| Updated On - Jul 2, 2024
GATE 2025 Environmental Science and Engineering Syllabus has been released by IIT Roorkee. You can check the detailed syllabus clicking on the subject link that you will be appearing for. The Environmental Science and Engineering (ES) syllabus is divided into three main sections- Engineering Mathematics, General Aptitude, and Core ES subjects. So, basically this syllabus is divided into 9 different subsections and a section on General Aptitude Section.
The core subjects include Mathematics Foundation, Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Microbiology etc. Water Resources and Environmental Hydraulics, Water & Wastewater Treatment and Management, Air and Noise Pollution, Solid and Hazardous Waste Management, Global and Regional Environmental Issues, Environmental Management and Sustainable Development. To get more details on the Environmental Science and Engineering syllabus read the article.
| Table of Contents |
GATE ES Section-Wise Syllabus: At a Glance
| Section 1: ES Core Subjects |
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| Section 2: Engineering Mathematics |
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| Section 3: General Aptitude |
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What is in the Syllabus for GATE Environmental Science and Engineering?
Section 1:
Mathematics Foundation Differential Equations: Linear and non-linear first order ordinary differential equations (ODE), Higher order linear ODEs with constant coefficients, Cauchy’s and Euler’s equations, Laplace transform and its application in solving linear ODEs.
Linear Algebra: Determinants and matrices, Systems of linear equations, Eigenvalues and eigenvectors.
Probability and Statistics: Descriptive statistics, Measurement of central tendency, Dispersion, Skewness and kurtosis, Probability concepts, Conditional probability, Bayes theorem, Risk and reliability, Probability distributions, Correlation, Single and multiple regression models,
Calculus:Functions, Limit, Continuity, Differentiability, Local maxima and minima, Taylor series, Tests for convergence, Definite and indefinite integrals, Application of definite integral to obtain area and volume, Partial and total derivatives.
Section 2:
Environmental Chemistry Fundamentals of Environmental Chemistry: Covalent and ionic bonding; Chemical equations, concentration and activity; Structure and chemistry of organic molecules; Radioactivity of elements; Chemical equilibria; Thermodynamics and kinetics of chemical reactions.
Principles of Water Chemistry: Water quality parameters and their measurement; Acid-base equilibria; Buffer solution; Carbonate system; Solubility of gases in water; Complexation, precipitation, and redox reactions; Inorganic and organic contaminants in water and their speciation.
Soil Chemistry:Organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, cation exchange capacity, base saturation, and sodium absorption ratio.
Atmospheric Chemistry: Composition of the atmosphere; Reactivity of trace substances in the atmosphere; Urban atmosphere—smog and particulate pollution; Chemistry of ozone formation; Chemistry of stratosphere.
Section 3:
Environmental Microbiology Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Microorganisms: Characteristics of diverse groups of microorganisms; Classification of microorganisms; Microbial diversity; Plant-microbe and soil- microbe interactions; Role of microorganisms in wastewater treatment, bioremediation and biogeochemical cycling.
Cell Chemistry and Cell Biology: Structure of proteins, nucleic acid (DNA & RNA), lipids and polysaccharides; Bonds in biomolecules; Stereoisomerism in biomolecules; Structure of cell; Structure and function of cytoplasmic membrane, cell wall, outer membrane, glycocalyx, chromosomes, endospores, storage products, mitochondria and chloroplasts.
Microbial Metabolism: Anabolism and catabolism; Phosphorylation; Glycolysis; TCA cycle; Electron transport chain; Fermentation; Anaerobic respiration; Energy balances; Enzymes and Enzyme kinetics.
Growth and Control of Microorganisms: Bacterial nutrition and growth; Specific growth rate and doubling time; Monod’s model; Types of culture media; Batch and continuous culture; Effects of environmental factors on growth; Control of microbes using physical and chemical methods.
Microbiology and Health: Pathogens and modes of transmission; Indicator organisms; Quantification of coliforms using MPN and membrane filtration techniques.
Section 4:
Water Resources and Environmental Hydraulics Global Water Resources: Structure, properties and distribution of water; Water quality; Threats to water resources; Water conservation.
Surface Water Resources: Hydrological cycle and water balance - precipitation, infiltration, evapotranspiration, runoff; Flow hydrographs; Unit hydrographs; Stage-discharge relationship; Reservoir capacity; Reservoir and channel routing; Surface run-off models; Surface water management; Rain water harvesting and storage.
