I recently saw a documentary that showed Jean-Michelle Couteau (son of the legendary oceanic explorer Jacques Cousteau) and his team in the Amazon. By the way, you can see Couteau's legacy at http://www.cousteau.org/. This triggered in me some new and old ideas in my head. Cousteau's team maintain that agriculture and natural habitat can coexist successfully with some education. Today urban areas rely on rural areas for resources such as food and raw material. I think we should start making urban areas sustainable. Growing food and recycling processed materials for raw materials are a couple of ideas worth investigating.
Of the many things that are transported to urban areas, not many are as quite important as food. We could try to grow food in the urban landscape. Some people are thinking about growing crops indoors, and some even are looking to do that in an abandoned high-rise building, or at least in a building with several floors. The biggest question I have for such a project is can we grow crops with artificial light? Being able to use artificial light to grow crops is going to be essential for vertical farms. I assume some full spectrum light would be required. If such a light could be delivered from LEDs then the keep up cost should be low. We have hydroponic technology, which does not require soil, but does require nutrients and light. We also have a good understanding on what constitutes soil and how to compost. Using processed soil/compost or hydroponics have their own set of pros and cons. I suppose either could be used in a vertical farm. Such a vertical farm could potentially grow crops year round. One idea I had was that a farms could use the elevators to transport customers to the floor where the crops reached harvest. Thus crops don't have to be moved anywhere while they grow, just redirect the customers and services to the crops. There could be a floor for composting and nutrient handling. Electrical power would be key to keep up. Solar panels on the roof would be great, but also custom wind generators would be good to use in conjunction with solar panels. Of course today we have the choice of using photovoltaic solar panels or solar thermal panels to generate electricity. In my mind I wonder how much intake it such a farm would need. Like any processing plant, the intake has to equal the output. Some fertilizer would be needed to intake, seeds would be needed as well. Water could be managed and possibly reclaimed. Reclaiming nutrients via composting and water would help reduce the overhead of materials needed in such a farm. If such farms could be viable they may reduce the travel time of materials to urban areas thus reducing the gas needed to transport them.
For raw materials, there is already a recycling market. Metals, plastics, oils, battery material, paper are some of the raw materials being recycled. In any urban area there is a recipe of raw materials that is used. Identifying these materials and amount could be key to start a concerted effort to recycle materials from waste. In some cases I'm sure there would be needed some research to break down materials to more basic parts that are usable. This effort would require a large amount of energy. Using renewable energies such as solar and wind could augment the energy needed. But I think some major source of energy would be needed such as nuclear energy. One idea I had was to reclaim materials from air pollutions such as carbon and others. So I say more research in recycling is needed.
The International Space Station has a module that reclaims waste water for astronaut and cosmonaut consumption. Many cities in the world suffer from a lack of water. Reclaiming waste water is a technology that can help many people around the world. Urban areas have benefited in the past from the cleaning of their rivers that were used for waste. London and Madrid come to mind. Going a step further to reclaim water can provide the diverse uses of water in urban areas. We drink water, we give water to our animals, we water our lawns and gardens, and we use water to transport waste. Actually, finding an alternative way to transport waste besides water could benefit many urban areas as well. Not having to use water to transport waste makes the water available for other uses.
Urban areas take in raw materials and create waste. They are rich in materials that can be recycled. They are also ever growing with more and more people. We could do so much more in the areas of food production, recycling materials, and reclaiming water. Doing so could make urban areas greener and more friendly to the eco-systems of Earth.
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