ESD: Environmentally Sustainable Design

North Coast Energy Forum

2013-05-31T09:38:00.001+10:00

Fantastic turn out at the North Coast Energy Forum in Lismore. Over a hundred delegates with diverse interests and a wide range of presenters.

I'm presenting on Bioenergy and Cogeneration for Cogent / Origin Energy.

This is a really spectacular initiative from a grass roots level with a great vibe.

People looking for and implementing solutions in a positive way.

Woollahra Municipal Council Launches Sustainable Building Advisory Service

2011-10-26T22:32:00.000+11:00

Woollahra within objectives that form part of Woollahra Council’s Carbon Reduction Strategy, which was adopted in June 2010, has formed a partnership with independent advisers Archicentre to offer a new Sustainable Building Advisory Service (SBAS).

The initiative aims to encourage residents to integrate eco-friendly and sustainable features when building or renovating their home.

Woollahra Mayor Susan Wynne said Council has invested $25,000 to offer the service to 50 residents in the 2011/2012 financial year.

“Council is proactively setting an example to the community and other local government areas by introducing a service that encourages sustainable design,” she said. “The initiative will support residents in reducing their environmental footprint which is a win-win-win for the environment, residents and developers.”

Source:http://www.streetcorner.com.au/news/showPost.cfm?bid=22717&mycomm=ES

For more information in relation to the service:
http://www.woollahra.nsw.gov.au/environment/building_and_the_environment/sustainable_building_advisory_service

Willoughby starts Sustainable Home Advice Service

2011-08-28T10:56:00.000+10:00

Willoughby City Council, a local government in New South Wales, Australia, is located just over 8 km North of Sydney.

View Larger Map

Based on the continued success of a pioneer program that was started in 2009 with Lane Cove Council in conjunction with Archicentre, called the Sustainable Building Advice Service, that assists residents with implementation choices for best practice building design beyond the thermal comfort, water and energy efficiencies promoted by the NSW Government's mandatory BASIX. The purpose of the service is to influence design from the outset - well before residents have commenced the Development Application (DA) process. From the 9^th of August 2011, Willoughby City Council, through Archicentre has begun to offer an equivalent free service to its residents called Sustainable Home Advice Service (SHAS).

Among the considerations taken into account by the architect to be able to do a sustainable design the following are taken into account.

Passive design features include:

Home orientation and layout
Solar access
Thermal mass
Shading
Natural ventilation
Natural lighting
Building fabric

Energy saving features include:

Heating and Cooling
Insulation
Skylights
Glazing
Hot water system

Water saving initiatives include:

Rainwater harvesting and re-use
Greywater treatment and re-use
Water saving fittings and appliances
Landscaping and pool features

The architect will meet with the resident and discuss objectives, strategies, budgets in order to achieve desired outcomes in a cost effective manner that also have a positive effect on the environment with for net reductions in green house gas emissions.

For more information on the program please visit the following link.

http://www.willoughby.nsw.gov.au/Environment---Sustainability/ClimateClever/ClimateClever-Home/sustainable-home-design-service/

New job, new focus

2011-08-02T22:02:00.000+10:00

Since the 4th of July I have started working at a new job. It is quite interesting that I continue to work in the industry related with construction, but from another angle. I am now working with Archicentre (www.archicentre.com.au), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Australian Institute of Architects. So before I used to sell products and applications to architects, now I am selling architecturally related services.

One thing that I do keep in common is that I am able to keep developing around the theme of Sustainability. One of the projects that I am developing is to expand a service that Lane Cove Council has successfully implemented since 2009, it is called the Sustainable Building Advisory Service.

So in the future I should be able to continue posting on the subject, though I will likely be doing it once I am a bit more settled, as there is much work to do!

Best Combination? Rainwater Harvesting + Desalination

2011-05-28T16:47:00.001+10:00

Note: Information provided are examples for discussion. Though it is based on a real and factual example, in the interest of privacy more details are withheld.

Background:
There is a development that needs to supply all of it's own water. It presently has a system that provides 220,000 litres of water per day, or equivalent to supply 1,000 people 220 litres of water per day. During the more rainy months they have a problem that the resort floods, producing problems in terms of loss of revenue.

The resort was looking to increase the water supply to 350 litres per person per day, this or what represents an increase of 130,000 litres per day. The first option that they had considered was to install another desalination plant or increase the desalination plant's capacity. We will analyse the costs involved in this. The options considered and why.

We were approached was because as there was abundant rain, so much so that there was flooding, that water harvesting would be an option.

The chart below shows the average rainfall pattern for this location.

The Different Options
As we were looking at different technologies, these mainly break down in three simple groups. An exclusive desalination option, an exclusive water harvesting option and a combined harvesting and desalination option. We will analyse each situation individually. I also provide a link to the spreadsheet where the calculations and graphs are obtained from.

Exclusive Desalination Option
We started with our analysis. The base information that we had of the initial expenditure for the desalination plant would permit us to extrapolate the further costs. The initial cost of the desalination was $1.2 million, so the increase of about 50% in capacity would imply an additional cost of $600,000 approximately. The operating cost of the the plant was $5.5 per 1,000 litres. This would imply that apart from the Capital Expenditure for the plant to supply the complete requirement of 350,000 litres a day to make the system work would mean an Operating Expenditure of more the $700,000. This would be our base for comparison.

Exclusive Rainwater/Stormwater Harvesting Option
We were approached as we are know for the effectiveness and flexibility of our water harvesting option, which apart from being very flexible are also scalable, which allows them to be used in large civil infrastructure works as a viable and cost effective option.

Considering the rain data, even though there was a fairly abundant amount of water, more than 2,000 mm of rainfall a year, we immediately found that the specific demand of water would exceed even that amount of copious water, in addition to that, the catchment area placed serious limitations to what was possible. In any case the analysis had to be done. It was determined that the required catchment area would be in the vicinity of 160,000 square metres. To get an idea of what we are talking about in size, a football field has an area of about 10,000 square metres this implies, that we are talking about 16 full size football fields, which is a size that is not really available for catchment in this case. In addition to this it would need a rather large tank, a minimum size of 10,000,000 litres would be required. At an installed cost of $0.40 per litre, this would represent a total Capital Expenditure of $4,000,000. Though with this option the Operating Expenditure is reduced to practically nothing as all that is required are small pumps, to lift the water from the bottom of the tank at 1 metre of depth.

In any case it is interesting to make an analysis and see over a long period of time, if it were possible to have enough catchment area, what would be the savings. Below is the cost comparison that shows, the savings over a 10 year period.

Cost Analysis comparison of only Desalination vs. only Harvesting.

Project Cost Yearly Forecast
Only desalination		Only harvest
CAPEX	$600,000.00	CAPEX	$4,000,000.00
OPEX	$702,625.00	OPEX	$0.00
		OPEX Saving	$702,625.00
Current OPEX	$441,650.00	Install cost per litre	$0.40
OPEX Increase	$260,975.00	Recovery time (years)	4.84
10 year comparison
CAPEX + OPEX	$7,626,250.00	CAPEX + OPEX	$4,000,000.00
Total saving	$3,626,250.00
Saving Ratio	52.45%

Combined Harvesting and Desalination Option
The previous analysis is a bit of a futile exercise, even though it serves to show the long term benefits. What should be done is an analysis that is in fact feasible. The presence of the existing desalination plant is an advantage in terms of supply water during the drier months, in this case from July to November as the initial rain fall chart shows.

Whenever the storage tank falls bellow a certain level then the desalination units enters operation supply the necessary demand of water.

The model to be used follows the flow chart shown below.

Cost Analysis comparison of combined Harvesting with Desalination.

Project Cost Yearly Forecast
Only desal		Combined harvest + desal
CAPEX	$600,000.00	CAPEX	$1,600,000.00
OPEX	$702,625.00	OPEX	$156,266.00
		OPEX Saving	$546,359.00
Current OPEX	$441,650.00	Install cost per litre	$0.40
OPEX Increase	$260,975.00	Recovery time (years)	1.83
10 year comparison
CAPEX + OPEX	$7,626,250.00	CAPEX + OPEX	$3,162,660.00
Total saving	$4,463,590.00
Ratio	41.47%

The graph of how this system behaves and the amount of desalinated water that is provided is shown in the graph below.

The spreadsheets, data and graphs for the above situation can be seen here:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_GB&hl=en_GB&key=0ArEwIvQBUPQzdGRGZ01LNWo2UUI5TTMxLTRJYXpDdnc&output=html

Conclusions
From the above cost analysis it can easily be seen that the best solution is a combination of Rain/Stormwater Harvesting used together with a desalination unit order to provide water for the drier months. The higher capital expenditure that the installation of a large water storage tank implies is quickly recovered in less than 2 years and the saving over a period of 10 years are quite considerable amounting to just under $4.5 million, or $450 thousand per year. In addition to this as there is a large amount of water that is being captured and managed underground, the significant yearly flooding problems that the resort has would be averted.

Reiterative Reuse Water Harvesting Model

2011-05-15T10:11:00.007+10:00

In my experience in working with water reuse one of the most common questions asked is how to appropriately size a tank system for water harvesting. Related to this there is a fair amount of information, and the costing is a simple consequence of the required volume. However paradoxically this modelling only considers only the one time use of the water, which is then "wasted" after being consumed.

A more efficient and cost effective possibility is available:

https://docs.google.com/drawings/pub?id=1hnz9I5flsTOT9TeTCunbNVLyjDROCHRdPCKB1sqpeTU&w=950&h=691

Recently I have been working on a rather large project, there is a "significant" requirement of water considering the source is just harvested rainwater and stormwater, that is 5 million litres of water a day. To propose a traditional system that considers only the one time use of water would not be feasible. For the economic and technical proposal a reiterative reuse of harvested water is necessary, and as such a new model had to be developed.

The above flow chart diagram shows a much more efficient model where water once consumed is reused reiteratively. The processing for reuse of the water use technology that is passive, practically does not require external energy and has very low maintenance, if any. The quality of the influent is one that can be considered as a grey water, and the resultant purified water quality is sufficiently high for all uses except potability, however this can also be achieved with relatively simple polishing of the water.

Source data webpage

The above graph shows the result of this modelling. However to arrive to a graph that has any meaning it is necessary to have to have previously done the relevant calculations. The spreadsheet for this can be seen here: Reiterative Reuse Water Harvesting Model. This spreadsheet is modelled taking into account the following aspects.

Design Considerations
A prime and original consideration in terms of the modelling is made assuming the following situations:

Dual type tank system
The tank system is composed of 2 main types of tanks, a harvesting tank, that captures directly the rainfall, and a reuse tank, that has the double purpose of collecting harvested water as well the system that recaptures the water that has been consumed.

Reuse percentage
For practical effects the percentage of reuse is estimated at approximately about 80%, this can be defined to whatever is desired.

Tank Use Prioritization
The water from the reuse tank, for the effects of the model, is given priority in terms of consumption, once the capacity of the reuse tank is consumed, then the water from the harvest tank begins to be consumed. The prioritization of the reuse tank, is recommendable because it is desirable that that the water that is being reused is of less quality that the virgin harvested rainwater. Once water has received some degree of contamination it is recommendable that it be in movement and aerated as much as possible, in this case it receives this action in the course of its normal use. To leave contaminated water to sit a rest, will cause it to deteriorate in quality, entering a cycle of stagnation.

