Power from green roofs - the next frontier?

If these two Dutch scientists can refine their technology...and scale it up, watch out!.

A desert harvest, courtesy of desalinization

A couple of quick, but captivating stories for this Wednesday:

-The most tantalizing of the bunch comes from deserts of Australia (and Qatar), where a group is desalinating sea water with solar energy and growing fruits and vegetables for the continent.

-Citizens of Detroit are grappling with selling 1,500 parcels of city held land - almost 140 acres -  for urban agriculture...they think, as there’s no development plan yet!

-Dakar, Senegal supplies 45% of its city’s food supply via urban agriculture, generating over 450 million dollars last year alone! Land and water issues threaten to slow progress, let’s check in on this next year to see what is new.

-Kickstarter has been a boon to many smaller businesses, here’s an aquaponics one who has made it big! They have an attractive system, good luck to them!

GILA conferences galore, India and Australia

Fair folks, make sure you check out the International Green Conference - 2012, this year organized by the Indian Green Infrastructure Network. It starts tomorrow and concludes on November 28. And the day that one closes, another conference opens up. Melbourne, Australia hosts the Greening Cities Conference 2012.

If you're still in the conference mood, catch up on the events at the World Green Roof Congress in September. 

Enjoy your International Onion Day!

GILA word of the week: Biocellar

What do you do when your city has tons of crumbling homes and no apparent use for them?
Knock the top off, put on a glass roof, reinforce the basement and add crops. You've got yourself a place for season defying, urban agriculture.

 

The price tag, $120,000, is a little steep. Any ideas out there how to get it done cheaper???

The world's first aquaponics based horticultural therapy garden

Two worlds have finally been joined. Horticultural therapy, which is definitely on the rise and aquaponics, which has gone stratospheric, have been integrated to make a fantastic garden for advanced-dementia residents at a care facility in Australia.

-A couple of surveys for you to fill out, if you have the time and inclination. And especially if you live in Minnesota or Illinois.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) is developing a plan to address urban agriculture within the park system and is looking for your thoughts. Similarly the Ohio State University Extension Office wants your opinion on what sorts of programs would be best in 2013.

-Chicago wants to leave other urban agriculture friendly municipaliies in the dust by creating an urban farming center 13 miles long! That is amazing news, sensational actually. And makes it easier to relay this article from Macedonia as a group of permaculture enthusiasts look to get their project up and running.

Is rooftop and vertical farming the key to a true local (food) movement?

-Two weeks ago the world was a buzz with the news of the first commercial vertical farming system in Singapore. Just two years ago analysts were saying the technology was at least five years away from implementation, even in the experimental stage.
The most illuminating part of the second article is the assertion that sky farms could play a roll in places where land is at a premium and few big rooftops remain. That kind of common sense is refreshing in an industry full of promise, but, pardon the expression, needing of grounding.
The next step, pairing these businesses with groups to process the food and make value added products, like in Washington DC and somewhere that can compost (like in Tennessee) the refuse to create a nutrient-rich topsoil. Then we're talking about a true local food movement.

-While it would take years to build an integrated system I have envisioned above, in disadvantaged communities there are already programs, practices and policies working to sustain urban agriculture efforts on a smaller scale.

-Apps, apps and more apps. A multi-billion dollar industry has hardly touched the the GILA industry until now. Thanks to the Harvard Graduate School of Design the app helps unite environmentalism and urbanism.

-The last article for today is a fascinating one. One woman's 20 year journey from planting vegetables on a balcony to eventually becoming a major force in possibly eliminating Mexico City's pollution problem.

A collective "what?" from the peak oil movement

As the U.S. will surpass Saudi Arabia by 2020 as the biggest oil exporter.
Let the debate begin!

Green infrastructure living architecture (GILA) words of the week: Green billboard and Anti-Billboard

Turning billboards into "living, suspended bamboo gardens" sounds like a great idea. What's unclear from the article is whether these are old billboard stands (is that what you call 'em?) being repurposed to never become ad spaces again? And if they are, would the bamboo always remain on the platform even if they were to be ad spaces again? Any way you slice it, we need all the green infrastructure we can get. And if these billboards could be turned into little bioremediation stands, that would be incredible. (My idea, to take stormwater, pump it up the billboard stand (perhaps via solar pump), through the plants to be remediated and back out as clean water.

Pair some of the above with a few "anti-billboard" artworks below and you've got yourself a totally different city.

Knoxville vs Milwaukee: The Urban Agriculture battle for $5 million dollars

A few quick hits before the videos, which I am sure you have spied, down below, waiting to be watched!

Last week Israel launched its first green roof research center, making it also the first in the Middle East.

-In urban agriculture policy news, while Minneapolis is just getting started on its urban agriculture policy, Sioux Falls is at the end of the process and is ready for public comment.

-Bloomberg’s Mayor Challenge has whittled its list of finalists to 20 cities. Both Milwaukee and  Knoxville have urban agriculture themed ideas, let's take a look at the entrants.

Horticultural therapy and green roofs

Depending on who you talk to, green roofs have over a dozen benefits. One of the lesser known and investigated ones is for horticultural therapy. I haven't seen that many studies on how green roofs, in particular, affect one's health. Theodore Osmundson, who passed away in 2009, was one of the first people to consider this benefit (among others for green roofs) with a 1999 paper entitled "Roof gardens: history, design, and construction". More recently it has received a couple of mentions in Green Roofs for Healthy Cities newsletter in 2003 and 2011. I hope others pursue further research investigating the effect green infrastructure, in particular green roofs and green walls have on human beings, considering the proliferation in North America and around the world.

Seneca College community garden - Year 2

Two weeks ago I was invited to speak at Seneca College. The students were great and asked a number of  razor sharp questions afterwards, a couple even had ideas for projects already on the go. I wanted to also point out their school garden is still flourishing, here are some pictures from the end of the second growing season.
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Election day songs

It's a big day in the USA. Instead of the ordinary November songs, thought  I would do a special edition!

My Dear Country - Norah Jones
Election Day - Blaze Foley
Election Day - Duran Duran

Mayor Bloomberg loves green roofs so much, he’s helping Pittsburgh!!!

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been a terrific proponent of green infrastructure for New York City. But he can't make other cities put green roofs up. So his foundation is taking the next step by giving the city of Pittsburgh $100,000 for cool or green roofs.

-How can someone get a job in the permaculture field? Whenever someone asks me that question, I can now direct them to this handy guide from the Austin Permaculture Guild.  One suggestion from the permaculture job guide is to join an existing project as an intern. Wouldn’t you know it, there’s an opportunity in New Hampshire right now.

-Two new GILA projects have hit the web, notable for their locations. One is a small vertical farm in Arizona, the other...errm...underground. Where? Anywhere!

-Co.Exist is rapidly becoming one of my favorite websites. Where else can you read about turning firehydrants into bioswales?

-Lastly I must, absolutely must, direct you to see this person's Halloween costume...she's dressed as a green roof!

Permaculture documentary: Green Gold

It can be hard to find "the good stuff" on youtube. You know what I mean, videos that are long, informative and engaging. Sit back and enjoy this one which profiles transformative projects from around the world.