Groundwater Resources: Geologic formations as aquifers; Vadose and saturated zones; Confined and unconfined aquifers and their parameters - porosity, permeability, transmissivity and storage coefficient; Darcy’s law and applications; Steady state well hydraulics. Environmental Hydraulics: Concepts of mechanics; Properties of fluids; Pressure measurement; Hydrostatic force on surfaces; Buoyancy and flotation; Laminar and turbulent flow; Flow through pipes; Pipe networks; Boundary layer theory; Forces on immersed bodies; Flow measurement in channels and pipes; Kinematics of flow; Continuity, momentum and energy equations; Channel hydraulics - specific energy, critical flow, hydraulic jump, rapid and gradually varied flow; Design of lined and unlined channels.
Section 5:
Water & Wastewater Treatment and Management Water and wastewater quality parameters: Eutrophication and thermal stratification in lakes; River pollution - Oxygen sag curve.
Water treatment methods: screening, sedimentation with and without coagulation, filtration, desalination, disinfection; Water distribution and storage
Point and nonpoint sources of wastewater: Population forecasting methods; Design of sewer and storm water sewers; Sewer appurtenances; Preliminary, primary, secondary and tertiary sewage treatment; Sludge generation, processing and disposal methods; Sewage farming.
Sources and characteristics of industrial effluents: Concept of Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETP); Wastewater recycling and zero liquid discharge.
Kinetics and reactor design: Mass and energy balance, Order and rate of reactions, Batch reactors, Completely mixed flow reactors, Plug flow reactors.
Section 6:
Air and Noise Pollution Structure of the Atmosphere: Natural and anthropogenic sources of pollution; Atmospheric sources, sinks, transport; Indoor air pollution; Effects on health and environment; Air pollution: gases and particulate matter; Air quality standards; Primary and secondary pollutants; Criteria pollutants, ambient and source standards, air quality indices, visibility. Particulate pollutants: measurement and control methods; Control of particulate air pollutants using gravitational settling chambers, cyclone separators, wet collectors, fabric filters (Bag- house filter), electrostatic precipitators (ESP). Gaseous Pollutants: Measurement and control methods; Control of gaseous contaminants: absorption, adsorption, condensation and combustion; Control of sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons; Vapour-liquid and vapour-solid equilibria; Diffusion, Fick’s law and interfacial mass transfer.Automotive emission controls, fuel quality, diesel particulate filters, catalytic convertors.
Air Quality Management: Point, line and area sources; Inventory; Influence of meteorology - wind rose diagrams, stability, mixing height, topography, dispersion modelling, monitoring.
Noise Pollution: Sources; Health effects; Standards; Measurement and control methods.
Section 7:
Solid and Hazardous Waste Management Integrated solid waste management: Waste hierarchy; Rules and regulations for solid waste management in India.
Municipal solid waste management: Sources, generation, characteristics, collection and transportation, waste processing and disposal (including reuse options, biological methods, energy recovery processes and landfilling).
Hazardous waste management: Characteristics, generation, fate of materials in the environment, treatment and disposal.
- Soil contamination and leaching of contaminants into groundwater.
- Management of biomedical waste, plastic waste and E-waste: Sources, generation and characteristics; Waste management practices including storage, collection and transfer.
Section 8:
Global and Regional Environmental Issues Global effects of air pollution – Greenhouse gases, global warming, climate change, urban heat islands, acid rain, ozone hole. Ecology and various ecosystems; Biodiversity; Factors influencing increase in population, energy consumption, and environmental degradation.
Section 9:
Environmental Management and Sustainable Development Environmental Management Systems: ISO14000 series; Environmental auditing: Environmental Impact Assessment; Life cycle assessment; Human health risk assessment
Environmental Law and Policy – Objectives; Polluter pays principle, Precautionary principle; The Water and Air Acts with amendments; The Environment (Protection) Act (EPA) 1986; National Green Tribunal Act, 2010; National Environment Policy; Principles of International Law and International treaties.
Energy and Environment: Energy sources – overview of resources and reserves; Renewable and non-renewable energy sources; Energy-Environment nexus.