Modelling criteria
As the daily consumption is to be a considerable amount and maximum efficiency of use has to be obtained from the system. As such the modelling of the water level in the tank system has to be done on a daily basis. For this not only the data of the monthly rainfall has to be taken in consideration but also the frequency of that rainfall. When the system contains water to supply the full capacity that is required it will do so, however once the contents of the system are depleted, so as not to be able to provide the complete required capacity, what is available will be consumed, and also recycled in the percentage amount that has been defined, and will re-enter the system, making it available again for use the following day.

Modelling Resolution
As the modelling has a resolution to individually discrete days, the average frequency of rainy days is rounded up and then the amount of monthly rainfall is evenly distributed and averaged to evenly spaced days in the calendar month. The rounding up of frequency does not affect the total quantity of rainfall. This way an average quantity of rainfall that is captured per individual precipitation events can be estimated and then considered to be available for consumption.

Stabilization Period

The model is also performed for a period of 2 years to allow it stabilize. This is especially relevant in locations where rainfall is very seasonal, such as a monsoonal environment. It may however be the case when requirements are such that it is not possible to arrive to a stabilization, considering that complete provision of water is made available, such is what seen in 2 of the 3 examples of the modelling. In such case the recycled water will serve the purpose of being a complementary source. As such, as is normal available budget has much to do with what can be provided.

Controllable variables
Variables which are defined or controlled by the design engineer are the capacity of the tanks, as the water harvested or reused cannot physically exceed this volume.

Consumption defined
The consumption also can be defined by the design engineer. In relation to this to simplify the modelling a single daily consumption figure was chosen, however as the modelling has a daily resolution this figure can also be adjusted to increase consumption in periods of more abundance of rainfall and then reduced for periods of more scarcity. For demonstration purposes a suitable figure has been chosen that gives a balance of a reasonably high consumption, as much as possible while, while maintaining a minimum quantity of water in the system at all times.

Conclusions
The most interesting situation with this reiterative reuse model, that we have specifically studied, is that on a yearly basis that amount of water that is consumed through the recycling of harvested water is 3 times the amount of water that is used if the harvested water was consumed only once. This means it is possible to provide a client with a system which costs, practically a quarter, considering the initial use of water, of what the system would cost with out reuse.

Ground Water Table / Aquifer Recharging vs. Harvesting Rain for Reuse

2011-03-23T22:25:00.006+11:00

This is an interesting discussion.

I would say that the these two ideas are not in opposition, but rather are complementary, in fact ideally one addresses a situation when the other has completed it's function. To use only one option would be an inefficient use of the available possibilities.

I first came across this confusion while in New Delhi, India, as I was working on some water harvesting projects there. I was presented to someone who was introduced to me as an expert on "Rainwater Harvesting", he had a PhD, and over 30 years of experience, working with the national government of the topic. We started talking and agreed that the best thing to for water management was "harvesting", it was the most practical and cost effective means of obtaining water. However when I asked him how he went about doing it, he described to me a dry well system for aquifer recharge.

I asked him, "Okay, that's good what you do with the overflow, but what about how you harvest it?", the answers was "Yes, this is how we are harvesting rainwater."

Evidently there was a misunderstanding, we were talking about 2 different things, though related in some way, and the same name was being used for both.

The use of correct names is very important, many times we find that because names and designation have been used incorrectly then problems occur. There is a further and added complication that language or languages are dynamic entities, as technology and science evolve, new words get invented to name new things.

Not so long ago I started and created the Wikipedia article for Stormwater Harvesting, differentiating it from Rainwater Harvesting. This is a consequence of advance in technology and refinement of techniques.

Apart from this discussion of "name calling", we should be addressing what is important. I would say that the most important objective to be achieved is to have an implementation that is the most cost effective, practical and simple, to make high quality water immediately available for use with minimum, if any, power consumption. Ideally it should also be done in the most sustainable way possible.

If this is the objective, then all we have to do is find the way of achieving this objective.

To date, the most cost effective way to store water indefinitely and not only conserve it's quality, but also improve it, are in covered underground systems, that offer high surface are to volume ratios such as I have described in a previous article, where the positive of effects biomass are explained. Above ground tanks might be cheaper, however they are poor performing in terms of water quality conservation. Open water dams have problems of high level of evaporation, as well as problems with vermin and water quality degradation, from various other sources.

Someone might say though that, the ability to store water is something limited, and this is correct, it is then in this case that we should look also at aquifer or ground water recharge. Once the capacity of the underground water system has been filled then the overflow can be used in a very effective infiltration method, to recharge the water table. This method then not only has the best of both worlds, having water for immediate reuse, but also recharging the aquifer, however not only that, but if the overflow water has passed through a suitable system it is purified and goes into the aquifer it is also better for the health of the aquifer.

In recent time aquifers have suffered substantially in different aspects. It is important to replenish aquifers. Only recently have people come to realize the water is a finite resource that has to managed responsibly and with much care. It can be said that this is a similar situation to what happened with oil, what was originally though to be a resource that would last forever, became something very precious.

In the drawing below we illustrate how modern urbanisation has reduced the ability of rain or stormwater to infiltrate and enter the aquifers, not only that, but the water quality of what little infiltration occurs, is probably not very good for the aquifer as it has picked up a lot of surface contaminants. "Modern" techniques of dry wells, though give the impression of creating some good, in terms of replenishing aquifers can be more harmful than good, this is especially true in industrial areas where discharge of toxic chemicals can also enter the aquifer.

source: http://www.landscapeforlife.org/water/3b.php

We can also see in the above drawing that in urban environments not only is there less infiltration, the infiltrated water is of worse quality, but in addition to this there is probably more demand on the aquifer, as there are probably quite a few wells in comparison to other less urbanised locations.

source: http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/

The result of this continuous exploitation of aquifers with inadequate recharging has produced as a consequence the rapid descent of these, that also degrade in quality, sometimes with higher levels of salinity.

In some places such as India, this happens at an alarming rate:

The groundwater table is Delhi has depleted to 20 –30 metres in various areas across the city. Compared to a level of 30 – 40 feet at the time of Independence, the water table has dropped to 350 feet at certain places. It is said to be falling at 10 feet per year on an average. Groundwater levels have depleted by 2 – 6m in Alipur and Kanjhwla blocks, 10m ins the Najafgarh block, and about 20 m in Mehrauli block.
source: http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org/index_files/about_delhi.htm

Some are even more dramatic in their statements, an article from the Harvard Business School Alumni Bulletin states:

"groundwater supplies in Delhi are expected to run dry by 2015"
source: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/5049.html

Another aspect of concern is called seawater intrusion, this happens in more coastal areas. Significant studies have been conducted into this phenomenon:

Seawater intrusion in coastal aquifers by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Land and Water Development Division
In relation to aquifer contamination an interesting paper is An Overview of the Current Research on Remediation of Soils and Aquifers Contaminated by Organic Compounds by C.D. Johnston and G.B. Davis.

In the figure below we can see that groundwater contamination is not something to be dealt lightly with, in fact the situation that the areas that are most vulnerable are agricultural areas indicate a very noxious cycle.

source: http://water.usgs.gov

So what is the solution? There are various, but from a consumer point of view it something that is not that complicated. In the diagram below is a simple representation of how a combined rainwater harvesting and overflow infiltration system is configured. The combination of underground tanks used to store water for immediate reuse, as well as to allow a separate tank for infiltration, that at the same time purifies the water, that is maintenance free, that requires minimum amount of power to pump the water for reuse as is practically just below the surface. Pumps for elevating and pumping ground water must be much more powerful, are as a consequence much more expensive, and in areas with rapidly descending water tables, this becomes a costly element if one has to the change the pump every few years to cope with the lowering water table.

Above we can see that with modular tanks, there is design flexibility, in relation to the amount of storage capacity for immediate reuse, as well as the infiltration tank. This way a project can harvest as much water as is necessary, conserve it ideal conditions. Water that exceeds the capacity of the tank for immediate reuse goes into the infiltration tank, and does so at an exceptional quality, and can go safely back into the aquifer.

How capillarity contributes to maintenance free systems

2011-03-01T16:12:00.001+11:00

or Why do geosynthetics correctly installed permanently avoid clogging

A frequent question I receive is related to the underground systems for water storage and management we work with, that have an envelope of geotextile, is: how is it that, the geotextile does not get clogged with silts and fines? It is an interesting question and though the easiest thing to say would be to explain that the system have been successfully used since 1986, and even before, without observations.

However, saying this sometimes is not enough, in this industry one works with a lot of engineers, and myself being an engineer, we want to know why and not only that, but have proof of it.

Though one could say that the existence of ad-hoc geotextiles have existed maybe since the first textiles where developed, our earliest human ancestors, normally used textiles to clothe themselves, or to use as vessels for carrying water or other substances. It would have probably been many years before textiles would have been available in larger enough quantities to use them for other purposes other than for essential personal use.

The interesting thing though is that I came to write about this topic, because of another reason that has nothing to do with textiles or tanks, but rather a personal hobby I have. This hobby, that I very much enjoy, is home brewing my beer. I am subscribed to Hombrewer magazine and in the Autumn 2011 edition, page 22, they had an article on particle settlement, that has precisely to do with this topic. The article titled "Clarification of Beer" explains how to determine the velocity of descent of particles in suspension, their terminal velocity and finally with this and having a distance of settlement, the time for settlement. The basic components of this system then is represented by this diagram below:

Where:

Fd = Force of drag

Fb = Force of bouyancy

Fg = Force of gravity

I found this representation quite interesting and the following formula is used in the calculations.

Where:
v = settling velocity (m/s)
g = acceleration due to gravity (9.8 m/s²)
ρ = density of water
ρ_s = density of particle
V = volume of particle
C_d = drag coefficient
A = projected area in the direction of motion (m²)

However it makes reference to a particle or solid in suspension that is not subject to the force of capillary action.

Capillary action is present in soil, as the spaces between granules act as capillary tubes. As such we can conclude that a more appropriate model for fine particles should change to consider this. Saying this, though we could make and endless regression where we could consider every particle in a soil profile to be under this influence, and it is... to an extent, however the difference in behaviour therefore lies in the particle densities and volumes that where mentioned above. This comparative differences are what would define "free" particles or that are in suspension, as particles that are freer to move in the soil media. The important aspect that we should consider is that this modelling is relevant for particles in suspension. As such, for example in the typical installation that we deal with, where sand is utilized, the sand is not in suspension, hence limiting the "endless" regression.

Taking the previous into account we can update our model and diagram to include the following, we can add another vector, Fc, Capillary Force, to the model as represented below.

Where:
Fc = Force of capillarity

However there is more to this than just including the concept of capillarity. Capillarity not only acts because of water cohesive force, that is manifested in waters surface tension, but also through water's adhesive force. We must remember that the difference between cohesion, that is the force of same molecules attracting to each other, and adhesion, the force of different molecules attracting to each other. As such, for our purposes, that particles should be uptaken against the force of gravity is also dependant that the suspended particle should not adhere to the particles not in suspension.

If we analyse these forces then, we can take the liberty and a assume a value of the force of drag as negligible and the force of buoyancy as that which allows the smaller particles to be free or in suspension, but for our effects, do not enter into our equations either.

