Enclosure B
WHY DELAY FOR 20 YEARS.
a footnote to the following paper on amphibian housing.
United Nations Environment Program/ World Meteorological Organization/Internatiuonal Council of Scientific Unions
CONFERENCE IN VILLACH, AUSTRIA 1985:
"An increasing body of evidence suggests that in the coming decades a global warming due to the greenhouse effect will lead to a substantial rise in the sea level. Estimates for the next century range from 0,5-2 meters. Because a large part of the world`s population lives in low lying areas near the sea such a rise will have an important impact on Society".
Quotation from proceedings of a workshop, 27-29 August 1986 at Delft Hydraulics Laboratory: "Impact of Sea Level Rise on Society.
This workshop also notes that:
"Coastal infrastructures and coastal protection works take decades
to implement and can last for centuries. Therefore,to ensure an effective
and timely response, scientists, engineers and policy makers must join forces
to consider the consequences of today`s activities".
Background document prepared for meeting with Science Council of Japan, sept, 2004 (ZERI)
Carl-Göran Hedèn:"Towards AMPHIBIAN HABITATS as a means to reduce shoreline vulnerabilities".
SUMMARY.
The annual series of Biopolicy-seminars on technology assessment- and transfer-issues related to innovations with roots in biotechnology (biorefinery approaches, integrated waste management systems, laboratory clustering, bioinformatics, biological warfare and biometrics etc.) have highlighted the need for new method: 1/ to select catalytic projects having a long-term global reach, and 2/ to stimulate creative problem-solving activities related to stresses in the environmental and energy fields. A wave of growing concern about inadequate training of future decision makers, in areas such as mathematics, science and technology, have also influenced the planning for the last two seminars: 2004/emphasis on education, and 2005/emphasis on engineering for global health.
However, the recent tsunami catastroph and earth-quakes
in South Japan have added urgency to a "Amphibian Habitat"-suggestion
I made in September 2004 to the Japan Science Council, while exploring for
common interests. The background to the suggestion was concern about climate-and
demographic changes and their expected health impact on shoreline populations
(emigrations, epidemics, famines etc.).
This problem will be discussed at a round-table in Visby on Sept 23rd, i.e.
as a supplement to the Biopolicy Seminar on Sept.22nd in Stockholm. More specifically,
the function, construction and financing of "a specially designed
ship for distance education and dissemination of knowledge about energy-and
environmental technologies" will be considered.
Even if the teaching needs and flooding risks in the drainage area around the Baltic Sea would be the primary topic for this discussion, the approach would be of wider international interest, since similar facilities, but carrying different mixes of energy- and environment demonstrations, could be considered for other coastal rims (the South China Sea, the Mediterranean, the Middle East etc.). However. a common denominator would be the targeting on: 1/ School teachers, 2/ Municipal engineers in charge of water, waste and electricity services 3/ Local politicians, and 4/ innovation-oriented journalists. A common goal would also be the selection of technologies that might be translated into amphibian homes meeting the needs of people with very different financial resources.
I. BACKGROUND.
- The topic(s) ought to have an international thrust that would support KVA and IVA as well as continued activities of BF and the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS)
- If new projects would emerge, they ought to be designed with a sustainable financial support structure in mind.
- In this connection thought should be given to international efforts that could draw on my contacts with the UN University in Tokyo and with G.Pauli`s "Zero Emission Research Initiative". Attention should also be given to the contacts made with at a number of recent conferences, where the value of continued regional activities was voiced (7,8,9,11,12.14.15.18).
- In particular, full use should be made of the contacts made during planning visits to OECD/Paris in the spring (20) and, in particular, full use should be made of the contacts I made in Tokyo for visits arranged in Sept.04, by the Swedish Foreign Office with the Japan Science Council (21) and representatives of the World Exhibition at Aichi, near Nagoya.
