SciBlogs

Posts Tagged Sustainability

Overheard in Christchurch Daniel Collins Mar 31

1 Comment

Not quite New York, but much more on topic.

Nicky Wagner, National list member and Christchurch resident, suggested during question time following the ‘Blue Gold’ screening last Thursday that perhaps Canterbury should think about restricting the number of cows it houses.

She also suggested that part of the delay in ECan’s consenting was due to the complexity of the problem, including scientific. I wonder if she read this.

And after the panel (four politicians, two Oxfam reps) had been asked questions, I popped one to the audience: Which is the greatest threat to Canterbury’s water resources in the near future?

    (a) The thirst for profit
    (b) The population’s consumption
    (c) Climate change; or
    (d) Climate variability

A few people voted for (b), and I didn’t see any votes for (d) though someone did conflate it with (c). An overwhelming majority voted for (a) – the thirst for profit. I would have thought more people would have reflected on their consumption. Then again, they did just watch ‘Blue Gold’, which utterly failed to emphasise the threats of over-consumption, climate change and climate variability, and we are in the midst of the Canterbury water wars tussles. I didn’t ask anyone to argue their case, but I was asked if I was a journalist.

Battle of the bottle Daniel Collins Mar 26

No Comments

Not the beer bottle, but the water bottle. There’s a water war going on, and one battle took place this week.

The first volley came on Monday, World Water Day, by the Story of Stuff Story Team:

YouTube Preview Image

The International Bottled Water Association returned fire with a montage of staged interviews:

YouTube Preview Image

See Green Inc. for on-the-battle-field coverage.

Trading water for democracy in Canterbury Daniel Collins Mar 23

No Comments

I arrived late. A woman was speaking in Christchurch’s Victoria Square on Monday soon after noon, riding over a regular barrage of heckles from members of the 300-or-so audience (the Press under-counted). It must have been Nicky Wagner. Her task, as National list MP and Christchurch resident, was to give the government’s stance on the Creech Report – or why it may be okay to sack the regional council’s elected officials and install temporary commissioners.

The hecklers, and most of the audience by the looks of it, saw the Creech Report’s main suggestion as an affront to their voting rights. Taxation without representation. But they also saw the threat that this would have: more water given to agribusiness, along with downstream consequences.

Politicians must have thick skin, and Nicky Wagner was putting up with a lot. She seemed to falter occasionally, but if this were Survivor: Beehive, I’d have been voted off the island long ago. After her speech, exiting stage right as another speaker took the mic, she was soon approached by Sam Mahon – Cantabury artist and water rights activist. I saw a storm brewing but didn’t want to pry, so I left it up to the pro-journalist and video cameraman. They weren’t in the main spot light anymore. It seemed they had been sparring partners in the past, but they went their separate ways soon enough for separate interviews.

I wasn’t there to heckle or wave a flag. I wasn’t there to listen to new arguments (there weren’t any, for of against). If it wasn’t for the Crikey Creek fan-base (hi Steve!), I wouldn’t have taken the time.

I’ve read most of the Creech Report (including an obvious error of fact in the executive summary). Some of it seems eminently reasonable. Some of it is way out of my scope. ECan has failed in some respects, for example the time delays in deciding on resource consents. But the main failure is really a lack of a strategic plan to better guide the big picture, hence the Canterbury Water Management Strategy. I think the tardiness with a plan stems in part from the socio-hydrological complexity of the region compared with others. But the territorial authorities that called ECan into question have also failed their consented duties, and I don’t buy the Creech Report’s contentious argument of sacking the elected councillors, even if I don’t like them. There needs to be citizen oversight.

My sense is that my position is pretty middle-of-the-road, even if both road safety and Kiwi blogging likes to have distinct left and right. My hope is that a compromise will be found, that the screws are tightened for ECan to get a strategic plan in place (much has already improved since the investigation began), and that with the screws come supplemental resources, which I think is reasonable given how significant water here is for the national good – economy and hydropower. Whatever the outcome, I expect to see it next week.

Hopeful World Water Day! Daniel Collins Mar 22

1 Comment

World Water Day isn’t really an occasion for celebrating. Nor is it really a sombre occasion to remember past sacrifices. It’s an opportunity to highlight a problem and work towards a solution, lest we become complacent.

This year’s focus is on water quality.

From the UN:

“According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 4 billion cases of diarrhea each year in addition to millions of other cases of illness are associated with lack of access to water that is safe for human consumption. Per year 2,2 million people die as a result of diarrhea most of them are children under the age of five. Human health is severely impacted by water-related diseases (waterborne, water-washed, water-based, and water-related vector-borne infections) as well as by chemical pollution discharged to water.”

These statistics are essentially a problem of the developing world.

While the developed world has it share of water quality problems, stemming largely from industrial contaminants like heavy metals, hydrocarbons, nitrogen and phosphorus, it is more often the natural ecosystems that bear the brunt than the people. We have the flexibility to avoid drinking the water or swimming in the lake, even if we don’t like it.