We need to then determine the force pushing upwards, that will take the particle in suspension in the same direction:

source: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/surten2.html#c6

Values of surface tension can be obtained from the table below, being it interesting to note the influence on temperature, we had seen in a recent post on my blog the effect that depth positively has on the water quality, here we see it again.

Effect of temperature in degC on surface tension of water in units of mJ m^-2 or mN m^-1(Kaye and Laby, 1973)

Temperature	0	10	20	30	40
Surface tension	75.7	74.2	72.75	71.2	69.6

The upwards force has to overcome the force of gravitation on the particle, which can be expressed in this way in terms of finding the point of equilibrium:

Fg = mg

We can then say:

mg = T2πr

As we want to obtain the value of r, we arrange the variable in the following way:

r = mg/T2π

As we have the value of surface tension, we need to find the mass for a "typical" particle of silt.

Specific gravity is the ratio of the weight in air of a given volume of a material at a standard temperature to the weight in air of an equal volume of distilled water at the same stated temperature.

In natural soils, particle specific gravity will usually “range numerically from 2.60 to 2.80. Within this range, the lower values for specific gravity are typical of the coarser soils, while higher values are typical of the fine-grained soil types. Values of the specific gravity outside the range of values given may occasionally be encountered in soils derived from parent materials which contained either unusually light or unusually heavy minerals.” [Ritter and Paquette 1960, p 182]

To use a worst case scenario of sediments or fines with the highest specific gravity we can consider clay or silty clay that can have specific gravities of up to 2.9, this is also heavier than quartz that has a specific gravity of 2.65, in fact most of sand is made of quartz, and as it is the media recommend for providing the capillarity and is not in suspension, we could also presume that the particles in suspension have a lower specific gravity than quartz sand.

In this case a consider what would a silt particle similar to a small sand sand grain we can assume the following, a diameter of 0.060 mm, that implies a volume of 2.51e-10 m3, and a specific gravity of 2.65 for mineral quartz, this gives a value of 0.67 mg.

If we replace the value in the equation we obtain the following:

^{r = (6.7e-7 * 9.8) / (72.75e-3 * 2 * 3.14)}

Which provides us with the result:

^{r = 14.4 μm}

This can be expressed as a diameter which in the case will be 28.8 μm, which will serve a reference for pore sizes. This pore size is practically on the border of what has been defined as Mesopore and Micropores ¹.

This then is the size of the capillary that provide equilibrium so that a particle smaller than the size of a grain of sand to remain in suspension. The capillary radius depends on the the particle size of the media and it has been classified in the following manner.

source:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/SoilTextureTriangle.jpg

Pore sizes for soils can be calculated with the following table:

Soil Texture	Bulk Density (g/cm³)	Porosity (%)	Available Soil Water (inches/foot of soil depth)
Soil Texture	Bulk Density (g/cm³)	Porosity (%)	Range	Average
Coarse
Sand	1.65	38	0.5-0.8	0.7
Fine Sand	1.60	40	0.6-1.0	0.8
Loamy Sand	1.60	40	0.7-1.1	0.9
Gravel/Cobble in Coarse Texture	—	—	0.6-0.8	0.7
Moderately Coarse
Loamy Fine Sand	1.55	42	1.0-1.3	1.2
Sandy Loam	1.50	43	1.2-1.6	1.4
Fine Sandy Loam	1.50	43	1.2-1.7	1.5
Medium
Gravel/Cobble in Medium Texture	—	—	1.1-1.3	1.2
Very Fine Sandy Loam	1.45	45	1.6-2.2	1.9
Loam	1.40	47	1.6-2.3	2.0
Moderately Fine
Sandy Clay Loam	1.35	49	1.7-2.4	2.1
Silt Loam	1.35	49	1.8-2.5	2.2
Clay Loam	1.35	49	1.8-2.5	2.2
Fine
Sandy Clay	1.30	51	1.9-2.5	2.3
Silty Clay	1.25	53	1.9-2.5	2.3
Clay	1.20	55	2.0-2.5	2.3
Peats and Mucks	—	—	2.0-3.0	2.5

source: http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/pnw0475/pnw0475OP.html

A ratio is obtained by dividing of porosity percentage with its complement, for example: in clay loam the pore space (49%) makes up almost the same amount of volume as the volume of soil particles (51%); multiply the ratio 49/51 times the 0.063 mm particle diameter to get the average pore size of 0.061 mm.

It is now interesting to see what are typical average pore sizes for soils, for example sandy loam 90μm, clay loam 61μm ².

As the height of a capillary depends on the weight of the column of water, this is directly related to the radius of the capillary, as such the smaller the diameter of the capillary the higher the the column of water. This then produces a dichotomy in terms of that the smaller the particle size gets, eventually you get to clay sized particles that do not have much infiltration capacity and do not behave in a manner that provides capillary action.

From the above then we could conclude that the pore size we see in sandy loam, 90μm, for example is too small to provide the capillary action that we require of 28.8 μm, that we have previously determined as what would provide a capillary force that would overcome the force of gravity that the suspended particle is subject to. The situation is though that the sand, or for that case practically any soil media, is irregular and provides pore sizes that very often are much smaller that the average 90μm we calculated, as well as it providing spaces that are also larger. To illustrate this we can see the diagram below.

source: plantandsoil.unl.edu/

In another example we can see that even more variability can be represented:

source:http://www.earthdrx.org/cap11.jpg

Precautions necessary

In the industry we often hear of situation where supposed permeable systems become impermeable and that then need backwashing, with "sophisticated" technologies. Wouldn't it be more sophisticated to have systems that does not need maintenance or a costly backwashing system, that would not be required in the first place, if the application was designed correctly? There are many examples of these, if we were to analyse these in more details we could observe that source or cause of the clogging resides in both what we have described above, as well as other elements, that will probably include biological activity.

There are examples of these that come to mind, however to delve into them would be an odious practice.

Conclusions

Having analysed all of the above information what can be concluded is that if underground water management systems are installed correctly, with a suitable layer of soil media that provide capillarity, experience has shown that geotextiles do not clog.

This is possible due to the fact that it is possible to infer that there are spaces where capillary radii are smaller than those required to provide enough force to overcome gravity, that it in fact acts, literally, as a micro physical mechanism that provides a cleaning action that maintains the geotextile clean and free of clogging.

References:

Soil analysis: an interpretation manual By Kenneth Ian Peverill, L. A. Sparrow, Douglas J. Reuter, 96
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/env99/env201.htm
http://140.194.76.129/publications/eng-manuals/em1110-2-4000/c-7.pdf
http://gozips.uakron.edu/~mcbelch/documents/SpecificGravityofSoils.ppt
http://wwwrcamnl.wr.usgs.gov/uzf/abs_pubs/papers/nimmo.04.encyc.por.ese.pdf
T.J. Marshall, J.W. Holmes, and C.W. Rose (1996), Soil Physics, 3rd Edition, 42-45

Wikinomic business model benefiting sustainable infrastructure and how to do it.

2011-02-16T11:29:00.004+11:00

This post has more of a focus in a sustainable business model, rather than sustainable "design" as such. It then becomes interesting to see a sustainable business model can be "designed", at least for this stage in our period of our time. From a business perspective, a frequently heard buzz word or concept today is that business models need to evolve for companies to be more competitive. I have identified within the environmental industry that the business model used is still a very outdated one.

Having made this analysis it is amazing to see how things come around. At the end of 2004 I had to present my final year project for my degree, studying, in the Chilean Navy, to be an Electronic Warfare Officer (Telecommunications), for civilians it may be easier to understand as a Naval Electronic Engineer. The topic of my final year project, that presented with a friend and classmate of mine, who is a Naval Infantry Marine, was: "Network Centric Warfare and it's applicability to the Chilean Navy".

I was always interested in technology. As such the choice of topic was one that I could follow a personal interest that I could apply to my professional career. On starting my research I found an article that had been published in a magazine called Proceedings, published by the US Naval Institute, it was in essence what my paper was very much based on.

The article can be seen here:
https://acc.dau.mil/adl/en-US/37563/file/9068/NCW-Origin%20and%20Future.pdf

It was interesting in terms of seeing how Command and Control systems, could be taken "philosophically" to the next level. One of the points of the article that most impressed upon me was a side bar that told the story of Network Centric Retailing and the experience that Wal-Mart and General Electric had. This article was published in 1998. I would then find exciting my knowledge in the military could be translated to a civilian business environment, with technologies such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), etc... which are basically variations on the same topic.

Let's go forward a few years to December 2006, and we come a across a ground breaking book called Wikinomics. This book in a way further developed on this concept of network centricity, related to Metcalfe's Law, where collaboration, enabled by networks, is able to accelerate development and growth in whatever ever area of humanity. So what has this got to do with Sustainability, with infrastructure, with business models? It has a lot. I would say that the world in general is a "faster" place, in every sense. Communications are much quicker. Where in South America, in the 1800s it took several months to know that Fernando VII had been deposed of by Napoleon in Spain, hence sparking the independence movement of Latin America, today we knew within minutes, if not seconds, that Hosni Mubarak had been deposed of in Egypt.

Well technology moves much faster today than it did yesterday, not only that, the market place too. Though the global market has become a "larger" market in geographic size as well as potential volume, it is also smaller. Communication with suppliers is something instantaneous, and anywhere, you don't have to be in your office next to a land line phone to communicate, the same is true with clients. Where time can also be "distance", the elimination or reduction of lost time has made our world "smaller".

As a company, or supplier or service provider, we are not alone in the world. As we embrace new technology and accelerate, so do our competitors. How is it possible to remain competitive, if the catch up cycle also becomes shorter and quicker? How can we have our clients also achieve more competitiveness in order that they may be more successful, that will in turn benefit us as a "provider".

In the world we live in today, this situation has become a fundamental challenge. Today it is, we could say, feasible that a one person operation can compete against "considerably larger" companies and have several competitive advantages. All the competitor has to do is sit on the side lines, poach and pick off business opportunities as they come along in terms of product supply. This is something that affects not only our industry, but we could say almost any product manufacturing industry.

However having said that, we are still tied to evermore sophisticated technologies that are always complex in their integration. However there is also another challenge associated to this, and that is the requirement of what is called "complexity masking". The client doesn't want to, or either needs to know, about the complexities of solutions, the client should be given a straight forward, "simple" solution that addresses the requirements they have.

Below we go into detail as to identify the short comings of this industrial age business model as well as to see what are the viable alternatives to it to be more competitive.

To return to the focus of our discussion, we need to analyse why it seems that environmental aspects of projects have difficulty in achieving the amount of success that they should have. Why is it that having several amounts and types of technologies, that these are not being used to maximum effect. We would say that it is mainly a result of an antiquated business model that is still to a large extent present in the industry. The way projects are generated, to how they are designed, executed, and how the materials are supplied.

This is beyond the mindset of having lineal wasteful technologies, instead of closed loop sustainable solutions. For many years, even till now, there are many water professionals that see stormwater as problem to get rid of as quickly and as far away as possible. This in stark contrast of seeing it as a valuable resource that can "easily" be reused, that is if we know how to reuse it with ease.

In larger and more complex projects, then one might see a consortium being established that can also include eventually developers.This serves to some measure what we previously described as "complexity masking".