- In the perspective provided by those contacts, as well as IVA`s foresight study (22), the overall title: "Engineering for Global Health -Demographic Aspects" was choosen for the 2005 Biopolicy Seminar (on Sept. 22nd =the international car-free day). For an overview see Encl.1.The program was split on two topics: "Improved Life Quality for the Elderly" (with emphasis on the pros and cons of robotization) .and "Towards Improved Indoor Air Quality" (incl. in means of transportation).
Besides a joint swedish/japanese videolinked session between IVA (in the morning) and the World Exhibition (in the evening), the potential for more long-term cooperation was also discussed in Tokyo. My early experience, gained from cooperation with prof.Gunnel Dalhammar at KTH ever since 1996, ("Hydrobotanic Water Treatment as a Component of an Integrated System for Organic Waste Management", (23,24) then came up in the form of a draft project which led to the approaches for which this paper was written.
- It was further agreed that the 2005 conference should be based on the experience gained from the 2004 seminar. "Social Innovations for Development - A Case for Biopolicy". The planning for that conference gave rise to the LEARNING THRUST which is the backbone of a Visby seminar on Sept.23. This is separated from the Biopolicy seminar, except by making use of the japanese scientists visiting Sweden.
II. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.
To most specialists many facts, trends and visions may seem unrelated when seen in a short-range persective. However, they may fuse into a holistic picture when transdisciplinary thinkers take a long-term view. From this point of view, and with the aim of trying to extract some useful project pointers, I have been fortunate in having had many opportunities to compare diffent cultural outlooks on the future.
It has for instance been most rewarding to read - side by side - the exhaustive technological forecasting study ("Teknisk Framsyn") recently carried out by the oldest engineering academy in the world: the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, IVA (22), and on the other hand the "Japanese Perspective - the role of scientific information in
society". This is a major study that was recently carried out by the Science Council of Japan, SCJ (21), a prominent representative of the first East Asian Culture that fully embraced Western Science and Technology.
IVA:s point of departure was a projection from to-day's frontiers in the engineering sciences, as seen by an optimistic small country which is active on a global scene, where self-organizing political systems are regarded as benign forces for sustainable development. SCJ, on the other hand, works backards towards decisions about value changes and technological solutions that are essential for a normative global reach towards a distant "Life-Quality-For-All" scenario. Taking into account the looming crisis of limitations (energy and resources, as well as demographic factors and climate change) the latter outlook leads to the sobering, rather pessimistic conclusion: "No Exit".
This stresses the responsibility of the academic world for acting as outlined, for instance in May 2000, at a large Tokyo meeting of Academies of Science.
Their declaration, in support of sustainable development, gains added weight by SCJ, since unlike most other academic institutions, it includes the humanities and social sciences, as well as the natural sciences, in its activities. Those for instance include the operations of a "Special Committee on Achieving a Recycling Society" which now can interact both with non-governmental bodies like ZERI ("The Zero Emission Research Initiative") and with such international organizations as the Scientific Committee on the Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Many of the academies which are affiliated to those organizations have extensive experience with the management of marine research ships and with the logistic aspects of major expeditions. This is important for sketching the operations of the energy/environment-/education-ship(s), considered in this text.
On the occasion of ZERI`s 10th anniversary in Tokyo I had the occasion, on Sept.14th 2004, not only to outline my own, somewhat utopian, long-term view on sustainability (25), but also I could brief SCJ on Biofocus Foundation`s view on the window of opportunity for international cooperation which I felt had been opened through the 2005 World Exhibition at Aichi in Japan (March25-Sept 25).
This exhibition is of particular interest, not only because of the wide range of cutting-edge technologies that will be shown to some 15 mill. visitors (26), but also because of the significance of its motto: "Nature`s Wisdom" (sub-themes: "Nature`s matrix", "Art of Life" and "Develop-ment of Eco-Communities"). This will certainly inspire much follow-up thinking for instance about the future of learning (at the 2005 Assembl in Zagreb, 17-20 Nov.05, of WAAS - the World Academy of Art and Science), and about the Nov.22nd conference on "Green Biotechnology (agro-and environmental biotechnolgy) at IVA`s Biotechnology Division). There were obviously many reasons to trigger further activities via a joint IVA/SCJ effort taking place towards the end of the World Exhibition. An outline for this initiative is found as an enclösure: "Engineering for Global Healh - Demographic Aspects".
