I think, you need to go through the recent published article in your field and area, each article rise some questions or recommendations for future work. That can be your starting point to select the topic, you may also go through technical reports about some environmental issues, you may find some unanswered questions their. At the end you may find several research topics, but selecting among they require to check two main constrains, time constrains and financial constrains.
1. Please search the previous contemporary theses of your university where you are pursuing your M.E. Environmental Engineering. You will get some ideas from the future research sections of those theses.
2. Please check the recent global trends of your relevant Environmental Engineering Researches from recently published articles.
3. Please identify your local environment-related problems which are not been solved yet by your state agencies, and hopefully your work can contribute to solving those problems.
M.E. research time is one year in India. Considering the period, it is always advisable to choose research topic that can be completed in the limited time frame. Offcourse, your subject interest and the available resources in your laboratory may also be given due consideration for timely completion of the project.
What brought you to M.E. Environmental Engineering? Keep reading the literature from the field that you are most interested in, find the topics that attract you, and talk to the people that work on them, both at your university and globally.
A good research topic can be formulated with inspiration from the discussions at this Research Gate discussion forum. I propose the following research topic: Analysis of construction costs and energy efficiency of buildings constructed with the use of pro-ecological technologies and pro-environmental building materials.
You can start choosing a research topic by reading recent articles in the field of competence and trying to focus on the problems for which researchers have not found a solution so far, and you can focus more on the future topics proposed in the master's and doctoral thesis.
Yes, I agree with Jaroslav Dvorak that You have to look for paradoxes, in other words this means - to look for contradictions, and, may be, getting untied of them, "solving" of them (like a puzzle).
You have to look around what is the issue and problem related with your field which issue you face upon regularly. As you find a problem, find international articles and see how much research has been already done upon your related area, that is best research topic for you to continue working upon.
Try to realize your surroundings alone with your inside demand. What questions are coming in you mind. Try to find-out the solutions. Write down it in your diary. Now try to think is it the solution which have in your mind. Now start survey literature. Gradually your looking, your realization, will began to change. Now you can find out the route.
1- brief study in some important areas of interest.
2. Search some sites as well as the Internet under the headings "research topics" or "research priorities" or "suggestions for further research". research in desired areas to be aware of potentially relevant topics.
3. Study and review suggestions for further research in the final chapter of the THESIS to be aware of appropriate topics.
4. Spend more time for deep study and more analytically on issues
5- Consulting with knowledgeable and professors and other students on acceptable and relevant issues
6- Paying attention to the interest or experience of the relevant professor related to the proposed topic.
Find the problem you face every day related to your reach interest and find a gap to fill in your research. Talk to your friend and known people this idea will help you so much.
You need to google research papers in the area you are interested and read around five papers and I am sure you will be able to get the topic you are desiring.
Try to explore and read recent Sci articles on some related topics of your domain. Try to identify the gap in existing literature available on that topic. Analyse the gap to setup your objectives for further study in that area.
First, select your domain based on your interest and search very recent articles related to that topic. This is the first step in selecting the initial topic of the research but the entire title of your research cant be fixed at the initial phase.
Select your domain based on your interest as well as it should be new to the industry and should withstand for 10 years.