Developing countries are not so lucky – they do not have the same freedoms. Access to safe water is so low that many people only have the freedom to choose between poor water and no water. This means that the health burden of poor water quality falls predominantly among the poor global south. If you ascribe to Amartya Sen’s story, as I do, it is development that brings us our necessary freedoms. Though with development also comes different types of water quality problems.

But what of the solutions?

Direct solutions are varied and many. Where sewer systems are absent, latrines are a must, and should be designed to encourage use and keep the wastes away from freshwater supplies. Where potable water is not supplied, some way to make water potable is also a must. This may be some filtration device or simply boiling, but then to facilitate boiling energy is needed, and that opens a whole new can of worms (i.e., house-hold air quality, deforestation, yadda yadda). For developed situations, the preferred solutions are typically along the lines of keeping the pollution out of the water supply, say by fencing agricultural streams and reducing fertiliser applications, or by using less-polluting chemicals in the manufacturing process. But we should also use water treatment facilities to mop up around the edges.

I say “direct” solutions above because they don’t come of their own accord. They need to be managed or bought by indirect actions. Some say regulation is the way to go. Others push economic incentives. Voluntary efforts can work, but also fail. Maybe it’s rooted in unsustainable population growth, or a shift in our collective values. I’m being very vague here, because these debates get very hairy very quickly and I’m not going there today.

In the end, though, take this opportunity to think about how the quality of water available to you determines what you can do with that water – swimming, fishing, growing crops, bathing, drinking, or just plain surviving. And then, if you’re so inclined, consider what you and others can do to have more water-related freedoms.

Energy storage by mimicking photosynthesis Daniel Collins Mar 19

2 Comments

From my old alma mater, MIT chemist Dan Nocera has developed a method to store energy that mimics photosynthesis – by splitting water.

The key is having the right catalyst, and one that is cheap to make and maintain. In this case, a film of cobalt and phosphate coating an electrode. When fed a modest electric current, say from a solar panel, water is split into oxygen and hydrogen gas. This doesn’t produce energy, it just stores it in the form of two gases. When the sun goes down, the H2 can be oxidised with a fuel cell, producing electricity and water again, and the cycle can be repeated the next day.

Visit Science to see footage of the process, listen to a podcast or read the abstract (published in 2008 – okay, I’m a little slow, but it’s all Scientific American’s fault).

Nocera is very gung ho about improving the human condition and educating young minds:

“In the energy game, young people can choose lots of different paths. I’m just asking them to save the world.”

YouTube Preview Image

Improving on-farm water management: Lessons from California Daniel Collins Mar 17

No Comments

The Pacific Institute, based on Oakland, CA, has recently released a report describing seven case studies of how farmers in CA have improved water management. They illustrate…

“…diverse strategies for innovative water planning, use of technology, institutional management, economic incentives, and environmental protection and restoration.”

And they serve as lessons for other farmers in CA, but also in other water-challenged regions of similar socioeconomic and technical standing – New Zealand included.

The crops included in the stories number more than just seven: corn, rice, pasture, tomatoes, artichokes, lettuce, almonds, grapes, etc etc.

The approaches used to improve water management are also varied. Peter Gleick summarises several of the conclusions thus:

“Managing for multiple benefits. Each of the case studies offers multiple benefits and collaborations among diverse sectors of the economy.
Accurately measuring and monitoring water use. The most significant improvements in efficiency require good information on water use, climate and weather conditions, and more.
Capturing the untapped potential of existing technologies. In recent years, California farmers have made progress switching to water-efficient systems for distributing and using water but much more potential remains untapped. No new magic technology needs to be developed.
Setting targets and providing economic incentives to accelerate progress. Several of the case studies show how quantitative targets and economic incentives can be effective tools to accelerate water management improvements.”

The second point is the very same that won Fruition Science its Imagine H2O prize: monitoring transpiration of grape vines and irrigating when necessary.

Given the similarities I think exist between California and New Zealand, Canterbury and Hawkes Bay in particular, I expect to delve deeper into this report in the future.

World water crisis: Myth or reality? Daniel Collins Mar 13

1 Comment

Asit Biswas, an expert in international water resource management, has changed his mind. He no longer believes a world water crisis is a crisis of physical supply. It is, instead, a crisis of management. He also does not believe wars will be fought over water. What gives? Have a listen.

YouTube Preview Image

Is California the future of Canterbury? Daniel Collins Mar 11

1 Comment

I’ve been mulling over this for a while. I’ve been looking for regions similar to New Zealand in terms of climate and geology, or to regions within New Zealand, but different in how the society manages its water. How do other people solve the same water resource problems, or fail to solve as the case may be? Call it comparative water resources management.

My training is a mix of ecological engineering, physical geography and ecology, with a dash of anthropology, environmental planning, and a side order of reality and current affairs. I see a landscape first as a geological-climatic template, around which the hydrological-ecological system is folded. Into this I add humanity. There are feedbacks up the hierarchical chain, but a first pass is a good start.