III. BRACING AGAINST THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE
A "Global Health"-need, heralded by statistics and ESA's satellite surveys, is concerned with the prevention of the epidemics, migrations and famines that are likely consequences of flooding due to the greenhouse effect. Many houses, which are supposed to stand for 50-100 years, will no doubt suffer the impact of climate change, and so will of course the insurance industry. After all, if the UN is right in its forcasts, then 2 billion people could be at risk from devastaking floods around 2050.
The "UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change"predicts that the average global temperature will rise 1,5 - 4.5 degrees C in the next 100 years, with the northern latitudes affected more than the south. This for instance means more precipitation and also more methane (a gas having a more potent greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide) coming from oxygen starved flooded areas and thawing tundras.
However, the difficulty of making predictions about global warming is compounded when we take the possibility of an approaching climate flip into consideration (27). After all, dramatic abrupt changes have struck ancient civilizations before, the last time during the "Little Ice Age" (A.D.1400-1900). In fact, they are probably inevitable, as judged by the record for the last 110.000 years, presented in the Greenland ice cores.
Those studies show that sudden cold periods have tended to occur when the northern winters in the North Atlantic loose some of their power to cool down the warm and salt surface water from the South, on its way to sink and flow south over the seafloor. Rain and freshwater coming from the land would also make the water less salty and thus less dense, possibly to the point when the sea ice would be formed before the water had time to sink, thus generating even less pull on the "conveyor belt circulation".
This could mean severe food production problems in broad monsoon-dependent areas across Asia and Africa which tend to be particularly dry when the North Atlantic is colder than the lands arund it. Obviously, this could lead to many local conflicts with national security implications for the major powers (28).
But even if Northern Europe escapes a slow-down of the North Atlantic conevyor belt circulation, global warming could bring about threshold crossings elsewhere, for instance causing prolonged droughts in the grainbelts of many mid-latitude continents. Everything considered it definitely seems prudent to follow the suggestion by the US National Research Council (29):
to shore up our abilities to cope with abrupt climate change before the next surprise is upon us. After all, plans designed to help ease difficulties if a crisis develops could be made at little or no cost. Communities could plant trees now to help hold soil during the next windy dry spell, for example, and they could agree now on who will have access to which water supplies when the resource becomes less abundant .
This highlights a need for education in human ecology, focused on school teachers, but also on municipal engineers, architects and builders. This is an important point of this paper, which wants to underline the need for training of the future decision-makers, including the politicians and jounalists, who are now in school.
Architects
and builders should not be permitted to fade out of the economic picture when
rainstorms and flooding caused by deficient drainage and excessive logging
strike their buildings, and when the melting of polar ice and glaciers make
the sea and river-water level rise. After all, this is a likely development
according to the "Arctic Climate Impact Assesment" performed by
some 250 scientists. The impact on Sweden of a 4 degree C. temperature increase
(land and buildings, sewage-and drinking water services etc.) has for instance
been estimatesd by SMHI which is particularly concerned about some regions
in south Sweden, the Maelar lake region and the Dalälven valley.
Sweden has a distinguished
meteorological tradition and has for instance been prominent in the establishent
of EC:s emission ceilings for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and ammonia.
This work is now extended within the commission program "Clean Air for
Europe" (CAFE) a national epidemiological research program on health-effects
of air pollution (SNAP) and an international study concerning transborder
spread of air pollution. Obviously a mobile educational facility might well
have some basic laboratory facilities on board so that it could add valuable
gas exchange data to its routine studies of marine biology.
