ENTC13011 - Environmental Engineering

Showing: 2026 HE Term 1
General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit provides students with an understanding of the effects of waste on the natural environment, the principles of environmental management, legislation, and the waste auditing process.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 3
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites There are no pre-requisites for the unit.

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026


Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Written Assessment 30%
2. Written Assessment 30%
3. Presentation and Written Assessment 40%
4. Written Assessment 0%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

Previous Feedback

No previous feedback available

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Source: Student feedback - verbally during Zoom Tutorial sessions.
Feedback:
 Students appear happy with the workload, assessment topics and the range of environmental issues discussed during the running of this unit.

Recommendation:
 To continue to offer and expand the range of highly topical environmental issues for environmental engineering students to study in 2018. These topics and their assessment items will be discussed and analysed during weekly Zoom tutorial sessions.

Action Taken:
 The recommendations and actions stated were undertaken even though I was informed by the Undergraduate Engineering Course Coordinator that this unit would no longer be offered as an elective to the BEng (Electrical) and Associate Degree in Engineering in 2019.
Source: Student email.
Feedback:
 Students have found this unit informative, useful and interesting. They are grateful for the opportunity to develop an understanding of how engineering may impact the environment and how these impacts may be mitigated.

Recommendation:
 Hope to re-offer Environmental Engineering as a unit in the future.

Action Taken:
 In Progress
Unit Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Understand the meaning and importance of environmental aspects of the engineering profession, as well as risk analysis and its assessment.
  2. Describe water pollutants, non-point sources of water pollution and water quality management.
  3. Describe problems connected with quantities and composition of municipal solid waste (MSW); its collection, disposal and possible resource recovery.
  4. Describe the state of knowledge in the field of hazardous waste engineering, tracing the quantities of waste generated, transportation controls, resource recovery and ultimate disposal alternatives.
  5. Describe the environmental effects of nuclear generation of electricity and of radionuclides that are in the accessible environment.
  6. List the types of air pollution and describe their influence on human health.
  7. Describe the methods of measurements and controls of particulate contaminants.
  8. Describe the devices used in controlling gaseous contaminants.
  9. Explain noise pollution problems, reasons why widespread recognition of noise is a significant environmental pollution and potential hazard and some methods of noise pollution control.
  10. Define the major consideration in the implementations of an environmental policy.
  11. Describe environmental ethics, in terms of a relationship between people and nature.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1 - Written Assessment • • • • • • •
2 - Written Assessment • • • • • • •
3 - Presentation and Written Assessment • • • • • • • • • •
4 - Written Assessment • • • • • • • • • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1 - Communication • • • • • • • • • • •
2 - Problem Solving • • • • • • • • • • •
3 - Critical Thinking • • • • • • • • • • •
4 - Information Literacy • • • • • • • • • • •
5 - Team Work • • • • • • • • •
6 - Information Technology Competence • • • • • • • • • • •
7 - Cross Cultural Competence • • • • • • • • • • •
8 - Ethical practice • • • • • • • • • • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 10
1 - Written Assessment • • • • • •
2 - Written Assessment • • • • • •
3 - Presentation and Written Assessment • • • • • • •
4 - Written Assessment • • • • • • •