WITH EFFECT FROM THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2010 - 2011

CE 222

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

(Common to all Branches)

Instruction                                                                                              4 Periods per week

Duration of University Examination                                                      3 Hours

University Examination                                                                        75 Marks

Sessional                                                                                               25 Marks

UNIT-I

Environmental Studies: Definition, scope and importance, need for public awareness.  Natural resources: Water resources, use and over utilization of surface and ground water, floods, drought, conflicts over water, dams, benefits and problems.  Effects of modern agriculture, fertilizer-pesticide problems, water logging salinity.  Energy resources, growing energy needs, renewable and non-renewable energy sources.  Land Resources, land as a resource, land degradation, soil erosion and desertification.

UNIT-II

Ecosystems:  Concepts of an ecosystem, structure and functions of an ecosystem, producers, consumers and decomposers, energy flow in ecosystem, food chains, ecological pyramids, aquatic ecosystem (ponds, streams, lakes, rivers, oceans, estuaries).

UNIT-III

Biodiversity: Genetic species and ecosystem diversity, bio-geographical classification of India.  Value of biodiversity, threats to biodiversity, endangered and endemic species of India, conservation of biodiversity.

UNIT-IV

Environmental Pollution:  Causes, effects and control measures of air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, noise pollution, thermal pollution and solid waste management.

Environment Protection Act:  Air, water, forest and wild life acts, issues involved in enforcement of environmental legislation.

UNIT-V

Social Aspects and the Environment:  Water conservation, watershed management, and environmental ethics.  Climate change, global warming, acid, rain, ozone layer depletion.  Environmental protection act, population explosion.

Disaster Management:  Types of disasters, impact of disasters on environment, infrastructure and development.  Basic principles of disaster mitigation, disaster management and methodology, disaster management cycle, and disaster management in India

Suggested Reading:

1. A.K. De, Environmental Chemistry, New Age Publications, 2002.
2. E.P. Odum, Fundamentals of Ecology, W.B. Sunders Co., USA.
3. G.L. Karia and R.A., Christian, Waste Water Treatment, Concepts and Design Approach, Prentice Hall of India, 2005.
4. Benny Joseph, Environmental Studies, Tata McGraw – Hill, 2005.
5. V.K. Sharma, Disaster Management, National Centre for Disaster Management, IIPE, Delhi, 1999.