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Wednesday 10 April 2013

The Bio-Dome Project - A stepping stone.

(Project specification by Alex from UBG14 translated from Swedish).


Background



Today's cities are largely dependent on intercontinental transport to secure their supply of food. Globally, humanity has built a civilization that is dependent on fossil fuels to feed the growing cities. This leads to a difficult adjustment process now as the amount of newly discovered fossil fuels declines. The price of food will increase, which means a reduction of growth in many other sectors where consumption is severely limited by the greater part of disposable income swallowed up by rising food prices.


In a globalized world where information and technology travels quickly and efficiently, there is little reason not to act now. There are already technologies and knowledge that can show us a sustainable way into the future distinctive of adequate understanding of the earth's resources and the ability to allocate and use them right. In order to "build a bridge" that mitigate the impact of increased food prices focus has shifted to local production. The Scandinavian climate does not lend itself naturally to the production of agricultural products during the winter months without the use of greenhouses. Traditional greenhouses are not ecologically sustainable and rely largely on pesticides and fertilizers which not only can be questioned in terms of ecological sustainability but also because they are based on fossil fuels. Therefore, we want to develop a system of cost-efficient and climate-regulating greenhouses for sustainable production. The aim of this project is to create innovative models to support local action to pave the way towards a sustainable future for all.


Purpose



Innovative, Feasible


With this project, we intend to add new knowledge in technology and agrarian strategies for sustainable growth through technology that promotes self-sufficiency at the local-level and the reduction of greenhouse gases. These skills should be made available and the technological applications will be simplified to the level that people at the grassroots level can take these innovations and introduce them into their own business / everyday life. The idea is to deploy innovations to various municipalities, companies, associations and individuals regionally / internationally to support the transition towards sustainable development.


Long-term objective is to mitigate the adverse effects of rising food prices globally, which Västerbotten, where we are based, is a vulnerable region due to transport lengths and climatic conditions. We hope to excite interest, commitment and enthusiasm for alternative solutions, engineered ecosystems and implementations of alternative technologies to solve the agrarian problem. As part of this we want to apply the geodesic design, which represents one of the most ecologically sustainable ways to use materials.


Another objective is to create conditions for the large scale production of organic vegetables.


Goal



Thoughtful, Relevance, Sustainability


Milestones I: Prototype



Complete a semi-prototype of a bio-dome. Below is a breakdown of the components of bio-dome


a: Structure


A dome-shaped structure based on geodesics principles. Such a shape holds heat well in winter plus, with the need for ventilation in the summer the air circulation is done almost automatically by the air traveling up the sides of the dome and then out through the top, which is explained below (see Geodesics).


b: Aquaponics
A agro-systems that produces vegetables with fish feces as manure. Aquaponics has two main components; an aquarium, with aquaculture, and a plant bed. An aqua culture will be in the aquarium and in the plant bed, plants that provide the fish with vital minerals and bacteria.
(Vegetables, edible fish)


c: Control controllers


This system controls all sensors to keep track of the climate inside the dome, for example. temperature in the water / air, humidity, light, also bacterial levels, nitrite / nitrate levels in the Aquaponics system.


(Programs that control different sensors in bio-vault)


Milestones II: Employment Opportunities within the project



The project will open new opportunities for many different types of work, below is a list of the occupations that would be involved. It is also open for internships, where work on the project would be an advantage for participants. Participants can choose any of the following and have the opportunity to learn from a supervisor in the chosen profession.


a: Construction Work
b: biologists
c: Program Planner
d: engineer
e: Media Producers
f: IT


Milestones III: The Media



Continuously create new channels to communicate the collected knowledge and experience gained from the work in different media.


a: WordPress
b: Facebook
c: Tidnginar
d: Forums


Milestones XI: Scientific documentation process.



a: continuously measure and log levels in the Aquaponics system.
b: Continuous film construction of bio-dome
c: Total documentation and transparency


Milestones X: The public



a: Everyone should have access to the finished product.
b: A more developed understanding of ecosystems be given on the availability of bio-dome.
c: Improving our national footprint.


Milestones XI observance of equality



a: Achieving gender composition of the team.
b: Increase awareness and interest in these issues among young women.
c: Well, a good partnership between women and men in the project and oppose discrimination and suppression techniques.


Target



Delimited, Accessibility to, Well-defined


The primary target group for the project's end product is expert players in industry and academia with an interest in technology and studies and activities in sustainable development. The User Group is divided into primary users whose need of vegetables and fish will be met up to 70 percent by the bio-dome. The secondary user group consists of users, who through the activities that take place in bio-dome, gain greater knowledge and awareness of the importance of organic and local food.