IV. TOWARDS NEW INTEGRATED ENERGY- AND ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS.
Sustainable development is an abstraction which is so important that it needs to "be lived" as a backbone of a life-long educational process. However, in order to satisfy all the needs of an active modern family which is striving for "Life Quality", the bottleneck will certainly be electrical energy. To appreciate this one needs to consider every individual`s need-profile over his entire lifespan.
This introduces flexibility as an important aspect on "Healthy Habitats". To earn this designation a habitat should not only offer good indoor air quality and a pleasing environment, but it should also provide employ-ment opportunities, as well as the physical and psychological conditions that are required to permit both social interactions and isolation. For a student this could mean "ultramodern compact living" in an urban center that would provide both opportunities for advanced professional training and experience, and for finding a spouce.Then comes a family and period when a setting closer to nature, but with good opportunities for distance education and cyberspace work as well as entertainment, might be preferred (for some people this could mean a farm house, for the more adventurous perhaps a houseboat). And finally, there comes the period when an elderly person might wish to return to a modern urban setting. This would then not only serve as a node for travelling friends and family, but it could also provide medical services going beyond self-care and small units. We would then talk about a habitat wired for security and for such advanced services as companion robots (30) or "thinking refrigerators" programmed for nutritional monitoring.
Against the background just given, it might be logical to combine ownership for a small ultramodern urban flat with a countryhome or a houseboat. Many people are also concerned about climbing energy prices and an often unreliable power supply. Add to this a wide variety of environmental issues (carbon dioxide, methane and aerosol particle emissions, mistrust of nuclear energy etc.) and a combination of habitats might seem more attractive than the hectic life in some large metropolis. And then there is of course the development of liberalized electricity markets which give small producers a possibility both to sell surplus power to the grid and to benefit from various subsidies to renewable energy users. Add to this the constant reminders (in the form of mobile phones) about technical developments that reduce net-dependence, and the growing interest in local energy production must be regarded as natural.
From a technical point
of view this requires maximum utilization and top efficiency of solar based
energy systems. Since no energy should go to waste all thermal energy should
obviously be used as close to the source as possible. This is of course the
aim of large heatpower systems for district heating, but one should not forget
that also local micro-CHP (Combined Heat Power) can reach similar (85 %) efficiencies.
A large number of British households are currently testing such units which
pay for themselves in 4 years in spite of the fact that they are 25 % more
expensive than a standard oilheater. In comparison photo-voltaic systems might
need 15 years before they are paid, but then they of course produce "free
electricity" for many years. Most micro-CHP-units run on fossil gas but
many biofuels (biogas, lignocellulose pellets, rape ethyl ester, ethanol,
methanol, dimethylether etc.) can be used to run small combustion engines
attached to a generator. Sterling- or steam engine have also been considered
as house-boat options.
V. POTENTIAL EMPLOYMENT IMPACT OF A HOUSEBOAT INDUSTRY.
Quite apart from the public's growing concern about possible flooding, and the media's dramatic presentations, for instance of areas devastated by tsunamis and mudslides, many other aspects might influence the amphibious house market. Closeness to the sea, lakes, rivers, canals and marinas is normally regarded as an asset for a home, and the development of mobile phones, heatpumps and PV-systems, as well as a wide range of environmental technologies is now making houseboat-projects less and less utopian, at least in the affluent parts of the world.
There we also find the financial resources needed to evaluate synergistic technologies that might be appropriate also for the areas that will be hardest hit by climate change: developing countries. The rich world also supports many non-profit-organizations that could play a significant role in the needed technology assessment and transfer. This is an activity where practical demonstration and exhibitions have always played a significant role.
Examples relevant to this paper are the houseboats which are now cruising on the backwaters of Kerala in India. Those were once important transport routes for rice and spices, but when modern trucks took over, some traders converted their boats of kettuvalloms -so that they could "cruise forward from near-extinction to enjoy their present great popularity". The boats, which may be 100 years old, are made of planks of jack-wood joined together with coir, hence the name which means "boat with knots". The hull is coated with a caustic black resin that is made from boiled cashew kernels.