In the case of simple industrial age materials and supplies, this model might not be that bad. However in our current age, where we have seen the necessity of implementing materials and technologies that are more advanced and beyond the scope and normal education of professionals involved in the infrastructure industry, we have seen that closer support is required. At the end of the chain are the supposed beneficiaries, who make use of the infrastructure, it must be asked though if they are really benefited, if they are subject to flooding, fires, high urban temperatures, water restrictions, etc..

What are the effects that this Industrial Age Business Model.

Having looked at the Industrial Age model, we can see and analyse, as well as extensively comment on its effects. Of the most notable ones we see that there has been as a consequence significant environmental degradation.

We can say that this is an effect, of not only that type of business model, but also the technology and techniques of that period. However what must be said is that, even if there is newer and more modern technology, if the this business model is still in place, then not much can be achieved until the business model advances to be able to take the most advantage of the technology that is advancing at such a quick pace.

Aside from this we also see that the beneficiaries are not really benefited, as they suffer the consequences of poorly designed infrastructure that creates detriment, not only to the environment, but also to the humans that inhabit those locations.

Today as society and technology advances we have seen in general we have seen how industrial age institutions and governments that are based and work on the same models have not been able to provide adequate solutions to a modern world.

Today we have seen that the power of the internet has been able create viable collaborative models, that through new communication techniques have been able to not only provide a replacement to old methods of communication, but have been able to surpass them in performance.

This fact is something that can be extended to practically every aspect of life. In fact nowadays, unless we are hermits, it is very difficult to not come into contact with some aspect of this collaboration process where we benefit positively from this, whether it is directly or indirectly. As such, and as society starts engaging this model more and more, often unconsciously, businesses will also follow this path, hence to remain competitive it becomes a prime necessity to be able to not only join this tendency, but the smarter and more successful companies will also have to be leaders in this aspect. Those who fall behind will also see their success affected.

So how does this new business model look like for the industry that is involved in Sustainable Infrastructure? I have come to name it a Wikinomic Business Model as it closely follows, out of necessity this collaboration model.

In the above model we see the appearance of a new element called an Integrated Solution Provider. This new entity is something not really seen before as it is not a traditional supplier, it is not a traditional consultant or designer either, as normally these two parties would normally be separated and segregated, if not for "accidental" reason, but also for transparency. Maybe for the past it was a viable and feasible option, however the situation now no longer allows this, if at the same time one expects to be a market leader, in their respective industry.

So how specifically is this new model applied to the infrastructure industry and it’s associated entities and stakeholders, that interact with it. In the diagram we can see that to a certain extent we are already implicitly seeing the effects of a Wikinomic business model, however this is a situation that has come about more by accident than by purpose.

Though we can say that users, buyers or we could be more general in saying consumers, are the generators as their demand generates the requirement from infrastructure, that the market should demand something could be argued stems back to when Adam Smith had talked about the “invisible hand”. However this not totally true as governments sometimes create artificial situations, in Australia there is a fantastic example to illustrate this: Canberra. The existence or foundation of Canberra is obviously a situation that is not in any way related to an "Invisible Hand", but rather an artificial political decision.

The executors become more integrated as they try to achieve economies of scale, working more as team if not purposefully at least it is done on a practical level with many cases of companies, doing Design and Construct, as well others such as EPC, EPCM, etc…

EPC and EPCM do not consider an Integrated Solution Provider within their model, the supplier is external to the “execution”, simply supplying material, if not conforming to a specification in more complex applications given by the designing consultant. If we look at the most “complex” applications in buildings such as elevators, electrical systems, or similar, the supply of these components is done conforming to specifications that are given, there is not that much that a supplier does to add or multiply value to a project.

That a supplier should also participate in the design of a piece of infrastructure is practically unheard of, again even if were are talking about interesting structural composite elements, at most specific characteristics are taken account such as weight, strength, flexibility, etc… however these aspects are simple compared to systems that have apart from having structural and physical characteristics, that also have influences much beyond these in terms of: water management, HVAC design, energy consumption, biology, the list can go on, it is very difficult for even a multi-disciplinary team to manage, with competence, all of these considerations.

For people involved in the business of the environment or sustainability it is time to simply realize that with what has been done till now, the way projects have been undertaken, they are simply not sustainable at several levels. Trying not to preach to the choir, the equation is very simply, if we want to build infrastructure that is sustainable it has to be precisely that. In a world of finite resources, and where human presence more often than not brings damage to the environment where it is, the objective is very clear.

Today technology is inherently different from what it used to be, and in the case of environmental applications they are much more efficient in many more ways at many more levels. This is not a coincidence though.

In my experience, it has been very difficult to meet a designer that has been able to do justice to the possibilities that integrated environmental applications offer. This even if it passes economic viability evaluation, which one might say should be one of the main factors to consider. Genuine environmental companies have been successful not because they have applications that are good for the environment, they have been successful because they provide cost effective solutions.

The only way then to implement this technology to maximum effect is to do so directly with the people who create the technology.

Though there are obstacles to this model...

There are powerful elements that oppose efficient and effective solutions, that challenge the status quo or that moves someone’s “cheese”.

It is interesting to see that civilisation might be again individually in control of their most basic resources such as water.

I propose a 3rd model of service utility administration, “Consumer Owned Decentralized Solutions”, this is the 3rd iteration, depending on the reference one takes, of how utilities are given to consumers. From the first iteration of centralized state owned distribution services, to the 2nd iteration of these being privatised, today the technology exists for individuals or families to supply themselves with not only water, but also energy. This model is one much more efficient than the previous 2 and it has come about not only because of economic forces, but also environmental and political ones.

The Intellectual Legacy is one that is critical. It often happens, though fortunately, not always, that with more education the more "certain" people become of things, which sometimes are not true, nor good either. The other inherent problem is that the educational model is one that specializes and hence fragments the mind, someone studying water in more depth might learn more about hydraulics and less about botany, geology or soil mechanics though they are fundamental aspects necessary for correct and integral water management. This is not the fault of the student though.

Water models where developed at the beginning of the 20th century, which was before modern geosynthetics existed.

They consider Runoff expressed in coefficients, however there exists technology such as what provides has performance that goes beyond simple runoff. An example are some horizontal applications such as a modular cells on a roof garden, this application beyond taking the runoff coefficient from 0.95 to a “worst case” scenario of 0.20 with just grass, also beyond reducing the runoff, once the soil has become “saturated” the hanging water will drop into the cell, this water can also made be made use of, this create another phenomenon I have come to call an “Inverse Compensated Runoff Coefficient”. I have not seen a model yet to incorporate this concept.

Anaerobic digestion is something often portrayed as sustainable. Anaerobic digestion though produces several unsustainable situations, it creates methane that is a greenhouse gas, even if it burnt to produce energy, as it now being done the burning produces carbon dioxide which is again a greenhouse gas. Anaerobic digestion produces sludge, which has to be processed, it can be dried by burning the greenhouse gas methane that the same process provides, however this is very energy intensive, even if the dried sludge is used as fertilizer it still generates a carbon footprint as it transported to where it will be used…It is best to purify water using sustainable techniques that do not produce sludge, that do not produce methane and then carbon dioxide, that do not generate a larger carbon footprint than the already considerable inputs it receives.

In addition to the above we not only have the challenge of the increasing speed of change of technology, but also the integration of this technology is also compounded in its complexity as several factors have to be taken into account for them to be used to maximum efficiency, though the outcomes may be very and extremely simple.

This graph shows how not only the speed of change in terms of technology has increased rapidly, to be able to integrates these leaps in technology. To make maximum use of this technology has become increasingly challenging, though the rewards have also become increasingly beneficial.

One of the reasons we had identified of why the industrial age model occurs, is due to the they way professionals are educated, and then how they are made to work. This till now has been in fragmentation, which is the contrary to collaboration. The closest approximation of collaboration would be a multi-disciplinary team, however this still does not address the core and fundamental aspect that needs to be dealt with. We forget that Universities should teach Universal knowledge, which is why they have that name. This then poses not only a challenge to the industry that makes use of these professionals, but should also engage the education system, at every single level, from national governments down, going to the education providers too.

One of the main sources of the why there is so much of a challenge in terms of being able implement integrated solutions is because the professionals that should design and/or implement them do not have integrated knowledge, the closest thing that can approximate that capacity could be an integrated multi-discipline team, however there is still the challenge of transferring knowledge from the application developers to the designers, and as we have seen this process at this stage can hardly be done quickly enough, and there will be no slowing in pace, only the contrary. As such once more we see the necessity of incorporating Integrated Solution Providers as a fundamental part of a project, through it’s life cycle.

To summarize and conclude then, basically what we see is the necessity for stakeholders in the environmental and sustainable infrastructure industry to understand and then engage in this new business model. This model may not be a perfect one, however it is definitely one much better than the industrial age one, that had or has problems not only in its' functionality but also in its effects.

Enviormental and Sustainable Technology for Export

2011-02-14T10:43:00.000+11:00

Was recently interviewed by the Australian Business Funding Centre (www.australiangovernmentgrants.org), as Atlantis has been able to make use of the Export Market Development Grant Scheme (EMDG).

The video is quite good, if I may say so myself, because apart of speaking about the government grants, I am also able to talk a bit about our sustainable technology and how we capture and reuse water, using recycled raw materials.

Creating hanging water for more sustainability

2011-02-03T23:03:00.003+11:00

One might think that having a few pot plants at home may not have a very big effect in terms of sustainability. In this blog post I want to illustrate several things though. One is that we can have plants that manage water more efficiently, and hence grow better and more vigorously, that not only benefit the home environment, but that this idea is applicable to a much wider scale, and can be applied to whole cities and agriculture.

One would first have to explain what is "hanging water". Hanging water is literally water that hangs, one might think it could be perched water, however this is another concept, and is defined in the following way:
A perched water table (or perched aquifer) is an aquifer that occurs above the regional water table, in the vadose zone. We can illustrate it as in the photo that we see below:

source: http://img.sparknotes.com/figures/3/31ebea601a7d05e9ec8d0854cec9b406/earthscience_f21.jpg

The above situation then is water that sits on top of an impermeable surface. It is not really hanging.

Hanging water, as we had said, is water that hangs.

What does a hanging drop of water on a finger have to do with sustainability and good water management? This is the amazing thing of how small things can have enormous effects, I first understood a bit about this when my electronics professor who was an electronic engineer, like I would later become, loved to explain to his student that the difference between an Electrical Engineer and an Electronic Engineer was that the first can do big things with big voltages, and the the second does it with small voltages, hence having more merit. I cannot help but feel the same sort of thing and draw a simile with water, alas there is no real distinction as yet, to make a differentiation in water related careers. My experience with water engineers and professionals from around the world, shows that there is a tremendous amount of ground to be covered. Water engineering even till today focuses most of there effort on hydraulics managing volumes of water in quantities, paying very little attention to quality of water, and those that look at quality do so often with total disregard of undesired consequences.

Going back to hanging water then...
The fact that the water hangs in this way has tremendous implications in many applications. If the water had not found the end of my finger it would have continued it's journey downwards following the pull of gravity. What we are doing in essence is "conserving water". If we are able to create similar "fingers" that hang water across vast areas we would be conserving huge amounts of water. How much? Experience has shown up to 76 litres per square metre. Quite a bit and just with a the same effect that a finger has with a drop of water.

The water hangs because it adheres to the surface it is on. This adhesion, that is much related to capillary action, poses a force that exceeds the pull of gravity. This adhesive power can be used to benefit.