Method



What we want to achieve

The bio-dome is an encapsulated and closed ecosystems in a dome built using geodesic principles. This means that the dome is constructed of triangles that are angled according to geometric calculations, maximizing the use of space and sunlight. The dome houses an aquarium with aqua culture for food fish, small fish, small shrimps and aquatic insects.
Above the aquarium are the plant beds with material of high porosity (eg hydrograins) for growing vegetables. In the plant bed will be worms which will eat up old plant matter so that bacteria levels are kept at a steady balance.


The water from the aquarium is fed to these beds and filtered through the root systems before returning to the aquarium. As they return to the aquarium, the water is enriched with vital minerals and bacteria that the fish need, particularly for the gills to function as they should. This circle of fish and gardening - aquaponics - forms a closed ecosystem that reduces the need for addition of new resources for the system's survival. The only thing that must be added on a monthly basis will be iron, which ends up in the plant beds through adding particles of dust to the aquaponics system, this will not harm the fish and goes through the system until it is completely absorbed by the plants.


How it is accomplished



• The first step is to write the project description and business plan as well as the budget.


• Financing of the project is done by searching stakeholders including public, private and social networks.


• Composition of a production team with the right skills.


• Collaboration with companies and public institutions for the production of components.


• A mix of bio-dome prototypes.


• Monitoring and analysis of the success of the project, final report.


• Organization


The project is owned by the non-profit organization EOS (or the economic association UBG14) and is thus the legal entity behind the project. For implementation of the project, working groups will be appointed composed of people who represent areas of expertise. A reference group is also connected to the project in order to review the business plan and provide feedback on the performance of the plan. The project will have three project managers with responsibility for the technical construction and management and a coordinator with coordinating mandate and overview of the business as a whole. Project managers work on planning, statement of operations for the project's working group for feedback and facilitation of follow-up.


The project will document all activities through documents and photography to achieve broad transparency in all relevant areas of the project.


Time and activity



Milestones Activity Time Results



Milestones in building prototype via existing channels within the Umeå University and the business community, seeking new expertise February 2013, extending skills base and increase the quality level


Organize information meetings from February to March deepening partner’s knowledge and connect with new partners for the project.


Contact representatives of the partners / target March. Forming peer group.
Applying for planning permission in March. Initiate the process of digging
Test new materials / models of Oil Heating and begin work on the control systems from April to October. Build dome control system 1.0
Excavation for the basic structure from May to September. Finished Building bio heating model.
Test material for Energy 1 and begin construction June to September. Determine the suitability of the material and produce prototype for Energy 1


Test materials for Aqua 2 October to April. Finished Building Aqua2


Purchase of fish / plants in March 2014


Aqua 2 and controllers tested April. Ensuring the validity of the model and the system.
Test Power 2 and heat 2 June to September. Finished Building Energy 2 and heat 2
Harvest Festival September arousing interest and curiosity and inform the public.


Presentation of the prototype in October. Identify new partners and begin marketing model


Milestones II:



Scientific documentation
Milestones III Study November 2013 ((Purpose and result))
Study June 2014


Effectiveness and expected results



Some indicators that will provide instructions on the projects performance are:


that we make progress with the construction of the structure and that it fulfills the same purpose as the mission statement, that we implement the project on a voluntary basis as it is described in the project plan.


Risk Analysis



RMP broken down by milestones. (This goes through the whole group together (SWOT))


Follow-up



From the outset of the project, will be linked external evaluators, beneficial representative from universities that will oversee operations in terms of plan accordingly, implementation, effectiveness, and dissemination of results.


Beyond this, the project managers will continuously keep log of activities and inform the Working Group on the work. In consultation with the working group and the reference group established the monitoring template for each milestone.


After the project is summarized, logs and documentation and a final report by the evaluator and project manager will be produced and signed.


Cooperation



EOS


Umeå University

International cooperation



We work for global sustainability, and therefore we work at national and international level with other players. Our goal is to promote social development, entrepreneurship and creativity worldwide.


Therefore, our projects seek sustainable transparency, collaboration with public, private and non-profit-driven actors, be inclusive and strive for gender equality and the participation of all major groups in society, to reflect the diversity we want to achieve at the global level.


A common strategy will be developed to realize this goal on the composition of the people involved in the project. We will work to support employment goals in Västerbotten region.


We will try to achieve diversity within the project and engage people with a wide variety of backgrounds and life experiences; we must also have the final report in English.

Friday 5 April 2013

The Terran Technate Consortium Summit

Devin has worked hard on organising an on line summit where like minded groups will come together to give a presentation of their ideas. Enrique and Sören Olesen will represent EOS at the summit.  Other speakers include Farid Khavari, Michael E. Arth and Roy Fischler among others. They will recode the summit and upload it to our new YouTube channel.

Cities of the Future


Tuesday 26 March 2013

New video

I have done a quite a bit over the last few months, even if I haven't written here much! I of the things I did involved making a video for the bio-dome project. And you can see it here:

Surface tension (it's the music)