In Alleppey alone there are now as many as 120 houseboats, carefully upgraded with natural products: bamboo mats, sticks and wood from the aracanut tree for roofing. coir mats and wooden planks for the flooring and wood of cocanut trees and coir for beds. Today solar panels are used for lighting, there are modern toilets, cozy living rooms as well as a kitchen and a balcony for angling. Most boats are poled by local oarsmen, but some are powered by a 40 HP engine.
VI. AN ACADEMIC DEMONSTRATION CASE
As mentioned above, there is little incentive in the building sector for taking very long-term views. For studies on the impact of climate change on this sector, it is consequently natural to look for a "launching pad" in universitiese. It can also be assumed that the insurance and banking industries would be interested, since they are used to work with farsighted scenarios.
The importance of stimulating the interest of young people in science and technology is appreciated everywhere, and permanent exhibitions are now a commen feature of urban infrastructures all over the world. In Sweden there are for instance two dozen "Science Centers" plus many large museums that have special programs to support teachers. The latter is also the aim of a joint KVA/IVA-initiative ("NTA: "Science-and-Technology-for-All") which has its focus on the upgrading of schoolteachers for grades 1 to 6 with the aid of "pre-cooked" demonstration materials. Even so, for most students and teachers the exposure to modern energy-and recycling technologies will be superficial because of travel-and subsitence costs that cannot be adequately covered by meagre school budgets.
Consequently, it is not unreasonable to let the demonstrations come to the schools, for instance with the aid of buses, as sometimes practiced for instance in Sweden and Canada. However, when it comes to demonstrating integrated energy-and wastemanagement systems in operation, and to support ecological laboratory experiments, then dedicated education/exhibition-ships, preferably affiliated to major technical universities easily come to mind. This is certainly very logical where there are many cities along long coastlines around environmental "hotspots" like tha Baltic Sea and the South China Sea.
An important aspect of the suggested facility is that it would show processes which appeal to the fantasy of children. The significance of this aspect has for instance been convincingly demonstrated by the "ROSE"-project ("Relevance of Science Education") which involves scientists from 35 countries studying the attitudes of 15 year old boys and girls (31). In Sweden 751 ninth grade students participated in the FONDT-effort which has started a number of important attitudinal studies (www.liu.se/fontd/.
AN INNOVATIVE NORDIC CIRCLE INITIATIVE.
Just like Japan, Sweden has a long coastline, a strong urbanization trend, an ageging population and an international outlook. As far as Sweden is concerned, the latter involves both a global (0,87 % of GNP to foreign aid) and regional commitment (EU membership).
The expansion of the European Union with 10 new members now reinforces a longstanding interest in the economic development around the ecologically vulnerable Baltic Sea. The economic significance of the region is now substantial (7), which of course constitutes a political, as well as a scientific and technical challenge. This is for instance the case in the Nordic Council which has been active in many intergovernmental initiatives, including the joint Scandinavian pavillion at the World Exhibition. The exhibition theme "Nature`s Wisdom", and its aim to show that technology has a creative and complementary relationship with nature, has now caused a revival of an old "Nordic Circle"-concept. This was coined more than a decade ago by the marine engineer Jan Zeilon in order to underline the need for long-term, innovation-oriented regional planning in the field of human habitat structures.
After all, 85 million people from 10 states live around the Baltic Sea and are expected to increase their trade 10 times in the next 15-20 years. This makes the Baltic, just like the South China Sea. one of the most important problem areas of the 66 targets identified by GIWA (The UN Global International Water Assesment).
Ever since May 1996, when Heads of Government had a summit-discussion to consider the idea of developing an Agenda 21 for the Balltic Sea Region, there have been many NGO-initiatives like the "Coalition Clean Baltic" (1), and the organization HELCOM (Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission - "Helsinki Commission") started to pinpoint Baltic "hot-spots" in 1972.