The idea then is being able to hang water close to plan root structures, making it immediately available to vegetation. That the water should hangs arrests the "loss" of water travelling further down the soil profile. Water is conserved in the soil profile while it hangs in a state of "ideal" saturation, it is ideal because in the moment it becomes over saturated the hanging water drop will fall, plants will consume as much water as they need.

This hanging water can be created for a practical purpose in a "micro" implementation as is pot plant. One may say that what I am going to show is just another what have become to be called a "self watering pot", to an extent it is, though I think that the name is foolish to begin with. My design however does have a twist.

This is a typical pot for a plant. I am going to convert how we can apply hanging water.

In the base of the pot there are 2 small holes, which I insert with geotextile strips. This is to provide capillary action and a physical connection to the pot tray and the inside of the pot.

Here we can see the geotextile strip on the outside.

The base of the pot is lined with geotextile, this is to provide a layer of capillary action.

One cuts a piece of Atlantis Drainage Cell, to the size of the base of the pot.

The Drainage Cell gets a strip of geotextile for further capillary action.

The piece of Drainage Cell is placed on the bottom of the pot.

The piece of Drainage Cell is covered with another layer of geotextile, this serves the purpose of creating a separation media so that the soil we will add does not fill the drainage cell, and is what provides our much mentioned hanging water.

We fill around the plant with compost, here I very proudly show my own compost bin, where we can clearly see how the vegetable waste gets turned into very nutritive soil. Of course composting is something very sustainable, apart from being economical as one saves money on having to buy potting mix.

Here we can our pot plant ready with and Golden Cane or Areca Palm (Dypsis lutescens).

Here we can see 2 other pots that I had prepared and how the system works. One can observe that instead of thin strip connecting to the tray, I have laid a layer or square piece of geotextile. The plants can "never" be over watered, because as soon as the soil over saturates the excess water falls and is contained in the tray. In the measure that the plant needs water, through the capillary action infrastructure that we have provided, it access "sucks" that water. We have done in essence, for practical effects, is extend the root structure of the plant. On the left is pot where we see that the tray is dry and could with some water. This does not necessarily mean that the soil is dry as it could very well be at its point of saturation, what it does indicate is additional water capacity in the pot.

The ability to control soil humidity to "ideal" levels is something that some agricultural methods use extremely sophisticated sensor technology that then activates watering circuits and so on, here we have in a pot, created a much more effective, simple and sustainable method and technology that should never fail, that has no real moving parts, except for the water, that requires no power.

This sort of technology can be applied on mass scales and has already been done so in examples of roof garden technology. However this technology that been used almost exclusively for roof gardens has to advance to another level, and that should be into agriculture.

I believe the way we do agriculture has to make its next step, what I would call Natural Sustainable Agriculture. Though one can argue that hydroponics is a step forward in agriculture, it can be said that it makes more efficient use of water, however I personally find few thing s more unsavoury that hydroponically grown tomatoes, that have a texture like plastic, not much colour, and less flavour. There is nothing like a succulent field grown tomato ripened on the stalk bursting with flavour, juice and texture.

To cover a last point and respond a question often asked, and respond to some raised eyebrows when we say that hanging water can mean providing storage of water of 76 litres per square metre. How can this be measured? Very simply, we get box with a base one square metre, on the bottom we put drainage cell, cover it with geotextile, and fill the box with soil media. Obviously the type of soil media will affect the result, but is to provide a typical soil profile that can be sand and organics. The depth could be any depth, but as we already have a reference it can be done with lets say 1 metre depth. We start filling the box with water and measuring the amount of water we are adding. The water should not drop down from the geotextile until it reaches a level of saturation, where the "weight" of the water exceeds that adhesive capacity of the water on the soil media, and capillary action of the same, and eventually a drop will fall. That falling drop will give the water bearing capacity that this concept, or rather implementation of creating hanging water has.

Indigenous Biomass in underground water tanks.

2011-01-25T17:46:00.006+11:00

What is indigenous biomass? Biomass has a few acceptions, one of the most simple ones is : "mass of living biological organisms", it also has a connotation from a renewable fuel source perspective. In any case our first definition encompasses this too. The indigenous component of the term comes from the definition: "Originating and living or occurring naturally in an area or environment." So basically we can say that it is life forms that occur naturally, and in the case of this topic, in underground water tanks.

Having defined the above we can discuss about how we can manage Indigenous Biomass to an advantage, as it can have very good or very bad effects on the quality of water.

Why is this question relevant?
It is a frequent question I get related to what happens in underground water tanks being related to appearance of biological matter in the tanks and how it affects the water quality. In addition to this we often get questions associated to the maintenance of the system, in relation to the previous phenomenon. I stress that if a system is properly and correctly designed, it should not require maintenance, this is the first point of a correct Environmental Sustainable Design, if it requires maintenance, it is not sustainable.

Beyond the specific design of a particular project, one obviously needs good components to achieve sustainable outcomes. So once again, we have to look at integral design considerations. In addition to this we have to look at the quality of the water that is going into the system, because no matter how fantastic is our design and the quality of the components, in terms of their functions if we put in water that is beyond the scope of the design we will not have the desired outcomes.

It is often heard and said, that where there is water there will be life. In fact it is not a coincidence that the first thing scientists look for in space exploration, searching for habitable environments, is the presence of water so that it may be able to sustain life.

We can start by saying that water, unless it is contained in sterile conditions, will invariably "generate" biomass. Keeping large amounts of water in sterile conditions is very difficult and not very cost effective. What happens then is a situation that we see very often, water, unless it managed correctly, will become stagnant.

Water as soon as precipitates from the sky, where it is normally free from biological matter, and touches the ground it immediately becomes subject to conditions that can be "good" or "bad" for it's quality. The words good or bad are purposefully subjective.

We must first define what is good water quality, this is normally done, among other parameters by presence of Fecal Coliforms (FC), Coliforms, E Coli, pH (acidity), Heterotrophic Plate Count, Turbidity, Heavy Metals, BOD, COD, TN, TP, etc...

To be simple in our explanation we can say that water can be kept in two sorts of environments, one that is entropic or one that is negentropic. As entropy is associated with degradation, in this case of water, we should be looking to create a negentropic environment. I have addressed the subject of Negentropy from an ESD perspective in a previous blog post.

The important thing is that if the water enters a negentropic state or environments it becomes subject to a compounding effect that creates a vicious cycle if you wish.

There are things that are not "too" complicated and achieve several desired outcomes can be things like the following:
Keep water underground

Effects: Keeps water temperature low
Keeping water underground normally keeps water cool, unless it close to geothermal active area.

source: http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/2/4/044001/fulltext

In the above graph we see how as we get to a depth of 6 meters underground, temperatures have a tendency towards about 9 degrees C. The largest change happens between 0 and 3 metres depth which is where it is most practical and cost effective to install underground tanks. This is will also important from a physical aspect that I will explain in more detail in the section I explain about capillarity.

From a chemical point of view the importance of temperature is relevant as the cooler the water, the higher the Dissolved Oxygen (DO) capacity that it has.

source: http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/waterq3/WQassess3f.html

The oxygen content is important because, the lower the DO, the higher the probability that anaerobic activity should occur, though paradoxically one could say that this an inevitable consequence anaerobic activity or digestion occurs once the dissolved oxygen has been consumed, which is a consequence of aerobic activity rather than anaerobic, however it can also be observed that aerobic digestion also reduces Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), which is something positive.

Aerobic digestion, is often associated to composting, which is a process that creates practically immediately usable by product without any undesirable by products, which is not the same situation with anaerobic digestion which creates sludge and methane. Recent and more modern process have made plants that use this process more efficiently, the methane, which is a green house gas, can be used for heating either to dry sludge or for power generation or even both, but the burning of the methane, produces carbon dioxide too. The management of sludge is also quite a complex process and there is an entire industry dedicated to it, in best cases when process it can be used as fertilizer, or worst case burned, creating a lot of pollution or buried and lost. Aerobic digestion in water treatment also serves to reduce BOD as well as pathogens and other desirable outcomes.

Why is all of this relevant to underground tanks? Very simply because all of these process can occur in underground tanks.

The very temperature also has an effect from a biological perspective on what types living matter can exist in water, in addition to this, the cooler the water the longer that water can remain in better conditions as biological metabolisms are directly affected by temperature, as such the colder the temperature the slower the reproductive cycle.

Effects: Keeps water dark
The effect of keeping water dark is very important, apart from the presence of light being associated with heat, in this case the darkness is important to protect the water from plants that perform photosynthesis. Though photosynthesis can normally considered something positive as it is an oxygen producing process, however this also implies that the plant metabolic process that also requires some measure of oxygen as the plant apart from to photosynthesising also performs cellular respiration, which consumes oxygen, instead of producing it. Aside from this a very common form of algae that may become present in water exposed to light is what is generally named Blue Green Algae or Cyanobacteria, this type of algae poses two main situations that are of interest, one is that it produces toxins which are know as Cyantoxins, which undoubtedly poison water. The other interesting aspects within their robustness is that they are also able to exist not only in aerobic conditions, but also anaerobic conditions, which then presents the problems we had mentioned in the previous point.

source: aims.gov.au

Source: gallery.usgs.gov

The best thing then is to avoid light.

Provide high surface area to volume ratio
Providing a high surface area to volume ratio does mainly two interesting things.
Effects: More surface area for beneficial biomass
The more surface area one provides the more ability there is to form biofilm. Biofilm is a form of biomass. Biofilm necessarily exists attaching it self to surfaces, hence the more surface area we provide in a determined volume the better it is. If we have the presence of "good" biofilm.

Above is a photo of excavated modular tanks, that where taken out of the ground after 6 years. The tanks were excavated because within the scheme of the Australian Economic Stimulus Plan for schools, this school received funding to construct an additional building and as such relocated the position of the tanks. The case study for the original installation that was done in 2004 can be seen here. What is impressive about these tanks is that having been removed from the ground that they are in impeccable conditions.

What is important then is to explain why the presence of biofilm is good and beneficial for an underground tank system.

I have listed below 2 interesting and relevant points from the wikipedia article on biofilm:

Biofilms can also be harnessed for constructive purposes. For example, many sewage treatment plants include a treatment stage in which waste water passes over biofilms grown on filters, which extract and digest organic compounds. In such biofilms, bacteria are mainly responsible for removal of organic matter (BOD), while protozoa and rotifers are mainly responsible for removal of suspended solids (SS), including pathogens and other microorganisms. Slow sand filters rely on biofilm development in the same way to filter surface water from lake, spring or river sources for drinking purposes. What we regard as clean water is a waste material to these microcellular organisms since they are unable to extract any further nutrition from the purified water.

Biofilms can help eliminate petroleum oil from contaminated oceans or marine systems. The oil is eliminated by the hydrocarbon-degrading activities of microbial communities, in particular by a remarkable recently-discovered group of specialists, the so-called hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria (HCB).

