Automation in Environmental Engineering

Abstract

The field of environmental engineering encompasses a wide spectrum of subjects and problems. Among these issues, water and wastewater treatment and water distribution systems are the areas where automatic control is extensively used. Actually, water or wastewater treatment plants can be operated manually with no need for any level of automation. This may also be true for landing or departing of a single aircraft from a simple airport. When the number and sizes of the aircraft are increased, the need for automation becomes eminent. Similarly, the growing complexity of water and wastewater treatment and distribution systems, and the need to economize steadily-declining water resources, have led to the continuous and automatic monitoring of these processes. This means that the need for automation in the operation of such systems increases as the dimensions or the number of components involved in these systems increase.