However, the governmental remediation efforts soon proved inadequate. The efforts to reduce the nitrogen and phosphorous levels by 50 % from 1988 to 1995 for instance only led to a 3 % decrease. The 1995 aim for phosphorous reduction was 50 %, but the result was 14 %. However, "Baltic 21" in 1996 gave an extra push to the involvement of governments, and in 1998 the foundation "Baltic 2008", established by a large number of concerned companies, started to give some hope that a number of new sewage plants would start to yield a positive environmental impact. But the technologies employed were costly and traditional, and agricultural runoff continues to be a serious factor. The spread of toxic algal blooms affect the tourist industry, and deminishing fish catches have a negative economic impact on the affected regions.
Their population is often spread out over many small islands. In Sweden there were for instance in 2002 31827 people who lived on 576 swedish islands without bridge-connections to the mainland.
While waiting for the water quality to improve, there is obviously a need to consider the livelihood both of those people, and of other dispersed rural populations which depend on fishing and hunting. They often live in scenic areas which are attractive for citydwellers during the summer months, but in the winter the employment opportunities deminish, leaving the locals to support themselves on rapidly declining fishcatches and restricted hunting.
There has been no lack of advice on the development of sustainable tourism, and as early as October 1996 the Coalition Clean Baltic laid down "Ten Principles for Sustainable Tourism". What is however needed now is an education/demonstration-effort which can stimulate entrepreneurship in areas such as environmentally sound aquaculture.
For a review of the ecosystems in the Baltic Sea drainage area and for an assesment of the sustainability conditions on the regional level, the reader is referred to "The Baltic Basin Case Study - towards a sustainable Baltic Europe" by Bengt-Owe Jansson and Carl-Einar Stålvant (4). With regard to strategies and actions, aimed at increasing the competitiveness and innovation of the Baltic Sea, note should be taken of the Baltic Sea initiative 2010 initiated by the Baltic Sea Forum which is planning a summit in Stockholm, October 16-18 2005 (13).Priority areas so far emphasized are:
Facilitating Networks of Networks/Networks of Clusters.
Creating an Entrepreneurial Environment.
Integrating Research and Educatioin in the region.
Marketing the Baltic Sea region.
Creating a Common Baltic Information Space.
VIII. AN OPPORTUNITY FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION.
As indicated before, a facility designed for the Baltic Sea region might be regarded as a model for similar initiatives elsewhere. Consequently, observers from places such as Tokyo, Santiago, and Turin might find it useful to meet with their swedish colleagues. Consequently, the swedish participants ought to come from fields for which there is a solid knowledge base (for instance at the Royal Institute for Technology in Stockholm and at Uppsala University, possibly with networking support through the International Organization for Biotechnology and Bioengineering). With this in mind "a floating unit for distance education and dissemination of knowledge about energy-and environmental technologies" was been given priority among the three alternatives considered. The other two, which might be saved for future biopolicy meetings, were "ZERO-emission processes based on lignocellulose as a chemical feedstock" (meeting the employment needs of "white Biotechnology",when oil is priced out as a chemical feedstock) and "Approaching economics as Nature Intended" based on Slesser/King's book (32) and the background paper "Timeframes for Sustainable Development (25).
VIII. FROM VISION TO ACTION.
The optimal utilization of windpower has always been a challenge to Mankind, and some marine engineers even now visualize freighters where the wind is supplemented with electric power from photovoltaic sails (cf.Fig.A).
In many parts of the world shoreline hotels, golf courses and various facilities, like marinas for boating, diving and swimming, have developed into a significant job-creating vaccation industry, where proposals for advanced floating homes occasionally appear (cf.Fig.B). At fishing villages, aquaculture sites and wharfs along ocean beaches, all facilities are of course built with local tidal fluctuations in mind, but normally with little thought about the vulnerability that might come from a sea level rise. That is a climate effects which of course might also influence similar activities in storm-protected archipelagoes or on inland lakes, rivers and canals. There various types of amphibian habitats, from "Greenhouse river boats" (cf.Fig.C) to the luxurious vaccation boats that make good use of scenic waterways in the US and in Europe. And then there are of course the simple, more or less permanent floating habitats that are so common in the Far East.