Effect: Increased capillary action
Capillary action is present for several reasons in correctly designed underground tanks, because of several components that contribute to it.
Sand: Sand has capillary action that occurs because of the granularity of sand. A tank that is correctly designed should be surrounded by an "envelope" of sand. The sand in this case also provides a situation that has a filtration effect that is not only mechanical and physical, but also biochemical as stated from the effect the biofilm has on the sand.
Geotextile: Geotextile as a fabric has capillary action. Below is a photo that shows this effect. A geotextile is a fabric that is made of plastic polymers, that for practical effects, does not biodegrade with time, especially if it is being kept underground. Geotextile should cover the modular tanks so that the sand surrounding the tanks does not enter the tank. In this case it not only serves as the purpose to provide capillary action but also as a separation and filter media.

source: http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/PlantBio_p033.shtml

Tank components: Some modular tanks, have flat sides, these flat sides when placed together also creates capillary action. The closer the plates are together, the more pronounced this effect is.

source: http://webapps.lsa.umich.edu/physics/demolab/controls/imagedemobg.aspx?picid=1102

Capillary action has several effects the main one is that it moves water. As capillary action moves the water upwards, against the force of gravity, it eventually reaches a stage where it can not go up any more, at the same time it has more water molecules below it that are pushing up, as they are subject to the same forces of capillarity, however the difference with the situation of the tubes shown in the above photo, is that water in the sand, in the geotextile or between the modules, can "fall off" the tube, or be subject to a situation where as the cooler water from the bottom of the tank which is more dense, enters an area where the water is warmer and hence less dense, this cooler denser water will naturally descend again, until it gets to it's level of homeostasis, and again be subject to the effect of capillary action. This constant movement of water, by definition eliminates the possibility of the water stagnating. In association with this, as water would reach the water surface, it will also be subject to air and as such become aerated, once more increasing the Dissolved Oxygen level.

Comparisons with different types of underground tanks

Having said the above we can say we have found a situation where were create practically ideal conditions for the conservation or storing of water. So one could say that as long as one puts water underground then it should be acceptable. Not so much so, traditionally one of the most common types of underground water storage tanks have been cisterns made of concrete, these can be strong, but have the observation that the have an extremely low surface area to volume ratio, as such, unless external power consuming agitation, aeration devices or chemicals are used the water will go stagnant. The same is true of similar plastic or fibreglass cisterns. Recently there have also been a number systems that use "half pipes" providing void volumes, these have a larger footprint as they cannot be stacked, and are infilled between the half pipe rows with crushed rock or similar, this we could say is better that a traditional concrete cistern, as they are comparatively providing a slightly higher surface area to volume ratio.

As such having made the above analysis, we can see that to have indigenous biomass that is aerobic and beneficial for the water quality we also have to provide a good environment for it to exist. If this is done it can even be said that the quality of water while it remains in such a type of environment will improve with time.

Negentropy from an ESD perspective and its imperative

2011-01-14T17:40:00.000+11:00

This topic is a bit extensive to put and completely justify in a blog post, what I would like to do however is to make an introduction into this as I believe that this aspect a critical, fundamental and core to what is both a central to the source and effect of Environmentally Sustainable Design.

Of the literature that currently exists on this topic, most of it revolves around the periphery of how to achieve Sustainable Design, mainly basing it on concepts of renewable resources, both of material and energy, as well as delving into the aspects related to the environmental impact, it should not have.

From a historical perspective there has been some amount written on this topic, a search on Google for "entropy sustainability" return several papers written on the topic, however what is interesting to note is that most of these make reference to the Bruntland Report published in 1987 and make a start from there, some assuming the definitions of sustainability therein described, which was commissioned by the UN. After some papers that appear at the beginning of the 1990s, the topic largely disappears, except for some sporadic papers and constant contributions of Prof. Timothy Gutowski of MIT (Publications).

What I have found though, except those that directly address the topic, is that most of them miss the central base point of how sustainability is achieved. Those that directly address the topic, normally go as far as establishing the nexus between the aspect of Thermodynamics or Entropy and Sustainability, though they do not really elaborate on how to go about designing sustainably with this in mind.

As this is not an academic paper, and my idea is to provide practical and viable contributions to society, not that academic papers do not also do that, but they have another focus I will and give a more practical focus to what is being presented. Another observation is that for everyday purposes, I believe that concepts have to be synthesised so that they are easier understood, as such I prefer to use the word "Negentropy" meaning the inverse or in opposition to what is entropy.

So to summarise, in my view, this is achieved be designing systems that are, or tend towards, establishing Negentropy, from the acception of ESD.

To be able to elaborate on this it is necessary to trace back one's steps though and start with explaining what is Entropy, which is associated with the Second Law of Thermodynamics as a corollary.

To explain entropy succinctly is not simple, this is my attempt to do so in lay man's terms and how I connect it to ESD: Entropy is manifested when heat flows from hot to cold regions, this heat is molecular agitation and in the measure that we have more agitation there is more disorder in our systems and as such degradation.

One of the most common examples of entropy is ice melting in a warm room.

source: wikipedia

How do we apply this concept them to ESD? Well, an easy way to do this is in the concept of an urban environment, in a building that uses air conditioning. It is very good as it shows how entropy can be accelerated and what is the alternative as a solution invoking sound ESD principles.

A definition of air conditioning that can be used is: is the removal of heat from indoor air for thermal comfort. Now comes an interesting question where does this heat that was removed go to? Well outside obviously, this hot air, summed to other aspects such as the albedo of reflecting surfaces in urban landscapes, provide a feedback loop that has the effect increasing the temperature difference, making it ever hotter outside due to the increased demand on the air conditioning system to remove "heat from indoor", as the environment indoor is necessarily affected by the outside temperature. This effect is called the Urban Heat Island.

source:wikipedia

So what can be done about this? How can we introduce the concept of Negentropy to create a sustainable design in this environment which can be said is a very typical one where there is human population.

Plants or Flora as Negentropic elements
(please not that the intent of this is to be as illustrative as possible, to go into to details such as excepting archaea, or using terms like autotrophs and heterotrophs extensively, might defeat the purpose of reaching a wider audience.)
Vegetation can be considered as negentropic for several reasons. From the basis of the description of entropy, plants we could say have an effect that is "opposite" of entropy. Among the reasons plants grow we can find, for our purposes, two main ones which would be photosynthesis and the requirement of "heat". When referring to heat we mainly want to imply 2 or 3 conditions. Heat refers to a manifestation of molecular movement, hence one could theoretically say that anything over 0 degrees Kelvin, would be "heat", this is any the formal definition from a physics or chemical perspective. In colloquial terms though heat is a relative term, heat or something being hot could be considered above what has been defined as thermal comfort which is 21 deg C or 70 deg F, and then again it could be whatever anyone wants to define it.

Autotrophs, life forms that "create their own food", need heat to metabolise, this heat is transformed into organic compounds, what today has fashionably been called "carbon sunk" if you wish. This means that in a closed system heat is for practical effects being "absorbed" in an endothermic reaction. This constitutes, we could say and negentropic situation.

In the case of photosythesis, implying phototrophs, light and in this case we would mean sunlight, we also have a situation where light energy is being transformed again organic compounds. The presence of light is for our purposes associated with the presence of heat, in the measure that heat can be absorbed, photosynthesised, metabolised, is once more for practical effects a negentropic situation.

So as we have elaborated a bit on this basically what are we aiming for here? We have identified 2 aspects that we can work with, heat and light, both of these are forms of energy or E.

Albert Einstein put very well and succinctly quite a few years ago in his formula E=mc². When I was at high school and even later, when I was study to get my degree in engineering, it was a concept a bit difficult to grasp saying that if I have, matter (m) and make it travel at the speed of light (c) squared, then I end up with energy (E). What if we look at it another way, energy can become matter, which is what happens, for our simple purposes, in negentropy. The energy that is heat, is "sunk" in to the carbon structures that these autotrophs metabolize.

Going back to our air conditioning example, if we were to have plants surrounding the building, on the sides and on top as well as inside, we could do substantially to reduce then the entropy as the plants will be having several effects to break the feedback loop of ever heating the environment.

Water quality
This is another one of the cases that I find interesting. Water is tremendously complex, interestingly enough temperature is not given enough importance as characteristic of water quality, some people do however. The presence of dissolved oxygen (DO) is obviously a critical aspect of water quality, this goes down in the measure that we have more BOD or COD, but also temperature, we could mention some other aspects, but that would possibly be too much detail for the purpose of illustrating a point. "Coincidentally" all of these points are interdependent and related. However the point here is that in the measure that water enters an entropic cycle, where it is heated, it is degraded, remember heat is associated with molecular disorder, it also becomes a more suitable environment for anaerobic lifeforms, which can only further degrade the quality of water, further increasing the BOD and reducing the DO.

What is to be done then? Well water has to be given conditions where it can exist in a negentropic situation. How is that done? Well that is another point that depends on every situation in a different manner.

There are many more aspects that could be discussed that would have relation to how negentropy can positively affect ESD. I look forward to receiving any observations, corrections or questions on this topic.

More reading and references:
Preliminary Thoughts on the Application of Thermodynamics to the Development of Sustainability
Criteria Entropy and Its Implications for Sustainability
Economics, entropy and sustainability
Entropy and Energy: Toward a Definition of Physical Sustainability

Some philosophy and culture behind ESD

2011-01-12T17:24:00.002+11:00

When I first began working in this industry, what I most did was learning. Everything I did was new, my background was not of one related to the environment, and though I knew quite a bit of related to water management, mainly because on a ship you often find yourself with water rationing and restrictions and the main source of water being desalination, this was definitely not the sort of water management I was used to.

Among the things that struck me was how this was in fact a very young field, from every aspect. Even in my blog header I put " ESD is a relatively new concept in the human conscience.", I wrote that when I first set up the blog and I was thinking to myself: "what do I put here??". I had since thought of changing that to: making a "new" concept in the "western" human conscience... this is possibly more accurate.

Western cultures were more centred on themselves rather than the environment, one talks of an anthropocentric world, true, however but this was supposed to have begun in the renaissance, what of the theocentric world? Well in my opinion, this was also a previous version of a anthropocentric view, where man again placed God at the centre of the universe, and remember that in the Christian tradition man was made in "our image (God's), in our likeness," and then goes on to say "so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,and over all the creatures that move along the ground." (Genesis 1:26-27) of God, thus again he puts himself in the centre of the world. Well what has religion and the bible got to do with ESD? Well at the same time, not much and quite a bit. I am not making a religious discussion of this, but rather a cultural one, and this is certainly relevant, because it is the culture that we live in, that is obviously affected and affects the environment.

Why did I suggest the "western" aspect, why because the bible is, we could say for present practical purposes a western document, though more eastern in its origin, and it was the judeo-christian tradition that affected the western culture and for the better part of several centuries, and was the culture that came to dominate the planet, in more ways than one. Now that is obviously changing.

What of other cultures, may be eastern ones, or southern ones, to give or maybe invent some names. I would say that in these cases we see a situation where maybe possibly that was a "better" cohabitation with the environment, however I would argue that this was not necessarily purposeful. One of the great myths that always frustrates me is that how "original inhabitants" where supposed to have lived in closer harmony with nature, however around the world there are innumerable cases of mass extinction once humans arrive, in New Zealand for example with large flightless birds and marsupials, with similar situations in Australia, in Easter Island or Rapa Nui with flora being wiped out, to name a few cases. I would say then, yes, it is something new in the human conscience. No one gets "off the hook", for every story of how "original inhabitants" took care of the land, we can name several of how they did not. The idea is not to point fingers though, we are all universally to blame.

I find, and cannot but think, that again through what we see today, is not really an expression of that we are in fact prioritizing the environment, for the sake of the environment, once again we are doing it for ourselves, for the self preservation of the human species.