Sustainable Development: Definition and concepts of sustainable development; Sustainable development goals; Hurdles to sustainability; Environment and economics
Topic Wise Syllabus for General Aptitude
- Quantitative Aptitude: Data interpretation: data graphs (bar graphs, pie charts, and other graphs representing data), 2-and 3-dimensional plots, maps, and tables Numerical computation and estimation: ratios, percentages, powers, exponents and logarithms, permutations and combinations, and series mensuration and geometry elementary statistics and probability
- Verbal Aptitude: Basic English grammar: tenses, articles, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, verb-noun agreement, and other parts of speech Basic vocabulary: words, idioms, and phrases in context Reading and comprehension Narrative sequencing
- Analytical Aptitude: Logic: deduction and induction, analogy, numerical relations and reasoning
- Spatial Aptitude: Transformation of shapes: translation, rotation, scaling, mirroring, assembling, grouping, paper folding, cutting, and patterns in 2 and 3 dimensions
GATE 2025 Environmental Science Detailed Exam Pattern
In the year 2020, the Environmental and Engineering was added to the GATE syllabus. You can refer to the list below for PDF of the syllabus.: Exam Pattern
| Section | Marks Weightage | Number of Questions | Total Marks |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Aptitude | 15% | 10 | 15 |
| Engineering Mathematics | 13% | 10 | 13 |
| Core ES Subjects | 72% | 45 | 72 |
| Total | 100% | 65 | 100 |
What Books You Should Read for GATE Environmental Science and Engineering (ES)
| Subject | Book Name | Author |
|---|---|---|
| Environmental Chemistry | Fundamentals of Environmental Chemistry | Manahan, S.E. |
| Environmental Microbiology | Environmental Microbiology | Vladimir Ivanov |
| Water Resources | Engineering Hydrology | K. Subramanya |
| Water & Waste water Treatment Management | Waste Water Engineering | Metcalf and Eddy |
| Air and Noise Pollution | Fundamentals of Air Pollution Engineering | Flagan, R.C., and Seinfeld, J.H. |
| Solid and Hazardous Waste Management | Solid Waste Management: Principles and Practice | Diganta Bhusan Das and Ramesha Chandrappa |
| Global and Regional Environmental Issues | Principles of Environmental Science | Cunningham W.P. and Cunningham M.A. |
Preparation tips for GATE ES 2025
When you are preparing for highly competitive exams like GATE, recalling and revision only is not going to be very beneficial. You should focus on concept building. Especially, when you are preparing in streams like ES. Students who will appear in GATE 2025 from Civil Engineering stream often ask how many additional topics they need to cover. In this segment, we will curate a detailed road map for your preparation. Let’s Check it out:
- First you need to understand the additional chapters and they are:
- Environmental Microbiology: In this chapter you will have some topics like introduction to the microbial world,microbial biology,cell chemistry and biology etc. For this part you can follow Environmental Microbiology by Vladimir Ivanov, Microbiology by pelczar etc.
Now Let’s Check Previous Year’s Subject Weightage From this Chapter:
| Year | 1 Marks Question | 2 Mark Questions | Total Marks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 3 | 3 | 9 |
| 2022 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 2023 | 5 | 2 | 9 |
- Now, filter out the chapters. There are several chapters on air and noise pollution that we already have in civil. They are sources of air pollution, effects of air pollution, noise pollution etc. From these chapters, you can expect 3-4 questions. It means around 52% of your syllabus is from civil engineering which you have covered already and you will have to focus on the remaining few chapters like meteorology and air pollution, sampling procedures and analytical sampling etc. Among them, meteorology and air pollution are time-consuming chapters.
- GATE 2025 is in February. So if you start now, you have 8 months. Start with the difficult chapters first. The chapters you are already familiar with, keep it for final revision.
Reading these few points you may think that will it be enough for ranking high in the upcoming examination? We have shared the chapter wise weightage, sorted the chapters but now the question like how much time you should invest in concept building or finishing syllabus may arise.
- To answer your question we say till November you have the time for concept building and finishing your syllabus, It should not get exceeded more than that.
- In the last 2 months all you have to do is revision and give a mock test.
Useful Resources:
Previous Year Question Papers
| Exam Year | GATE Question Paper |
|---|---|
| 2024 | Download PDF |
| 2023 | Download PDF |
| 2022 | Download PDF |
| 2021 | Download PDF |
Frequently Asked Questions
Ques. What is the weightage assigned to General Aptitude section in GATE ES exam?
Ans. General Aptitude section is an integral part of GATE ES exam holding 15% of the total marks in the exam. This section comprises of questions on arithmetic computation, approximations, non-verbal and visual reasoning, computation of percentages, statistical analysis of tables and graphs, spelling, and comprehension of grammar and word meanings.
Ques. What can I do to study or revise the entire GATE ES syllabus?
Ans. Constant repetition of all coverage areas in order to assess the strengths and weaknesses.. It is wise to regularly revise the material because it helps to cement it in one’s mind and provide confidence.
*The article might have information for the previous academic years, which will be updated soon subject to the notification issued by the University/College.
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