The Netherlands
early built coastal barriers to brace against the threats from the sea, and
some of the country's farsighted builders are now planning for a supplementary
approach in the form of well moored amphibious houses that rise with the tide.
North of Amsterdam 30 floating homes with concrete and Styrofoam foundations
will for instance be built, and 46 woodframe homes on hollow concrete basements
are built on the flood-prone river Maas by a company, which now even talks
about amphibious settlements of 50.000 houses (cf.Fig.D).
A river-bank project on the Thames river is another example (cf.
Fig.E) and also in Sweden amphibian houses are starting to appear (cf.
Fig. F and G).
Needless to say such endeavours beg modularized industrial production and
will certainly try to make the most of high speed satellite communication,
modern heatpumps for airconditioning and various systems for renewable energy
production (PV-,wind-and wavepower) and waste recycling. Obviously the location
of the target groups determines the structure as well as the technical components
of the ship, but the effort should be regarded as a learning exercise with
an eye on designs suitable for simplification and transfer of appropriate
components to developing countries. A network for exchange of ideas and experience
might eventually be considered for education/ demonstration/exhibition ships
having similar target groups:
a. schoolteachers needing upgrading in thought provoking applications of mathematics, science and technology.
b. municipal power-.water-and sewage engineers and their political superiors.
c. journalists interested in innovation, science and technology(cf. SCIL, 34).
d. groups of engineering students and their teachers selected for broadening in biology and marine ecology (coastal bottom and air sampling and analysis).
e. the general public both during coastal city visits and in the winter harbors (Skeppsholmen in Stockholm or Gustavsberg outside the city).
A discussion sketch which indicates various synergistic technologies that might be accomodated in a specialized demonstration ship for the Baltic Sea is shown in Fig.H. It could be a light weight trimaran built on a platform of three cylindrical steel pontoons containing a biogas reactor, a rain water tank, batteries, a sea water heat exchanger/heatpump and a gas engine for propulsion as well as a small repair workshop. The appearance of the trimaran would be dominated by a large greenhouse shell that covers a large auditorium and climatizes a hydrobotanic waste water treatment system (cf.Fig. C as an example).
One wall in the auditorium carries a wide-screen for audio-visual presentations and distance-education lectures. Demands are obviously high for: 1/ rapid switches between full daylight and various levels of darkness, 2/ an optimal light regime for photosynthesis and 3/efficient insulation against night-time heat losses. If the latter is achieved by movable and, on both sides, reflecting insulation panels, three bonuses are obtained when hybrid photovoltaic cells (33) are added to both sides of the beams carrying the glass cover (electricity, hot water and efficient utilization of any supplementary artificial lighting).
Under the lecture hall there would be a cabin deck with staff quarters, livingroom/office and kitchen, as well as a laboratory and a garage. The latter opens towards a bow deck, which can be liften for easy connection to quay sides. The car is a hybrid type, so that it can be operated as a micro-CHP-unit which can heat exchange the exhaust against outside air for floor heasting. At the inner wall of the garage is the heat exchange, electrolysis and fuel cell center, as ell as a staircase going up to the wheelhouse and down to the middle pontoon. Carried on board could also be aquaculture bags for production of carivorous fish (35).The floating sewage units attached to such units might well be powered by wave-power generators (36).
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(21). Report: "The Japanese Perspective - the role of scientific information in society". Chm. Kiyoshi Kurokawa, President of the Science Council of Japan. 22-34 Roppongi 7-Chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo.106-8555 Japan. August 2004 (cf.<http://www.scj.go.jp>).
(22). "Teknisk Framsyn" chm.Dr.tech.h.c. Lennart Lubeck, Academy of Engineering Sciences, Grev Turegatan 14. POB.5073. 10242.Stockholm. Sweden.
