Research Activities
Environmental Engineering
research overview
Geo-Environmental Engineering
Geo-environmental Engineering is an evolving field of study, dealing with contamination of soil as a result of human development. It involves knowledge from such diverse fields as geotechnical, environmental and chemical engineering, geology, hydrogeology, chemistry, microbiology and soil sciences. Geo-environmental Engineering/ Environmental Engineering research at UBC covers a broad range of problems, from fundamental studies and project-based applications to commercial exploitation and development. Research expertise of members of the group covers a wide spectrum and includes, for example, contaminated land and landfill engineering, soil remediation, applied clay mineralogy and geochemistry, reactive pollution migration in soils, attenuation characteristics of natural soil materials and their uses as landfill liners, and reactive/barrier walls. Some of the current research topics include volatile organic compound migration in sub-surface soil and intrusion into buildings, development of remediation technologies, liner studies, contaminant transport, and specific site studies.
Pollution Control and Waste Management
The research interests of the faculty members cover most aspects of liquid and solid waste production, treatment and disposal. Ongoing research is conducted at laboratory scale, pilot scale and full scale. Currently, research is being carried out on topics such as agricultural waste management, membrane filtration, leaching from sanitary landfills and leachate treatment, the removal and recovery of trace contaminants and nutrients from wastewaters, sludge and solid waste/toxic waste management, forest products waste management, pulp and paper mill pollution prevention, water treatment technology and disinfection by product control. For more information, please visit the PCWM Group website.
Facilities
Research in Pollution Control and Waste Management is supported by well-equipped research laboratories and modern analytical instrumentation, including atomic absorption and gas chromatography. Also available for pilot scale research on wastewater treatment and sludge management are two fully instrumented 16 meter trailers. Membrane reactor systems and ozone and UV technology are also available for drinking water research topics. Specialized facilities for studies in Environmental Fluid Mechanics include recirculating sediment flumes, fresh water flumes, stratified flow facilities, laser doppler anemometer, acoustic doppler velocimeter, 5 watt laser for flow visualization, wave flume and wave basin, current meters, conductivity probes and thermistor arrays.
To support graduate research in Geo-environmental Engineering, available facilities include our well-equipped Environmental Research Laboratories and updated analytical instrumentation. In addition, students have access to the well-equipped traditional geotechnical laboratory, as well as other facilities, such as vertical and horizontal leaching columns.
The department has excellent computing facilities, including numerous networked PC's and UNIX computers, and access to other University computing resources.
Visit our Environmental Engineering Laboratories website here.
Faculty in Environmental Engineering
| James W. Atwater | Solid wastes, toxic and hazardous waste management, water quality, groundwater pollution, landfill and leachate management. |
| Pierre R. Bérubé | Removal of trace organic contaminants (disinfection-by-product precursors, endocrine disruptors, pharmaceutical residuals) from raw drinking water sources, membrane technologies advanced oxidation processes (ozone-UV). |
| Sietan Chieng | Agricultural waste management, irrigation waste management, water reuse in agriculture, agricultural hydrology. |
| Eric R. Hall | Biological wastewater treatment, pulp and paper wastewater treatment, toxic contaminants, treatment process simulation, sludge treatment, membrane treatment technology, nutrient removal. |
| Gregory Lawrence | Environmental fluid mechanics, hydraulics, hydrodynamic stability and mixing, physical limnology, coastal engineering, water quality management. |
| Loretta Li | Soil-contaminant interaction, contaminant migration, site remediation, clay liners and clay materials study in geo-environmental practice, mine tailings waste. |
| Victor Lo | Agricultural waste management, animal waste treatment, sludge management, nutrient removal and recovery. |
| Donald S. Mavinic | Biotreatment processes, water quality improvement, unit operations, cold-temperature waste treatment, leachate treatment, nutrient removal and recovery, water treatment. |
Faculty in Related Areas
| R. Jonathan Fannin | Soil mechanics, geosynthetics, design of barriers for waste containment. |
| John A. Howie | Soil mechanics, site characterization, ground modifications. |
| Bernard Laval | Environmental fluid mechanics, physical limnology, coastal oceanography, transport processes, hydrodynamic stability and mixing. |
| Barbara J. Lence | Modelling and optimization of water quality and water resource systems, environmental policy analysis, decision-making and probability analyses. |
| Robert G. Millar | River engineering, hydraulics, hydrology, stream restoration. |
Active Emeritus Faculty
| Richard Campanella | In-situ testing of soil and pore water, contaminated site characterization. |
| Kenneth J. F. Hall | Toxic materials in aquatic environments, cycling of organics, water chemistry, trace organic analysis, eutrophication. |
| William K. Oldham | Nutrient removal technology and advanced wastewater treatment. |
Adjunct Faculty
| Ken Ashley | Stream and lake improvement, river water quality, stream restoration, fisheries habitat improvement and aeration technology. |
| Dave Forgie | Wastewater treatment, plant design, waste residuals management. |
| Harlan G. Kelly | Wastewater treatment plant design, waste residuals management. |
| Barry Rabinowitz | Wastewater treatment, biological nutrient removal processes. |
| Robert Simm | Wastewater treatment, biological nutrient removal processes. |
| Troy Vassos | Wastewater treatment, small-scale liquid waste management, modelling and optimization. |
| Peter R. B. Ward | Pollutant dispersal, lake circulation, hydrology, hydraulics. |
| Reidar Zapf-Gilje | Risk assessment, contaminated sites management. |
