Sustainable Environmental Engineering

9Prevention

One ounce prevention is better than a pound of medicine.

OBJECTIVES

• To design green infrastructure (GI) to prevent nonpoint water pollution
• To define the integrated urban water management (IUWM) by considering precipitation, runoff, evaporation, infiltration, purification, and storage as a whole in water management
• To develop flowcharts in designing rain harvest systems using Matlab
• To present Matlab codes in designing a rain harvest system as key technology of IUWM for the development of sustainable communities
• To achieve effective zero water design by using blue, green, gray, brown, and black water concepts
• To design green roofs and rain gardens
• To illustrate how life cycle assessment (LCA), cost and benefit analysis, and footprint could be used in assessing GI technologies

9.1 Principle 6

Pollution prevention requires SEE designers to reuse, reduce, and recycle materials and energy to protect the natural environment. The aim of the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 in the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is to reduce the amount of pollution through cost‐effective changes in production, operation, and use of raw materials in industrial and domestic sectors.

Principle 6 Prevention, reduction, and minimization strategies should be implemented as early as possible:

1. The ultimate goals of prevention should be zero water, waste, and energy design.
2. Source reduction, recycling, and minimization on‐ or off‐site should be maximized in management of air, ...