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(24) Hedèn, C.-G. "Rural Habitats for 2000+: A Contribution to Sustainable Development" Submission Sept.17th 1998.for World Exhibition Expo 2000, Hannover, Germany.
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(35). Project on carniverous fish (36). Leijon, M.,Project Leader: Wave energy cultivation. Wastesson,C., Svensk Gös AB. Hållingsby Gård. 61496. Östra Ryd.
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Encl.
ENGINEERING FOR GLOBAL HEALTH -
DEMOGRAPHIC ASPECTS.
Sept.22nd 2005 at
the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences
Videolinked discussion: IVA (morning) - Aichi (evening)
AIM: translation of experiences gained from earlier biopolicy conferences to stimulate creative, transdisciplinary thinking. Those annual seminars have been organized alternatively at the Engineering Sciences Division of KVA or at the Biotechnology Division of IVA with assistance from the Biofocus Foundation.
"HYPOTHESIS": innovations emerge at interphases.
2005 APPROACH: Interphasing of two domains, one technical, one cultural (Sweden/Japan):
Technical: 1.Towards improved indoor climate (with anemphasis on air pollution, incl.in means of transport).
2.Towards improved life quality for the elderly (with an emphasis on robotization).
Cultural: Sweden (IVA,morning) (Aichi, World Exhibition, Japan, evening.
PREPARATIONS:
1 and 2: Independent Internet discussions between August 1-Sept.22. Personal invitations to expert participants by moderators who also participate in tests of video communication links (Maratech) during the spring.
Each Internet discussion starts with a commissioned paper and is concluded with a list of agenda items based on short anonymous observations on specific agenda items for the joint session. The latter is started with a decision about the priority of the agenda topics in order of their relevance and creativity.
Media Interlude
ASSUMPTION:
Previous interest in swedish ZERI (Zero Emission Research Initiative) projects, shown by japanese TV, and the interest of swedish TV in the "Nature`s Wisdom"-theme of the Aichi World Exhibition, makes it reasonable to plan for:
- Inviting japanese and swedish TV to the video-linked Stockholm-morning/Aichi-evening session.
- arranging for the japanerse team in Stockholm to look at the City`s reaction to the "International Car-free day"(Sept.22) by demonstrating its ethanol-, gas- and fuelcell buses, as well as its bicycle paths and new electronic gate system that will give preference to hybrid-and other low-emission cars. This footage would be shown to the japanese public in the evening, after the videolinked joint session.
- arranging for swedish TV to cover the World Exhibition on Sept.21st and to show the result, together with the japanese piece from Stockholm over dinner, after the face-to-face session at IVA.
LIFE QUALITY FOR THE ELDERLY.
Biopolicy seminar at IVA:
Several alternatives are under consideration by the organizing committee X which currently visualizes that three paralell groups (¡Architecture and industrial design aimed at needs of the aged", "Neurobiology of Ageing" and "Ageing and vulnerability to infectious diseases") will start working after hearing a summary of the video-linked discussion. The deliberations of the working groups will be summarized at a Plenary which is concluded with the "Biopolicy Lecture" followed by the presentation of the annual Biopolicy Award. At a following dinner some TV-footage from the World Exhibition and Stockholm will be shown.
AMPHIBIAN HABITATS
as a means to reduce shoreline vulnerabilities"
(planeringsdiskussion den 23/9 i Visby: KTH/Gotlands Högskola (jfr. B under "In pipeline" på www.biofocus.org).
Walter Truett-Anderson (Calif.), Gustaf Brunius, Gunnel Dalhammar, (replacing B-A.Vedin 2004), Geoffrey Hamer (BF,Dublin), Carl-Göran Heden (chm.), Tommy Jonsson, Gösta Lagermalm, Lennart Levi, Sam Nilson, Erling Norrby, Mathias Uhlen and Anders Wijkman (Chm.BF).