{"id":43102,"date":"2026-04-22T08:35:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T12:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/?post_type=cu_story&p=43102"},"modified":"2026-04-21T15:16:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T19:16:53","slug":"from-problems-to-solutions","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/story\/from-problems-to-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"From problems to solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n From problems to solutions \n <\/h1>\n \n \n\n

The refreshed Bachelor of Environmental Engineering strengthens the program\u2019s focus on climate change and complex environmental challenges<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

By Ty Burke <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From thawing permafrost to hundred-year floods that seem to happen every few years, climate change poses all kinds of engineering problems. And environmental engineers are at the forefront in solving them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEnvironmental engineers are the people who deliver a solution,\u201d says Cole Van De Ven, an Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering at Carleton University. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carleton\u2019s Bachelor of Environmental Engineering equips students to tackle emerging environmental issues. And this year, the program has been refreshed to focus more strongly on the engineering challenges the modern world faces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Carleton University assistant professor in environmental engineering, Cole Van De Ven<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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\u201cClimate change\u00a0has\u00a0made the problems\u00a0environmental engineers\u00a0work on even more complex,\u201d says Van De Ven.\u00a0\u201cFor example, ten years from now, the amount of rain we get\u00a0could be\u00a0very different\u00a0than it is today. And we need to be thinking about\u00a0what things will be like\u00a0a hundred\u00a0years\u00a0into\u00a0the future.\u00a0The\u00a0challenge\u00a0is evolving, but\u00a0environmental engineering is evolving too.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Carleton\u2019s Bachelor of Environmental Engineering is one of only a few dedicated environmental engineering programs in Canada. And the program\u2019s refresh modernizes course content and hones in on the core aspects of the field.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving forward, the Climate Change and Engineering course will be\u00a0a\u00a0central course in the program,\u00a0in which\u00a0students learn about the complex and dynamic\u00a0climate\u00a0changes\u00a0and their\u00a0impact on engineered systems. Also,\u00a0environmental impact assessment will be brought in\u00a0earlier in the program, which will allow students to bring\u00a0these perspectives\u00a0to their\u00a0upper-year courses. The\u00a0Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering developed these changes\u00a0with input from students, faculty,\u00a0alumni\u00a0and stakeholders\u00a0\u2014\u00a0including\u00a0some of\u00a0the\u00a0technology and\u00a0engineering firms that\u00a0hire Carleton environmental engineering graduates.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur courses all have the goal of allowing us to have clean water, clean air, clean soil and to manage the waste we generate,\u201d says Van De Ven. \u201cA lot of our students go on to become municipal engineers, and will work on things like managing wastewater, treating drinking water and designing landfills.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alumna\u00a0readies Ottawa\u2019s infrastructure for severe weather events\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Amanda Lynch is the Program Manager of the City of Ottawa\u2019s Stormwater Master Planning Unit. She completed her Bachelor of Environmental Engineering in 2011, and now leads a team of five that is responsible for the city\u2019s storm water infrastructure and natural hazard mitigation to enable new development in growth areas of the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ottawa is\u00a0built on the banks of the Ottawa and\u00a0Rideau Rivers, and\u00a0threaded with waterways. It\u00a0has many smaller streams, ponds,\u00a0lakes\u00a0and marshes.\u00a0Most of the ground underfoot is either clay or rock, and neither\u00a0one\u00a0absorbs water very well. So,\u00a0some\u00a0parts of the city are prone to flooding, and though major floods\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0happen every year,\u00a0they\u00a0do\u00a0happen\u00a0frequently\u00a0enough to be a hazard to development in certain\u00a0areas.\u00a0Lynch\u00a0works with local conservation authority partners to\u00a0determine\u00a0what those areas are, and how they could be affected by floods.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI was always very passionate about the environment, and I idolized women like Jane Goodall,\u201d says Lynch. \u201cBut environmental science wasn\u2019t the right fit for me. Engineering is the problem-solving piece, and I knew that was what I wanted to do.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In Ontario, flood plain mapping is based on 100-year storms. Areas that are flooded by 100-year storms have a 1% chance of flooding in any given year. But she\u2019s also working to identify the risks associated with larger climate change flood scenarios, such as a one-in-350-year event.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost major water courses have been mapped, and some smaller ones too,\u201d says Lynch. \u201cBut the city\u2019s last official plan pushes for greater urban intensification, and we’ve been working with the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority to generate floodplain mapping for urban water courses that we didn\u2019t map in the past.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of these waterways weren\u2019t mapped because they were already developed. But denser development could add to the pressures on existing water management systems, and existing flood hazard areas need to be identified to develop new areas safely.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to know the risks for these areas,\u201d says Lynch.  \u201cWe are working with the conservation authorities to map these areas and trying to understand things like where emergency vehicles could safely access in a flood scenario.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Lynch, this is exactly the type of tangible application that drew her to environmental engineering in the first place.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Co-op option provides pathways to employment <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For graduating student Sara Johnson, the Bachelor of Environmental Engineering\u2019s co-op option was a stepping stone to post-graduate employment. She completed co-op terms with a number of consulting firms, and appreciated the high level of responsibility that private sector work provided. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Ottawa-headquartered\u00a0BluMetric\u00a0Environmental, Johnson sampled groundwater and soil, analyzed\u00a0data\u00a0and\u00a0wrote\u00a0reports for clients. She\u2019ll\u00a0be joining the firm as a full-time employee after she graduates.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cMy work with BluMetric is a mix of field work and office work\u2014and I love both,\u201d says Johnson. \u201cI am really excited to start working there. I really like the company and the people.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It\u2019s a career path that began five years ago, when Johnson enrolled in the program, drawn to it through her love of the natural world. During her time at Carleton, she was a founding member of the Environmental Engineering Society. As she looks to the future, she knows she chose the right path for her career. <\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Sara Johnson is a graduating student from the Bachelor of Environmental Engineering program. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love learning about nature and biology,\u201d says Johnson. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t only want to learn more about the environment. I wanted to make a difference.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ty Burke  From thawing permafrost to hundred-year floods that seem to happen every few years, climate change poses all kinds of engineering problems. And environmental engineers are at the forefront in solving them.  \u201cEnvironmental engineers are the people who deliver a solution,\u201d says Cole Van De Ven, an Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering at Carleton University.  Carleton\u2019s Bachelor of Environmental Engineering equips students to tackle emerging environmental issues. And this year, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":43141,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-43102","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/43102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/43102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43166,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/43102\/revisions\/43166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=43102"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=43102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}