Another thing that I invariably find wherever I travel around the world, no matter how fantastic the solutions I propose are for the environment, if they are not economically viable, then they are more than quickly discarded.

At the end of the day, and Environmentally Sustainable Design, still has to be more cost effective than a "traditional" one or it has no place the environment, only very few exceptions exist to this situation, for example tax or government incentives, and even then they are related to economics once again.

The Energy Cost of Gravity in Desalination

2011-01-05T12:02:00.003+11:00

Another aspect that I find people tend to "forget" with costs of desalination related to power consumption, is the fact that this water has to be pumped up-hill. This is an unavoidable "cost", there is no way around this if you plan to use desalination, and desalination operation are almost invariable located at sea level. Forget about the immense amount of power required to generate the pressure to push the saline water through the membranes.

Let's take a look at the case of Los Angeles as a possible example. This is a very simple back of the envelope calculation considering that the whole of Los Angeles water supply would to be done through desalinated water, now I know that won't be the case, normally this additional sort of infrastructure is supplementary, remember this is to illustrate a point.

Using the data provided by Los Angeles Department of Power and Water (LADWP) it sold 193 billions of gallons of water to it's consumer in the 2009-2010 fiscal year. Taking the elevation of Los Angeles at 71 m (233 ft) location of the City Hall, as an approximate average for this calculation, calculating just the potential energy in joules required to simply elevate vertically this water, not considering any horizontal transportation or mechanical inefficiencies of pumps, etc... it requires 1.39 TJoules, this corresponds to 16.2 Mega Watts per day. Additionally this does not even consider providing any extra head or mains pressure...

Have in mind additionally that Los Angeles supplies itself with 70% non renewable power sources (http://www.ladwp.com/ladwp/cms/ladwp000509.jsp) which are only carbon emission producing.

Now this may seem a lot, or maybe not very much, if one considers the cost of which a KWatt/h is sold at. My idea is not evaluate if this is expensive or not, it is to illustrate that there is energy to be spent on something that can be avoided. As a percentage of the total power consumption of Los Angeles it might seem insignificant, however remember this is a pure mathematical physics model.

My simple calculations can be seen here:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ArEwIvQBUPQzdHROOEcyRUh4cUtiOWNHeHR2Q1lqZFE&hl=en_GB&authkey=CMz5oJMP

No matter how energy efficient you become, there is no way to avoid the energy cost of simple gravity.

Water Energy Nexus

2010-12-31T19:54:00.001+11:00

This is a post that I am writing in relation to a discussion on a LinkedIn group (Water Professionals) that has become quite interesting and is titled: 'What is the "Water Energy Nexus"'.

The discussion has evolved a bit and has arrived to a stage where maintaining focus on the central discussion sometimes becomes a bit complicated. However there are several things that must be said.

I plan here to attend each one of the points that I find are pertinent for me to discuss, as well as introducing some other relevant points, that have to do with the topic.

Vested Interests
The main challenge of this discussion is the presence of vested interests that are particular to certain industry or market segments, that obviously have an interest in establishing themes or topics to their benefit.

I will start by addressing a comment which is very simple.

To be or not to be, that is the question...
On my first comment in the discussion I stated that the Water Energy Nexus "should not exist", I maintain this. That it is does exist, surely it does, will it exist forever, it is very likely and probable, however this does not justify or approve it's existence.

Commenting to whether it "should" exist or not, is totally and absolutely pertinent, and does not distract whatsoever from the central point of the discussion, similarly as to saying: "should Polio or Small Pox exist?" Surely they do, they have, they where a huge problem and scourge for humanity when they were prolific, today fortunately we can say they are pretty much under control, if not practically eradicated. I go further and postulate that we should treat the Water Energy Nexus probably in a similar manner.

There is a situation that undoubtedly is of interest to parties who stand to benefit from a Energy Water Nexus. In the measure there is more energy required, or needed to be sold, or bought, for that matter, there will be people interested in driving this agenda. Of course!!! The promotion of things much more unethical is not unheard of, lets take the tobacco industry for example, another example, it seems sad to say, but some people were even opposed to abolition, where people have an agenda they will push it. Not even a few decades ago have people were still defending segregation, not only in the US, but in Australia too, what used to be North and South Rhodesia (Zambia and Zimbabwe), naming a few, even in South Africa the most recent example... what has this got to do with the Water Energy Nexus though? People will defend things that in hind sight may seem a bit odd, to say the least...

Energy
Then we must come and analyse energy then. What an interesting topic, especially now in current times. What is energy? The evolution of how energy has been managed over the years is amazing. From basic human power, to "transportable" and stronger animal power, to what was able to initially power the industrial revolution, a combustible solid, coal, that later gave way to oil and it's derivatives. The parties that controlled sources of energy, also controlled "power" in many more ways than one.

Our current generation has seen the appearance of renewable energy. What a fantastic development! Of many types of renewable energy such as wind, solar, geothermal... who knows how many more will become prevalent.

What is more interesting is the shift that Oil companies have done to become "Energy" companies, how amazing to see how companies like Chevron, now portray themselves as an environmental company! (http://www.chevron.com/globalissues/environment/) It never ceases to shock me when I see their TV commercials, not only when in the US, but also in Australia, also in India, in the Middle East, in South America, where the images are the same and all that changes is the accent of the narrator.

If I were an oil company I would do the same thing, it is very clever. The railway companies were never so smart, after the days of the railway barons. They failed to see that the business was a transport business, not the rail business.

In the same way businesses obviously try and make a business "environment" favourable for there business. A very good example is how General Motors bought and destroyed the California Transit System (http://www.trainweb.org/mts/ctc/ctc06.html), a bit more research will reveal a lot more. It may be "coincidence" that in the discussion we are talking about the same state? Some people say there is no coincidence, only causality. The interesting thing though was that it was not just GM and Ford, to benefit from the absence of a viable mass transit system, also to benefit from this was the Standard Oil Company. Who was to provide the fuel for the cars that would replace the rail system? Who was to supply the oil for lubrication in the engines and chassis of the cars? Who was to supply the rubber for the tyres? Who was to supply the asphalt for the constructions of the same very roads that the cars would roll on? Who was to supply the many synthetic plastic polymer based components that cars would come to be made of?

The appearance of renewable energy sources as viable alternatives is not something that the now "energy" companies love so much in that they are environmental solutions, as much as they will be able to sell a "product" that will never run out, it is literally like a hen who lays golden eggs, though even more so as this "hen" practically does not need to be fed, beyond performing minimum maintenance on the systems.

However this is not also an overnight thing. Renewable energy technologies have a lot more to be developed, they still has long way to go. In the meanwhile though sources of energy have to be assured and made safe for those who want them or need them.

Related to this I invite you to read The Grand Chessboard by Zbigniew Brzezinski.
This book is amazing, Mr. Brezezinski is not a common man, as his CV will tell, he has been the advisor to several presidents of the US. Here are the plans of how the above was to be achieved. It is very notable that just last week world news headlines stated that Iraqi oil production had reached a 20 year high... what a coincidence... (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gPT7AbUUj-WkyvUuyi99MrcJ85cw?docId=CNG.ef38a7e4c7ef34703610b728e354c915.f41)

Yes whichever way we look at it, there are people interested in conserving this Water Energy Nexus. Whether it be renewable energy or not is beside the point. If it is renewable then better, now if we are able to provide water with no requirement of energy that is the optimum situation. That is what I would advocate.

Superseding outdated infrastracture
What of the current infrastructure and the current existing system. What can I say?? That Southern California should not be abandoned? I totally agree, it should not. Could it be made self sustaining though? I would say probably, and even more so, without much expense. That also seems a bit amazing to state that one should not abandon something, from a country that replaced the Pony Express with copper wires and is now doing the same with fibre optics. To my knowledge the Pony Express ran for the last time in October 1861, it has not been missed, beyond a bit of nostalgia. The Pony Express was abandoned only for the benefit of the economy, likewise will happen with copper. Where a cost effective solution is to be found it will likely prosper, though it will find obstacles if there are parties who are not interested in someone else's prosperity but rather their own. Maybe it is better to use the word superseded, instead of abandoned, it has a more positive connotation. Who knows what technology will replace fibre optics?

So how can this be done? Water without the Energy Nexus. What experience exists?

Experience related to different parts of the water cycle
At every stage of the water cycle things can be done in a sustainable way. However one of the greatest challenges is to have the correct, or rather a better or more adequate, model of the water cycle.

A relevant document that illustrates this situation is a study done by the government of California:
http://www.energy.ca.gov/2005publications/CEC-700-2005-011/CEC-700-2005-011-SF.PDF

To address a discussion of mentioning initially how the water cycle should be modelled for a sustainable outcome goes a bit more beyond a simple discussion in a forum or a blog post. How from this, each stage of can be managed in more sustainable manner, also goes beyond this scope. However it can be said simply that the technology exists and has been under development for practically more than 30 years, though it goes beyond just technology and involves mainly concepts and philosophy.

The best way to demonstrate experience is to show case studies: http://www.atlantiscorp.com.au/projects

It can be noticed that not only can we witness considerable amounts of experience in the different stages of the water cycle, there can also be seen experience in amounts of time, but also a significant variety of geography, going from desert climates, to tropics, to temperate regions and practically everything in between. I personally have experience directly in a number of these projects.

So what is the Water Energy Nexus?
As we can see there are several ways of answering this question. One is simply to say: "the amount of energy required for the management of water, including it procurement, processing, supply and distribution and posterior treatment." Another is to say that: it is a way to market energy related applications for water management... and then go on from there...

Interviewed in The Australian

2010-12-31T17:18:00.002+11:00

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/climate-looks-right-for-a-green-roof-revolution/story-e6frg8zx-1225978236287

Thes Blog entry is reposted from an Interview that I gave to the The Australian, a newspaper with one of the largest circulation in this country and was published on the 30th of December 2010.

THE world's cities offer enormous potential for creating greener environments that manage water better.
It just takes a little creative insight to figure out a cost-effective means of making it happen.
Green roofs are one solution, and an Australian company is becoming a big player.
According to Felipe Kovacic, executive director of Sydney-based water management company Atlantis Corporation, the appeal of roof gardens is more than just aesthetic.
"They also enable better stormwater management and reduce the so-called heat island effect," he said. "Our founder, Humberto Urriola, had a vision of transforming Sydney into a greener city by covering it with roof gardens."
Urriola may not have succeeded in creating the garden city -- yet. But the company he founded in 1986 as a landscape architect after emigrating from Chile is nonetheless an expanding provider of water management solutions.