So to compare water resource management practices I need to isolate the non-human variables first – the environment. You can never do this perfectly, except perhaps in a lab. But we only have one lab – the Earth – and I’m not going to play dice.

If I look for a region similar to Canterbury – an environmental isomer or doppelganger – I start with the biophysical environment. The plains are one big depositional system, geologically. Layers of gravel and finer sediment have been laid down over millennia forming a big aquifer-sandwich. Most of the water comes from snow and rain that fall in the Alps, while the plains is itself on the sub-humid side. Both surface and subsurface waters are important, and ecosystems are certainly water-dependent, albeit really only moderately.

Turning to the human system, it is a developed liberal democracy with a GDP heavily dominated by agriculture – dryland grazing, dairying and broad-acre crops mainly. Outdoor recreational activities include tramping/hiking, kayaking, fishing, boating. Key fishes of interest are trout and salmon – even though they’re introduced. Population is mainly urban, and rural agriculture is far from subsistence.

Does this sound like California? It does to me.

If California is a suitable doppelganger for Canterbury then, will California’s current problems and solutions apply here in the future? And can Cantabrians learn from the successes and failures of our trans-Pacific neighbours?

Ugandan rains bury villagers Daniel Collins Mar 10

No Comments

A few days before the Save the Elephant research site was washed away by a flash flood, villages along on the western flank of Mt Elgon were hit by landslides, killing at least 100.

Minister David Wakikona, MP for Manjiya County in Bududa district, said

“Everybody is dead. 320 people are unaccounted for. I don’t know if we shall get any survivors out.”

The trigger was also heavy rain associated with the onset of the March-May rainy season. And while landslides are always to be expected sooner or later on steep terrain, this area had became more susceptible since the 1960s due to land clearance for crops and fuel.

I visited the area in 2008. The local Uganda Red Cross team gave me a tour of the mountain side and I met the elders of one of the villages above Mbale. Both the Red Cross and the villagers were concerned about landslides and rock falls that had claimed several lives. And the village elder seemed at least vaguely clued up about the cause: deforestation. That said, Oxfam released a report in August 2008 about the potential impacts of climate change on Uganda, and suggested climate change would increase the danger of landslides. While that may be true, I think it is rather useless – the important factors around Mt Elgon at least is deforestation and village vulnerability.

Mountain hillslope and village site above Mbale, eastern Uganda.

Mountain hillslope and village site above Mbale, eastern Uganda.

Trees reduce the tendency for soil-mantled slopes to fail in three ways, though not all are relevant at any one site or time. The most obvious is that their deeper and stronger roots bind the soil together vertically and laterally; they may also bind the soil to underlying bedrock if shallow enough. The heavier trees increase the friction of any failure surface within the soil. And the higher transpiration of the trees can dry up the soils more, thus requiring more water-logging for slope failure to occur. Trees are also helpful in limiting the run-out distance of rock falls by serving as a natural debris belt.

With this in mind, the main recommendation I gave to the Red Cross and villagers was to plant fruit trees. They are so below the poverty line that they need both nutritional or economic assistance as well as protection from landslides. Fruit trees hits two birds with one stone. It reduces their vulnerability and increases their resilience to the next natural hazard.

System to monitor grape vine water status wins water start-up prize Daniel Collins Mar 09

1 Comment

Fruition Sciences, based in the US and France, has won the top prize in Imagine H2O’s competition “to help innovators and entrepreneurs turn great ideas into real-world solutions that ensure available clean water and sanitation.” Fruition showed particular business potential by making significant water savings for nine California grape growers.

“Fruition co-founder Sebastien Payen said he saw a real challenge in the wine industry because there were “absolutely no plant-based sensors to optimize water management.”

He combined his expertise in sensor and information technology with co-founder Thibaut Scholasch’s research on vine water status to create the Web application.”

The system seems to work as follows.

Sap flow sensors at the base of the vines monitor how much water is flowing through the plants, and hence how much is transpiring. Weather data and knowledge of the site are used to estimate the evaporative demand at any particular time. This is the rate the soil and plants would lose water by evapotranspiration if they had all the water they could use. These data are sent off for analysis by “proprietary algorithms”, to compute how much irrigation should be applied, and when, in order to optimise fruit composition.

The water saving most probably comes from irrigating only if it would increase transpiration. Above a certain level of soil moisture, called the stress point, transpiration levels out. At this point, more water won’t mean more transpiration, but would mean more evaporation. And if you go even higher, to the soil’s field capacity, you’d start losing water below the roots from gravity drainage. For the plants, evaporation and drainage are a waste of water.

The proprietary algorithms no doubt estimate the actual transpiration rate of the plants and the potential rate imposed by the microclimate, and then assess whether the plant is stressed, how stressed, and whether it should be irrigated.

Sap flow sensors are are a step up from measuring soil moisture status alone, which is also monitored to guide irrigation applications, but is further removed from what is actually going on in the plant and hence typically less informative.

« Older Entries