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Michael Hayes

Nov 25, 2014
08:55

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Aquponics is a great complement to the urban food security/quality issue and such urban programs are well underway in a number of communities. There is one operation in London which uses a multilevel parking garage. However, such a real-estate score in the prescribed area may be hard to come by. On the CO2 removal issue, you may wish to explore what is called Dark Reduction of CO2. Here is an introduction to the concept: http://jgp.rupress.org/content/26/2/241.full.pdf+html In brief, the above type of chemosynthesis of micro algae opens up all the underground passages within the city for this type of cultivation and the resulting micro algal biomass can be used as feed for copepods/shrimp/crayfish etc. with the waste water from the animal tanks cycled back to the microalgae pipelines (i.e. aquaponics). This modified aquaponics approach could revolutionize the use of large urban undergrounds into valuable biomass production and CO2 mitigation infrastructures. Although NASA studied the use of urban sewage as a base nutrient for a type of urban aquaponics concept (please see the OMEGA study: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/research/OMEGA/ ) reduction of sewage to food is something of a hard sell at the market level. Yet, the OMEGA approach to urban sewage treatment (sans-human food production) needs to be implemented world wide and the dark reduction of CO2 cultivation method may offer an advancement to the basic OMEGA approach to utilization of urban resources. In my proposal within this category, I was looking at using floating aquaponics platforms, on Fresh Pond, as a multipurpose approach to mitigating the urban heat island effect. The basic technology would use HDPE dual walled (they float) culverts as large diameter floating aquaponics (algal and crayfish) cultivation tanks in which the lake water is cycled through the algal tanks to provide the basic nutrients to the algae and clean the water of excessive nutrients at the same time. The upper surfaces of the tank farms would support greenhouse structures which would, in turn, support year round community gardens. And, the surface cooling effect of having such an aquaponics operation on the lake surface can help cool the surrounding areas during the summer. Although there are other approaches besides aquaponics that are useful in cooling Fresh Pond during the summer, for me to now claim the use of aquaponics would be disrespectful of your proposal and puts me in the situation of appearing to attempting to appropriate your proposed technology. So, I will withdrawing my proposal unless you wish to provide me a private waiver on the use of aquaponics as it may be used on Fresh Pond for surface water cooling. Or, another option would be for me to simply drop my proposal and join your team as an adviser. Please let me know your thoughts. Warmest regards, Michael

Hanaa Rohman

Dec 2, 2014
01:32

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Thank you for your proposal! I encourage you to think about the Cambridge context and our goals-how would integrating algae and aquaponic farms address urban heat island effect? Has this already been implemented elsewhere? You might also consider collaborating with this similar proposal by vramanu: https://www.climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/1301101/planId/1311401.

Venkatesh R

Dec 21, 2014
04:09

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Hi, My ideas are on similar lines, you can share your views on it. https://www.climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/1301101/phaseId/1301601/planId/1311401 My Other Ideas: https://www.climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/1300103/planId/1311601

Venkatesh R

Dec 22, 2014
12:29

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As mentioned in the idea, Green Algae have a lot of advantages, probably with transpiration in a small area they can provide better cooling efforts than planting the trees, if this is the case we can use them in vertical plantation with a thin layer of frames. This is a topic that needs some expert guidance. If we can modify their DNA along with other plants such as cactus, we can develop a different breed of Algae that can survive in arid conditions this is some what similar to what some scientist does for agricultural crops to make they survive against the insects/worms. Probably you can provide your views on this.

Alan Greenspan

Dec 22, 2014
01:18

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Hi Michael, yes I am familiar with Omega. Yes you can join, but remember we are trying to reduce urban heat islands... where there aren't any ponds. Getting more ponds in urban areas could help, but I am unsure Cambridge has that ability, thus simple, modular aquaponic farms on rooftops is the best solution due to it's exponential benefits. Hi Hanaa, of course I think of Cambridge, and everywhere. I am from Arizona, where the heat island effect is much more problematic due to the extreme heat problems... This idea is pretty much a combination of the best ideas I have seen. Yes there are vertical farms in buildings, algae farms on rooftops, white roofs, rooftop farms/greenhouses... in fact the vikings over 3,000 years ago had the first 'green roof/wall'.. Will update the rest soon.

Lee Farris

Jan 8, 2015
03:07

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What happens to the algae when the water freezes? Does it die? Do you have to re-plant?

Alan Greenspan

Jan 9, 2015
03:56

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Yes it dies. Not hard 'replanting'... Or if not all of the water freezes, it can survive and regrow.

Venkatesh R

Jan 9, 2015
05:03

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Apart from the buildings, if we can target container trucks and large vehicles bodies like buses / train compartments we can cover up more areas, i am not sure how much this is feasible the frame structure should be fixed firm in fast moving vehicles, but in container trucks we can ensure that they can grow s they move slowly. We can target the advertisement boards as well using algae, instead of paints we can carve the images using algae plantation. these ideas seems to be feasible, but not sure about the implementation challenges.

Venkatesh R

Jan 22, 2015
08:41

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As per my understanding algaes smells, but literally that will be due to the salinity of the water, whats your view on this ? https://www.climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/1301101/phaseId/1301601/planId/1311401/tab/COMMENTS

Jennifer Lawrence

Feb 5, 2015
09:43

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Dear Sustainiverse: Just a reminder that the contest closes tomorrow. You've explained a bit about how the process works in your comments. Please move those to the proposal itself so that the judges will be able to easily access all the information necessary to make an informed decision. Also, while I understand the concept, I do not quite understand what you are proposing to do - you mention that schools will be your first step, but you don't say why, or how you will engage with schools. Please go into a bit more detail and be very clear in outlining your proposal idea - think of how you would explain this to somebody who has no idea what you are talking about. Thanks! Jen

Climate Colab

Feb 18, 2015
12:02

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Thank you for submitting a proposal. Unfortunately, the contest closed before the proposal was completed. We hope that you will consider submitting another in the future.