Environmental Considerations focuses on managing the use of natural resources to minimize the negative impacts that human activity can have on the environment. This includes work developing new and better ways to dispose of waste and to clean up pollution while understanding the impact government regulations and the methods for analyzing environmental change. This concept is important to Engineering Literacy, as extracting natural resources and transforming them into industrial/consumer products and structures can take a major toll on the environment. For example, building a hydroelectric dam to generate electricity can alter the ecosystem for aquatic life; extraction of natural gas from subterranean rock formations could potentially contaminate water sources; and burning of fossil fuels such as coal can contribute to increased levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. As such, the knowledge relevant to Environmental Considerations, such as sampling and analysis techniques for surface water, groundwater, soil, and air, can aid in designing strategies to prevent/mitigate/remediate problems in an effort measurably enhance environmental quality.