An inspiring article about Water Senstive Urban Design in India.
The Urban Vision: Resource
via India Journal: How to End our Urban Monsoon Woes: Wall Street Journal.
Phytoremediation.
These systems are using phytoremediation to clean waste water. Phytoremediation is the process of using plants to remove pollutants from soil or water. The term comes from the Greek word “phyto”, meaning plant, and the Latin “remedium”, meaning to restore balance. Phytoremediation = plant + restore balance. See the longer explanation of phytoremediation by Wikipedia.
One the leading figures in this field is Dr John Todd. Very informative and inspiring can be found on his John Todd Ecological Design.
Reed bed water treatment systems can benefit people in emergency or temporary “communities” such as disaster zones and refugee camps. This thought struck me when reading about Shigeru Ban using paper tubes to build emergency shelters.
The question that struck me was; “Could the reed bed biomass (plant stalks, branches, leaves, bark) be made into paper tubes and used for construction?” The Shigeru Ban website claims that the paper tubes can be made on site cheaply with simple machinery. What was the raw material used?
Reed beds can produce a large amount of biomass. This depends on the amount of water and climate. The following image shows the amount of biomass produced in only 3 months. This site is in the United Arab Emirates. See earlier post.
Cultivating the reeds
Besides producing biomass for paper tubes (if this is possible) reed beds have many other practical uses to that could help displaced communities. Reed bed water treatment systems:
- Transform waste water – remove the hazard of waste water.
- Create treated water – create a resource (need to assess time required for treatment cycle).
- Are made from simple and natural materials which can be locally sourced. Drainage medium can be made from local materials if available. Pipe network (light weight easy to transport). Rubber liners, optional in order to harvest water, otherwise can percolate into ground (risk of contamination to be assessed).
- Are low tech systems and so are robust, meaning they are less likely to fail in difficult conditions.
- Do not need electricity if then can be gravity fed. Or if a pump is required this could be wind or solar powered.
- Do not (necessarily) have mechanical components which can break down.
- Can be made with low skilled labour.
- Provide immediate purposeful “employment” of people on the ground. If there are many able bodied people this can help create a sense of empowerment.
- Produce biomass – a resource for many other uses such as shelter construction, shade provision, animal fodder, light weight fencing, wind shelters, fuel.
There are of course many issues to think about when considering reed bed systems for emergency and temporary communities. It’s just not possible to cover them all here but would be worthwhile to investigate the possibilities which could bring some relief to to people in distressing situations.
How to get started on panoramic photography
This article is from the 360 Cities website.
What are these photos?
You’re looking at 360-degree panoramic photography. Some people call it VR photography (that’s “Virtual Reality”) or QTVR (“QuickTime Virtual Reality”). Panoramic photography of some kind has existed for more than a century. You can see many examples of 360 degree photos from 100 years ago.
The images you see on 360cities are spherical panoramas. They are made from multiple photos that cover every direction from a single viewpoint. These photos were taken at nearly the same time, and joined (stitched) together with great precision on a computer.
When this is done properly the result is a completely seamless, smooth image (without borders between photos), which can be viewed in any direction. You can even zoom. (You’ll also notice arrows inside the panoramas on 360cities – if you click on one of those, you’ll jump into a nearby location…)
What equipment do I need do make photos like these?
You need a camera and a computer.
As with any craft, the right tools can help you get the job done faster, easier, and better. You can start by trying making panoramas with any compact digital camera. Once you’re hooked, then you can think about getting the best tools for the job!
About the camera:
Panoramic photos can be made using any kind of film or digital camera. The most effective way to do it is with a digital SLR (Canon EOS 300D
Panoramas can be shot handheld (as in this panorama for example), but it is much better to use a tripod and a panohead (panoramic tripod head).
A panoramic tripod head, mounted on a tripod, allows you to mount your camera precisely so that it can rotate in a circle and remain properly aligned. You can easily make your own panohead out of wood or metal. There are also many excellent commercial panoramic tripod heads available, in every price range. Aside from the aesthetic issue, there is nothing a commercial panohead offers that you cannot do with a home-made version — except for the convenience of having it ready-made and well-designed, of course.
About the computer:
You can use any windows, mac, or linux computer. There are both free and paid programs you can use for the entire workflow of creating panoramas. You will need
- a program to develop RAW images from the camera.
- a stitching program such as Hugin (free), PTGui, or Autopano Pro
- an image editing program such as Photoshop or Gimp.
Stitching photos is not a lightweight task, and the more RAM you have, the better. It also helps to have fast hard disks. For example, tiny notebook (such as the asus eee) might take 3 hours to stitch a panorama while the same task would take 10 minutes on an average desktop computer (because of RAM and disk speed, more than processor speed).
How to make your first panoramic photo
We will soon begin publishing tutorials for stitching your panoramas.
Until then, feel free to check this stitching guide for beginners to learn more about stitching panoramas.
What’s next?
You can join 360cities and upload your panoramas, or if you want to discuss ideas or get help with creating panoramas, you can check our forum.
Links to More Information
Converting Large Panoramic Images for Google Earth
End of copied webpage.
A link to Nodal Ninja Pano Heads website. I checked their prices and were 30% cheaper than Ebay!
Ecosolutions are a USA based environmental engineering consultancy. They have design systems for USA Embassies that have been implemented in the UAE and Pakistan. Go to the EcoSolutions website for a diagram showing how the systems work. (The diagrams could be bigger for easier reading). The diagrams are for systems in the USA and may not necessarily apply to the UAE conditions. However the general principles will be the same.
