Fundamental Engineering Concepts - Mathematics and Statistics for the Environment - page 229

11

Fundamental Engineering
Concepts

N = W cosø

The environment is everything that is not me.

—Albert Einstein

A life without adventure is likely to be unsatisfying, but a life in which adventure is allowed to take
whatever form it will, is likely to be short.

—Bertrand Russell

11.1 INTRODUCTION
Education can only go so far in preparing the environmental practitioner for on-the-job perfor-
mance. A person who wishes to become an environmental practitioner is greatly assisted by two
personal characteristics. First, a well-rounded, broad development of experience in many areas is
required and produces the classic generalist. Second, although environmental practitioners cannot
possibly attain great depth in all areas, they must have the desire and the aptitude to do so. They
must be interested in—and well informed about—many widely differing fields of study. The neces-
sity for this in the environmental application is readily apparent. Why? Simply because the range
of problems encountered is so immense that a narrow education will not suffice; environmental
practitioners must handle situations that call upon skills as widely diverse as the ability to solve
psychological, sociological, and economic problems (remember the triple bottom line), along with
the ability to perform calculations required in fundamental engineering, mechanics, and the struc-
tural-construction-maintenance-environmental interface. The would-be practicing environmental
professional can come from just about any background, and a narrow education does not preclude
students and others from broadening their education later; however, quite often those who are very
specialized and have a very narrow focus lack appreciation for other disciplines, as well as the
adaptability necessary for environmental practice.
Why do we say this? What makes us so certain that the practicing environmental professional
is better off if he or she is a generalist with a very wide-range of knowledge vs. being a narrowly
focused expert? Two things convince us: our more than 50 years of combined personal experience in
environmental practice and knowing the situations that the environmental professional may be called
upon to investigate and analyze. Consider the following short list suggested by Parkhurst (2006):

• Acorn production, germination, and mating patterns
• Air pollution toxicity
• Algal growth
• Animal heat loss
• Bird light speed
• Chemical mixture
• Coliform bacteria in water
• Copper sulfate dispersal
• Dissolved oxygen

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