Key takeaways
- Covers both water supply and wastewater, plus solid waste, air and noise pollution.
- A table of IS 10500 acceptable limits for key drinking water parameters.
- Worked examples for population forecasting, settling velocity and BOD.
- Boxed formulas for SOR, detention time, F/M ratio, SVI and noise addition.
- Original Uncodemy notes; check the current IS 10500 edition and CPHEEO manuals.
About these Environmental Engineering notes
Environmental Engineering looks like two subjects in one: water supply and sanitary engineering, with pollution control added at the end. It is heavy on formulas, and many of them look alike. These notes group the formulas by treatment unit so you always know which one belongs where.
These are original Uncodemy revision notes. They follow the topics common to most Indian B.Tech Civil syllabi for Environmental Engineering, written in a neat handwritten style with formulas boxed and key numbers highlighted. They are short notes for revision, not a replacement for your textbook or class notes.
What's inside the notes: unit by unit
The PDF follows water from source to tap, and then wastewater from drain to discharge.
Unit 1: Water demand and population
- Demand and its variations: per capita demand, peak factors and which units are designed for which demand.
- Fire demand: Kuichling's and Freeman's formulas.
- Population forecasting: arithmetic, geometric, incremental and logistic methods with a worked example.
Unit 2: Water quality
- Characteristics: physical, chemical and biological parameters, including coliform tests.
- IS 10500 limits: pH, TDS, hardness, chloride, fluoride, nitrate and coliform in one table.
- Hardness: temporary and permanent hardness and conversion to CaCO3.
Unit 3: Water treatment
- Sedimentation: Stokes' law, surface overflow rate and detention time, with a settling velocity example.
- Coagulation and filtration: alum, the jar test, velocity gradient, and slow sand versus rapid sand filters.
- Disinfection and softening: chlorine chemistry, breakpoint chlorination, lime-soda and zeolite processes.
Unit 4: Water distribution
- Systems and layouts: gravity and pumping systems, dead-end, grid iron, ring and radial layouts.
- Network analysis and storage: Hardy Cross method and reservoir capacity by mass curve.
Unit 5: Sewage and sewerage
- Sewer systems: separate and combined systems, dry weather flow and the rational method for storm water.
- Sewer design ideas: self-cleansing and non-scouring velocity, appurtenances and sewer gases.
- BOD and COD: BOD test, BOD equations in base e and base 10, and population equivalent, with an example.
Unit 6: Sewage treatment
- Treatment stages: preliminary, primary, secondary and tertiary units and what each removes.
- Activated sludge process: F/M ratio, HRT, mean cell residence time, SVI and sludge bulking.
- Other units and streams: trickling filter, oxidation pond, sludge digestion and the oxygen sag curve.
Unit 7: Solid waste, air and noise
- Solid waste: functional elements and disposal by landfill, composting and incineration.
- Air pollution: primary and secondary pollutants, control devices and plume types.
- Noise: adding noise levels on a log scale.
How the PDF is laid out
Each section opens with short definitions in bullet form, followed by tables that compare types, tests or methods. Formulas are written in separate boxes so they stand out when you flip through the pages, and the values that examiners ask most often are highlighted. Short tip boxes point out exam favourites and common traps. Wherever a formula is used in exams, a short solved example shows the steps with real numbers. The last page lists 10 most asked practice questions so you can test yourself after revising.
How to revise Environmental Engineering
- Draw the treatment flow chart first. Intake to storage for water, and screens to tertiary treatment for sewage. Hang every formula on that chart.
- Keep a separate formula sheet. Split it into water treatment, sewage and ASP. Many formulas use Q, V and A, so note the units.
- Practise BOD in both bases. Convert between k and K until it feels automatic.
- Learn IS 10500 numbers by pairs. Parameter and limit, plus the health effect for fluoride and nitrate.
- Revise plume types with sketches. Five plumes and their atmosphere conditions make a quick short answer.
Exam focus: high-weightage topics and numericals
Semester papers usually mix design-type numericals with process descriptions. Common topics:
- Population forecasting by three methods.
- Sedimentation theory and the role of surface overflow rate.
- Slow sand versus rapid sand filters, and breakpoint chlorination.
- BOD test and BOD equations.
- Activated sludge process design parameters and the oxygen sag curve.
Typical numericals to practise
- Forecast population by arithmetic, geometric and incremental increase methods.
- Find the settling velocity of a particle by Stokes' law and check removal against SOR.
- Find BOD5 and ultimate BOD from dilution test data.
- Find F/M ratio, HRT and SVI for an activated sludge plant.
- Find total hardness as CaCO3 from calcium and magnesium values.
A one-week plan with these notes
If your Environmental Engineering exam is a week away, this plan covers the whole PDF once and leaves time for practice.
- Day 1: Water demand and population and Water quality. Read the section, then close the PDF and write the key formulas and tables from memory.
- Day 2: Water treatment and Water distribution. Read the section, then close the PDF and write the key formulas and tables from memory.
- Day 3: Sewage and sewerage and Sewage treatment. Read the section, then close the PDF and write the key formulas and tables from memory.
- Day 4: Solid waste, air and noise. Read the section, then close the PDF and write the key formulas and tables from memory.
- Day 5: redo every solved example in the notes without looking at the steps.
- Day 6: answer the 10 practice questions at the end of the PDF under a time limit.
- Day 7: solve one recent official paper from your university and revise the topics you got wrong.
Who these notes are for
- B.Tech semester exams: covers water supply and sanitary engineering units of the semester paper with examples.
- GATE CE basics: BOD, Stokes' law, SOR, ASP parameters, hardness and population forecasting are regular GATE CE topics.
- Site work and interviews: engineers in water treatment, sewerage and municipal projects get quick recall of process basics.
Check your own syllabus and the current IS codes
Universities split and order these topics differently, and some leave out units or add extra ones. Match the notes against your own university syllabus and recent official question papers before you plan your revision. The notes use IS 10500 for drinking water limits and CPHEEO guide values for demand and chlorine residual, and refer to the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. Codes are revised from time to time, so check the current edition and any amendments before you use a value in design work or quote it in an answer. Uncodemy keeps a list of previous year question paper sources if you want official papers to practise with.
Download Environmental Engineering Handwritten Notes PDF
Environmental Engineering Handwritten Notes PDF
The PDF carries the same content as this page in a clean, print-ready layout, so you can read it offline and keep it for revision.
7 pages · 254 KB · PDF · Updated 5 Nov 2026