WBG have implemented fifteen (15) wetland waste water treatment systems in the UAE. See earlier post with photographs regarding the system they have at thier site office.
Johnstone Smith Consulting have good clear schematic diagrams of various reed bed treatment sytems. They also have some good photographs.
The EcoDIY has a good collection of photos showing the installation stages of a domestic system.
Wetland Water Treatment Systems in the UAE
It was very exciting to learn at the recent Water Days Conference that Waagner Biro Gulf has installed fifteen reed bed water treatment systems in the UAE. Peter Neuschaefer, Director of Environment-Water-Energy ME, made a very interesting presentation which proved that these living water treatment systems can and do work in the GCC. After the presentation I met with Peter and visited their installations at the WBG offices. The systems were running very well. Crystal clear water. No smell. The reeds, which help to clean the waste water are cultivated and used to create reed screens, mulch, and even fuel to generate energy. Talk about sustainability, this is the “real deal”. These systems transform waste water into a resource and sequest carbon. I believe that these type of systems will become a common feature within developments over the coming years. Landscape architects and environmental engineers will work together to create sustainable green infrastructure . Starting from now.
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- Crystal clear water, no smell
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- Cultivating the reeds
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- Reeds at a mature stage of growth
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- The cultivated reeds can used to make screens, mulch, and fuel
Aga Khan Development Network – AKDN Blog
Aga Khan Development Network – AKDN Blog
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Open Space – A Definition (Does This Help?)
Open space is any area which is open and unobstructed, except for specifically allowed constructions, and accessible to and usable by all persons.
Remove barriers to movement in external environments. Steps obstruct movement for people in wheelchairs, travelling with wheeled child carriers, or people with impaired vision or physical ability due to injury, illness or age. People who fall in any of these categories are handicapped by environments which harbor barriers to movement. They may even be denied access to important community and social services.
Equitable access has long been recognized as an important criterion for the design of public spaces and buildings. Building entries in particular should be accessible by all people. One key requirement is thresholds should be easily traversed. This means that the transit interior and exterior surface levels should be over a level threshold, or, a minimum drop from interior to exterior. Steps at thresholds should be avoided.
However stepped thresholds are commonly seen as a way of protecting internal areas from the risk flooding. This approach safeguards against the risk of internal flooding where the external surface drainage design does not provide the necessary protection. However external surface drainage can, and should, be designed to reduce or eliminate the risk of internal flooding.
Qualified landscape architects are properly trained to design for external drainage. Good external drainage schemes function in two ways; 1) surface drainage, and 2) overland flow. It is important to understand the difference between these two functions, and to ensure both work together to safegaurd against internal flooding.
The first drainage function is surface drainage. Conventional systems include a network of surface drains and connected pipe work. External paved surfaces are graded to fall to surface drains. Water collects in the surface drains and then runs throught the pipe system to the broader storm water netork or local detention or retention devices.
The second drainage function is overland flow. This system is an essential backup in the event of failure of the surface drainage network (blocked drains). Surface levels are graded to direct surface water aways from internal spaces and other sensitive areas.
These two systems, when designed to work together, provide robust safegaurding against internal flooding. Thresholds into buildings can then be flush and equitable access greatly improved.
Two articles in the May 2009 Issue 23 of Landscape Magazine triggered the writing of this post.
The article on Page 8, “Lootah Calls for Innovative Ideas in City Beautification” cites Eng. Hussein Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality. Eng Lootah stresses “the need to find innovative ideas” for city beautification and highlights the “importance of planting and landscaping of the area of Hatta”.
This is great. Hatta is a beautiful area within the UAE. The landscape character is one of the most distinct in the region. It is a topography of stone. It is elemental and pure. It is also very fragile, and vulnerable to unsympathetic development.
stone landscapes of Hatta
The natural landscape character of Hatta is a valuable asset. It generates an incredibly strong sense of place. Distinctive landscapes are worth preserving for social and environmental values, they also make money. This is the foundation stone of the true destination. Successful tourism destinations are built on sense of place.
Serendipitously, Page 26 of the same issue contains an answer to the call for innovative ideas in, “Punta Pite: A Residential Development on the Chilean Coast Reveres the Local Maritime Landscape”. This article showcases an inspirational landscape project, using local materials to enhance the natural landscape character. The landscape architect, Teresa Moller, worked with sculptor, Gerardo Aristia, to insert constructed elements into a natural landscape.
The designers use stone from the site to create elements such as paths, steps and walls. These interventions enhance the natural landscape character. The constructed elements do not spoil the sense of harmony within the landscape.
stone path in Punta Pite
The restricted use of local materials would be nothing new to the local region. Villagers high in the mountain wadis successfully used local materials to achieve the same results as enjoyed by the Punta Pite project. The structures built during those times harmonise with the natural landscape character. These previous generations used local materials out of necessity. Today, choice of materials is far greater. However the principle of using a limited palette of local materials can acheive the same harmonious results.
mountain wadi village stone structure
The Punta Pite project also demonstrates the successful implementation of “cues for care”. This is the approach of using cues, or signs, of purposeful intervention in natural landscapes to elevate the general public’s perception of value of natural landscapes. The “cues for care” approach was categorised by Joan Nassauer in the publication “Placing Nature: Culture And Landscape Ecology”. Nassauer asserts that we assign higher value to “tended” landscapes over those which appear to be uncared for. The “cues for care” approach would readily apply to the Hatta landscape due to the need to preserve the natural landscape character.
I believe the design approaches of using local materials and “cues for care” are essential in preserving and enhancing the special character of the Hatta landscape.
