Environmental Engineering

Environmental engineering programmes teach the systems that keep water, air and land usable — drinking water and wastewater treatment, stormwater, air quality, contaminated-site remediation, and the regulations that govern them. In Florida it is an unusually applied field: water supply, nutrient loading, coastal flooding and hurricane recovery are live problems rather than case studies.

The degrees this program covers

A Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering, with master’s and doctoral degrees above it, at seven Florida public institutions. ⚠ At several schools it is a degree option INSIDE the civil engineering department rather than a department of its own, so the first two years are usually the civil sequence. ⚠ It is a licensable discipline and the Professional Engineer route matters, because designs and permits filed with the Department of Environmental Protection and the water management districts are sealed by a PE. ⚠ Do not confuse it with environmental SCIENCE or environmental STUDIES: those are science degrees, they are not accredited as engineering, and they do not lead to the PE.

Careers this program leads to

Each one sets out the courses along the way, the licence or certification at the end, and the sources behind it.

Civil Engineer

Civil engineers design, build and maintain the built environment — bridges, buildings, roads, water and wastewater systems, ports, drainage and coastal works. ⚠ It is the engineering discipline where a Professional Engineer licence matters most: much of the work legally requires one, because civil engineers sign off on things that fail publicly.

Environmental Engineer

Environmental engineers design the systems that keep water, air and land usable — drinking water and wastewater treatment, stormwater, air-pollution control, landfills and the clean-up of contaminated sites. ⚠ It is the engineering discipline most bound up with regulation: the calculation decides what is possible and the permit decides what is allowed.

Careers that name this program, but not as a route

Environmental Scientist and Specialist

⚠⚠ Not the same path and worth deciding between deliberately: engineering carries the calculus sequence, the FE exam and PE licensure, and a ceiling this occupation does not reach. ⚠ If the mathematics is manageable, it is the better-paid version of a similar interest.

Marine Biologist and Wildlife Biologist

⚠ Named because coastal restoration and shoreline work are engineering projects marine scientists advise on, at roughly double this occupation's Florida median.

Programs similar to this one

Neighbouring fields that share much of the same coursework, and often the same employers. ⚠ Read these before you commit to a major — which doors a neighbouring degree keeps open is the part no catalog tells you, and it is far cheaper to change now than later.

Civil Engineering 9 Florida schools

The parent discipline at most Florida schools, and often the same first two years. ⚠ If you want water resources, coastal work or stormwater and your institution has no environmental degree, the civil degree with a water-resources emphasis is the route — and it keeps structural and transportation open as well.

Chemical Engineering 4 Florida schools

The overlap is real and under-advertised: treatment processes, reaction kinetics and mass transfer are chemical engineering subjects. Chemical graduates work in remediation and process-water treatment, and the degree opens industries environmental engineering does not.

Environmental Science and Studies 19 Florida schools

⚠⚠ The neighbour with the licence and the higher ceiling. An environmental ENGINEER can sit the FE and become a PE and seal designs; an environmental scientist cannot, whatever their experience. ⚠ Engineering is 7 Florida institutions against this family's 16, the mathematics load is far heavier, and the wage gap is large — so it is a genuinely different decision rather than a harder version of the same one.

Marine Biology and Ecology 5 Florida schools

⚠ Named for the coastal work specifically — restoration, shoreline stabilisation, stormwater and water-quality infrastructure are engineering projects that marine scientists advise on. ⚠⚠ Engineers on those projects hold a licence and earn roughly double the Florida marine biology median.

Florida public institutions offering this program

7 institutions awarded a credential in this field in 2023, at these levels: Associate, Bachelor's, Doctorate (research/scholarship), Master's, Postbaccalaureate certificate. A school appears here if it awards anything in the field, however limited its offering — a technical college teaching only practical nursing has a nursing program. Listed alphabetically, not ranked.

Florida Atlantic University

Bachelor's

Florida Gulf Coast University

Bachelor's

Florida International University

Bachelor's · Master's

Florida Polytechnic University

Associate · Bachelor's

University of Central Florida

Bachelor's · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's

University of Florida

Bachelor's · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's · Postbaccalaureate certificate

University of South Florida

Bachelor's · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's

Source: federal IPEDS completions data for 2023, first majors only — the most recent year published. ⚠ It records what was awarded, which is strong evidence of what is offered, but a program launched since 2023 will not appear here. Check the institution’s own catalog before applying.

Updated 21 September 2026. ⚠ Program pages describe a field of study, not one school’s degree — always read the catalog of the institution you are applying to.