2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Environmental Engineering Grand Challenges Revisited: Integrative Review of Educational Efforts 2019 to 2024

Presented at Tech Session 5: Toward a New Paradigm in Environmental Engineering: From Knowledge Frameworks to Learning Impact

In 2019, leaders in the discipline of environmental engineering completed an inclusive process and offered a report entitled, “Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century: Addressing Grand Challenges,” which highlighted five technical areas where environmental engineers were poised to make significant contributions. Educating the next generation of environmental engineers was included as a sixth challenge. According to a search of available online databases, including SCOPUS, PubMed, and Google Scholar, between 2019 and June 2024, a total of 89 articles appearing in the peer reviewed scientific literature have cited the Environmental Engineering: Grand Challenges report. The two-fold purpose of this article includes: 1) using an integrative review format to analyze the 22 articles (of 89 total) that focus on education; and 2) highlighting the relationship among these 22 articles with the Engineering for One Planet (EOP) framework.

Authors

Dr. Daniel B Oerther P.E. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6724-3205 Missouri University of Science and Technology [biography]

Professor Daniel B. Oerther, PhD, PE joined the faculty of the Missouri University of Science and Technology in 2010 as the John A. and Susan Mathes Chair of Civil Engineering after serving for ten years on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati where he was head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Professor Oerther is internationally recognized for leadership of engineers, sanitarians, and nurses promoting the practice the sustainable development, local to global. Dan is a Past President of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists. He is a Diplomate of the American Academy of Sanitarians. Dan is a Fellow of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors, the American Academy of Nursing, and the National League for Nursing. In the United Kingdom, he is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, the Royal Society for Public Health, and the Society of Operations Engineers. Professor Oerther's awards as an educator include the Excellence in Environmental Engineering Education Award from the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists, the Gordon Maskew Fair Distinguished Engineering Educator Medal from the Water Environment Federation, the Engineering Education Excellence Award from the National Society of Professional Engineers, and the Robert G. Quinn Award from the American Society for Engineering Education.

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