heaving and pitching floating bodies and the potential for energy extraction.
4. Investigate the importance of fisheries as a natural resource, the potential need for aquaculture and be introduced to the engineering design of an aquaculture system.
5. Explore estuarine restoration topics.
6. Be able to appreciate the process of developing a lecture to communicate a technological related topic associated with environment to a classroom of peers.

Prerequisites

• 1/C EOE Major, OR
• Approval of NAOE Department Chair

Class Topics

1. The Mathematics of Growth
2. Oil Production
3. History of Offshore Oil and Oil Spills
4. Oil Spill Response Measures – Oil Boom Design
5. Ocean Renewable Energy
6. Wave Energy Conversion
7. Fisheries
8. Aquaculture Production
9. Recirculation Aquaculture System Design
10. Oyster Restoration and Aquaculture
11. Oyster Farming Economics
12. Living Shorelines
13. Estuaries
14. Constructed Wetlands