Editing Environmental engineering (section)

==History==
{{further|History of water supply and sanitation}}

=== Ancient civilizations ===
Environmental engineering is a name for work that has been done since early civilizations, as people learned to modify and control the environmental conditions to meet needs.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.environmentalscience.org/environmental-engineering|title=Environmental Engineering: Why It's Vital for Our Future|last=Mason|first=Matthew|website=Environmental Science|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-23}}</ref> As people recognized that their health was related to the [[Environmental quality|quality of their environment]], they built systems to improve<ref name=":1" /> it. The ancient [[Indus Valley civilisation|Indus Valley Civilization]] (3300 B.C.E. to 1300 B.C.E.) had advanced control over their [[water resources]].<ref name=":2" /> The public work structures found at various sites in the area include wells, public baths, water storage tanks, a drinking water system, and a city-wide sewage collection system.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Jansen|first=M.|date=October 1989|title=Water Supply and Sewage Disposal at Mohenjo-Daro|journal=World Archaeology|volume=21|issue=2|pages=177–192|jstor=124907|doi=10.1080/00438243.1989.9980100|pmid=16470995}}</ref> They also had an early canal [[Irrigation|irrigation system]] enabling large-scale agriculture.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Evolution of Sanitation and Wastewater Technologies through the Centuries|author-link=Andreas N. Angelakis|last1=Angelakis|first1=Andreas N.|last2=Rose|first2=Joan B.|publisher=IWA Publishing|year=2014|isbn=9781780404851|pages=25–40|chapter=Chapter 2: "Sanitation and wastewater technologies in Harappa/Indus valley civilization (ca. 2600-1900 BC)}}</ref>

From 4000 to 2000 B.C.E., many civilizations had drainage systems and some had sanitation facilities, including the [[Mesopotamia|Mesopotamian Empire]], [[Mohenjo-daro|Mohenjo-Daro]], Egypt, Crete, and the [[Orkney|Orkney Islands]] in Scotland.<ref name=":1" /> The Greeks also had aqueducts and sewer systems that used rain and wastewater to irrigate and fertilize fields.<ref name=":1" />

The first [[Roman aqueduct|aqueduct]] in Rome was constructed in 312 B.C.E., and the Romans continued to construct [[Roman aqueduct|aqueducts]] for irrigation and safe urban water supply during droughts.<ref name=":1" /> They also built an underground sewer system as early as the 7th century B.C.E. that fed into the Tiber River, draining marshes to create farmland as well as removing sewage from the city.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

=== Modern era ===
Very little change was seen from the decline of the Roman Empire until the 19th century, where improvements saw increasing efforts focused on public health.<ref name=":2" /><ref name="National Science Foundation.(Dec. 3, 2009).Environmental Engineering">{{cite web|url=https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=501029|title=Funding - Environmental Engineering|website=US National Science Foundation|access-date=2013-07-01}}</ref> Modern environmental engineering began in [[London]] in the mid-19th century when [[Joseph Bazalgette]] designed the first major [[sewage collection and disposal|sewerage]] system following the [[Great Stink]].<ref name=":2" /> The city's sewer system conveyed raw sewage to the [[River Thames]], which also supplied the majority of the city's drinking water, leading to an outbreak of [[cholera]].<ref name=":2" /> The introduction of drinking water treatment and sewage treatment in industrialized countries reduced [[waterborne diseases]] from leading causes of death to rarities.<ref name="Water industry from The Oxford Companion to British History online">{{Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/medicine/diseases-and-conditions/pathology/waterborne-infections|title=Waterborne Infections|website=Encyclopedia.com|access-date=2019-03-23}}</ref>

The field emerged as a separate academic discipline during the middle of the 20th century in response to widespread public concern about water and air pollution and other [[environmental degradation]]. As society and technology grew more complex, they increasingly produced unintended effects on the natural environment. One example is the widespread application of the pesticide [[DDT]] to control agricultural pests in the years following [[World War II]]. The story of DDT as vividly told in [[Rachel Carson]]'s ''[[Silent Spring]]'' (1962) is considered to be the birth of the modern [[environmental movement]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~radniect/whatisenvironmentalengineering.php|title=What is Environmental Engineering?|last=Radniecki|first=Tyler|website=College of Engineering|publisher=Oregon State University|access-date=2019-03-23}}</ref> which led to the modern field of "environmental engineering."