Demonstrating that environmental solutions built on innovation and a big vision can generate sustainable business, Atlantis has taken its core product, a lightweight roof garden concept, across the globe.
Now with 54 patents and offices in Chile, Spain and the US, and distributors and installations in 30 countries, the company has developed a range of products for greening the world's cities.
About 80 per cent of Atlantis sales are now generated internationally. The group, which employs a multi-skilled team of environmental engineers, landscape architects and biologists, has provided water management technology to Sydney's Olympic stadium at Homebush, the Woolloongabba Cricket Ground in Brisbane, a 42.3 megalitre water management system at the Dubai Sports City project, and a 2.1 megalitre stormwater management system at the Quilicura Mall in Santiago, Chile.
Green roofs can be designed to be an integral part of a new building, or can be installed on an existing building. They are less expensive than intensive systems, since they are lighter and require less structural support and less frequent maintenance. All parts of a complete green roof system are designed to support vegetation growth.
A green roof investment is a strategy against climate change events, such as increased rainfall, and there are genuine business reasons for companies to use them on their buildings. Countries such as Germany and cities such as Chicago and Vancouver are legislating for green roofs as well as vertical gardens.
Kovacic thinks that Atlantis has been successful not simply because people like "green" solutions, but because they are cost-effective.
He says that when dealing with engineers, architects and council employees, he has found that cost-effectiveness matters more than environmental effectiveness.
"We offer both." he said. "There is a reduction in the cost of stormwater management, reduced energy consumption and a reduced urban heat island. Property owners also benefit from the improved energy efficiency, less frequent roof replacement costs associated with a green roof, and a more attractive building that will retain tenants and possibly even generate higher rents."
Kovacic explains that a roof garden can reduce the heat island effect by 20-50 degrees Celsius, resulting in a two-degree reduction in surrounding ambient temperatures.
"Because it has vegetation, the green roof also absorbs a lot of water to reduce the run-off," he says. "It's like natural air-conditioning.
"When it rains, usually all the water is lost -- contaminated. It has to be treated as stormwater sewage that goes into the stormwater system and usually ends up contaminating our waterways and beaches.
"But the roof garden has the effect of capturing the run-off. Rather than 90 per cent run-off it reduces to 20 per cent."
Atlantis has developed a solution for underground water storage systems. Its Matrix Tank is a modular plastic tank that is one-third of the cost of a traditional concrete cistern. These are modular units that are flat packed. "They are highly scalable. We call ourselves the Ikea of landscaping," says Kovacic.
He says that one of the more exciting products that have come from the Atlantis product development team is the vertical garden. These are systems for creating vertical gardens on walls, as well as water filtration and purification units.

Created the Biological Footprint article on wikipedia

2010-12-30T09:05:00.000+11:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_footprint

This was quite interesting, first of all I though that it would be easier to simply write what it was about, however being able to define exactly what it is and then give an overview was a bit more complicated.

I also find it notable that notable that no one had made a specific entry for this article yet, though it should not really be a surprise, the same thing is true for the Stormwater Harvesting article.

The reason I thought it was opportune is because in one of the presentations I do mention the Bio Footprint as part of the environmental equation.

See slide 9.

The idea is to encompass, in detail, all of the factors that participate in the concept of Environmentally Neutral Design. There is quite a bit of information on Carbon footprints, Water footprints, even the larger subject of Ecological footprint, however not much in the detail of a biological footprint.

One might argue that this is simply the Ecological Footprint, I would however argue that Ecology is much more than "just" biology, though some define Ecology as a subdiscipline of Biology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecology).

The theory behind the Ecological Footprint is an interesting one and what it proposes in analytical terms is also quite significant, though one could argue it is a bit reductionist in that it puts the whole world in terms of one number or ratio. The further breakdown in categories such as carbon, grazing, fishing, forestry, etc. and even built-up land, though this last category is in itself an unrenewable asset or resource, though impact mitigation methods can be implemented, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to sustain that this area can ever be feasibly or practically regenerated or renewed. Delving further into the model, analysing for example Figure 3 of the 2010 report the "States of Global Biodiversity" are expressed as 3: Terrestial, Freshwater and Marine, though these are obviously of relevance, however one should ask in relation to not only happens to air, not only it's biodiversity, but also the quality of the same, as it affects it's biodiversity.

The easiest way to justify and explain the Biological Footprint is saying that "Ecosystems create a biophysical feedback between living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) components of an environment that generates and regulates the biogeochemical cycles of the planet." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecology). The Biological Footprint concerns itself with living or biotic component. To further explain this contrast as Ecology, and hence the Ecological Footprint concerns itself with ecosystems, this also considers the nonliving or abiotic component which are not of the domain of the Biological Footprint.

One of the interesting things that I came across was how to define "life",this is not as simple as it may seem. Further Biological classification one would think is something that was fairly well established for quite a few years, the last iteration of the classification system occurred in 2004. This does not not consider forms of "synthetic life" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10132762) yet, it will be interesting to see how these will be classified, though undoubtedly they should receive some differentiation, we may find that they will be assimilated into their "host" kingdoms.

Sustainable Holidaying

2010-12-29T16:45:00.000+11:00

This December we were lucky enough, with my wife, to get away for a few days from Sydney. Our basic idea was to go to Canberra, to see "our" nations capital, as Isabelle had not yet had the chance to visit.

As we were on holidays we were relaxing and did not really have as an objective to plan exactly were we were going. A bit of a contrast to my normal work life.

On our journey after staying in Jindabyne, we headed for Batemans Bay, we wanted to stay there, however "unluckily" all of the places were booked out and we started looking around for where else to stay. Eventually we called ahead and found a place in a small "town" or even village of South Durras, which is 15 km North of Batemans Bay. It's normal permanent population is about 400 people. The place where we were going to stay was the BIG4 South Durras Holiday Park. We managed to find the last spot for tents for that day.

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What was so interesting about visiting this park that is so worth writing about? Well I found out the it is a water sustainable holiday park. What was more interesting is that that the managers went about this in a very unassuming way, for them it was something normal. When we checked in, they told us that the water in the park was rain harvested tank water, that if we wanted to drink it that we should boil it. This was a "bit" novel.

This is where we set up our tent, right next to 2 water tanks
that collect water from the roofs.

All of the water served through taps is rainwater harvested tank water.

The water for the showers and WCs is from bore water.

This is the amenities block. From these, the black water, from the WCs, goes to a septic tank, from which the effluent goes into an infiltration trench for leachate absorption. The grey water, from the showers, skips the septic tanks and goes into the infiltration trench. The infiltration area is located in the back of the holiday park where the trees and vegetation are able to "consume" and absorb the leachate, eventually the purified water will re-enter the water cycle, either through evapotranspiration or by going into the aquifers.

The septic tank is cleaned from solids when required, that can usually be every 12 months.

Rainwater harvesting tank of the men's amenities block.

Water tanks that harvest from the roof and supply the holiday
park's kitchen.This is an authentically practically closed
water cycle, with no requirement for energy. Here the "energy
water nexus" has been broken.


Not only has the water footprint of this development been negligible, but also the biological footprint. As we can see that kangaroos are happy to share in the presence of guests, they have not gone away, being a testimony of reduced, if not practically non-existent, impact on the environment.


Practically every raised horizontal surface is to capture rainwater that is then managed in a decentralized manner.

Bruce and Kay, the managers of the park, should be congratulated on the water sustainable development they administrate.

They have a capacity of about 70,000 litres of above ground water storage and are able to provide enjoyable accommodation to more than 400 people when the holiday park is at full capacity. This is amazing considering that the town of South Durras itself has a permanent population of about the same number. It does this with a water footprint of practically 0. It captures and reuses as much water as it needs, it discharges no contaminated water, be it stormwater, greywater or blackwater. Its roads are of permeable gravel, and it's hard surfaces capture water. Greywater and Blackwater is managed on site. It has no pipes going in and no pipes out carrying contaminated water. All of the water management is done with practically no power consumption except for a few small pumps that have a minimum power consumption.

This is an example of how sustainable water management can be done, in a not too complex way, on a commercial scale. Many people say that this sort of application is not complicated on a small domestic scale, however to do something larger is more problematic. This is proof that it can be done on a larger scale, what is more these are totally scalable solutions.

Updated Water supply on Wikipedia

2010-12-13T17:02:00.000+11:00

Interesting how the Water supply article for Wikipedia, has no mention of water harvesting or decentralized water infrastructure.

There is a tremendous amount to contribute. There is also a lot to comment on "Fit for Purpose", how can it be that 100% of the water that normally we consume in developed countries, also has to be of potable quality. The normal justification or excuse we hear is that it is for health, safety and sanitation reasons, these seems a bit too convenient. Around the country we always rainwater harvesting tanks, that are used for potable purposes... why is it that in the country it is okay to drink harvested water and in the city not?

Remediation of Lagoa Rodrigo da Freitas

2010-11-24T03:36:00.000+11:00

While visitin in Brazil we had a look at the Lagoa Rodrigo da
Freitas. What we saw was shock and obviously has no simple or easy solution.

On the way to South America

2010-11-12T09:12:00.000+11:00

Off to Chile and Brazil for business. Will be seeing clients and suppliers in Chile and in Brazil participating in an Australian Business Trade Mission related to sports to provide sustainable sports fields. Will be interesting to see how the distributor I set up in Brazil has advanced, as well as to see how we can continue to grow and go forward implementing sustainable technologies.

One of the things I always look forward to is learning how they do
things in other countries and how we can apply and incorporate that knowledge in our applications. Always very satisfying is seeing how we positively affect others and in turn the environment of countries and places so far away.

Will have weeks interesting ahead.

Added stormwater harvesting to Reclaimed water article on Wikipedia

2010-11-10T23:42:00.000+11:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reclaimed_water

I find it amazing how this article, in spite of being one orientated to an topic of sustainability, does so little to explain sustainable practices. Sometimes the simplest and easiest things go unpercieved as viable options.

We often see that often people don´t believe or understand and reusing stormwater or rainwater can be so simple, and that effective and efficient use of that water can be made in a cost effective manner.

People want to be able to press a button so that a machine can do something, that something goes in one end and a product comes out the other end, that it should require maintenance, etc...

I believe, or rather know, that if things are designed correctly, they should not really need maintenance because they simple don´t require it, they should also function in a sustainable manner. Going deeper into sustainability is another topic.

Added Water Sector to the Sustainable Design wikipedia article

2010-11-09T23:19:00.001+11:00

Contributed today to wikipedia on the Sustainable Design entry. One of the main things I have observed in water management is the lack of concience in terms of consumption, from a general aspect to what is consumed for drinking.

How can it be that 100% of the water we consume, to water our gardens, wash the car, wash our clothes, etc... has to be of drinking water quality. Only very recently in Australia has some change been seen in this, with incentives to store water with Rainwater Harvesting. However these incentives have several sources, some are quite political and related to water restrictions and the imperative of offering solutions to citizens that seem so obvious.

The concept that is being promoted today is "fit-for-purpose", which seems much more reasonable than what used to managed.

Welcome to the ESD blog!

2010-11-08T23:22:00.000+11:00

In my career working in environmental systems, it always impresses me how little is known about Environmentally Sustainable Design, even among people who are supposed to manage this concept very well and because of what they do have the ability to affect the lives of many people. The main purpose of this blog is to share views with relevant stake holders who need to know about good ESD or Environmentally Sustainable Design.

One of the things that most impress me is how recent this concept is.

In Australia the first formal government recognition of this concept may date from May 2007 and can be found the Ministry of the Environment website: http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/publications/government/esd-design/index.html

The first article Wikipedia to have the name Sustainable Design was published in April 2003, and was literally only 4 lines long. Today you will see the Sustainable Design entry has changed some.

I plan to educate interested people, step by step, about this and my first action has been to create the Wikipedia entry for Stormwater Harvesting, differentiating it from Rainwater Harvesting.

People may say that this is a small difference, however I would beg to differ. Many of the environmental problems we have today stem from a problem in the misuse of language. We have to call "things" what they are, and not something else.