NEWSBITS

Various new items

as. The International Organisation for Biotechnology & Bioengineering (IOBB) organizes its 1st International Conference on Technologies and Strategic Management of Sustainable Biosystems, to take place from July 6-9 in Perth, Western Australia. Conference topics are rather interesting for ecological engineers and encompass:

• Integrated Biosystems for Waste Treatment and Reuse
• Water Management in Integrated Biosystems
• Nutrient Managemen in Integrated Biosystems
• Health and Environmental Issues with Biosystems
• Integrated Biosystems for Urban Resource Management
• Integrated Biosystems for Improving Degraded and Saline-Affected Soils
• Community Participation and Governance
• Education and Training
• Case Studies and Applied Technology

Deadline for abstracts is still well ahead: Nov. 26, 2007

Conference convener:

Dr Jaya Nair, Deputy Director
Murdoch University's Environmental Technology Centre
Phone +61 (0)8 9360 7322
Fax +61 (0)8 9310 4997

URL: http://www.etc.murdoch.edu.au/IOBB2008/IOBB2008/Home.html

Mongolia is a country that is historically famous for is pristine nature and clear lakes. Lake Khovsgol is situated in Northern Mongolia and contains about 1% of the world's surface freshwater. Several endemic species live in and around it.

However, the pure waters and the ecosystem of Lake Khovsgol is increasingly threatened by a fast growing tourism industry. The local tourist camps' sanitary solutions are not sustainable: either, they have pit latrines, or they install big holding tanks. Their content is sucked out and discharged untreated into the environment.

For these reasons, a new pilot ecosan project with a urine diversion dehydration toilet was built last month at the Khuvsgul Inn. The new toilet serves as a demonstration object both to try out a new way of dealing with excreta in this area, and to show other lodge owners and potentially also local residents new approaches in wastewater management.

The toilet was built by locally available material (except for the toilet seats) and comprises two toilets and two urinals. Urine is collected in small canisters and stored; faeces are collected in metal bins. Once one bin is full, it can be moved back in the storage chamber below the toilet, and another bin can be placed under the toilet. The first bin is stored in the chamber until the faeces are completely dry. There is a trial garden where trees, buckthorn and vegetables are fertilized with urine - next year, faeces and urine will be applied to new trees and buckthorn.

The project is scientifically monitored and evaluated by Jacqueline von Arx (environmental aspects), Katharina Conradin (cultural aspects and acceptance) and Oyunmunk Byambaa (both cultural & environmental aspects). A full report of the project will be made available by the beginning of 2008.

Find a more detailed description of the research project at:
http://www.kfpe.ch/projects/echangesuniv/conradin.php

For questions and further information please contact:
Katharina Conradin
Winkelriedplatz 2
CH-4053 Basel

as. Organic Eprints is an international public archive for scientific publications on organic agriculture. You will mostly find electronic full-text publications in this archive. Each entry comes with full biographical data and other meta-data.

Even though organic eprints is in German language, international readers may still benefit from the lots of English papers archived there. The keyword "human urine", e.g., yields 11 hits, most of them in English (Sep. 5, 2007)

http://orgprints.org

as. The scope of reconciliation ecology in the website's authors words is:

" Reconciliation Ecology is the science of inventing, establishing and maintaining new habitats to conserve species diversity in places where people live, work or play. Reconciliation Ecology seeks environmentally sound ways for us to continue to use the land for our own benefit."

The concept seems to be based the work of Michael L. Rosenzweig, whose book "Win-Win ecology" was published in 2003. It remains unclear to me what this concept means in concrete. It sounds interesting enough - if someone would like to write a review about it in the next newsletter, please contact the editor.

Reconciliation ecology: http://winwinecology.com/index.html
Michael L. Rosenzweig: http://www.uagrad.org/Alumnus/Fall03/ecology.html

as. C2C-design isn't yet another design fancy! Cradle to cradle design "rejects the assumption that human industry inevitably destroys the natural world. Instead, cradle to cradle design embraces abundance, human ingenuity and positive aspirations." [1]

The website is really well done and comes with a number of examples what C2C-design means in concrete. It looks convincing on a quick glance - any article about how this promising approach works in reality would be very welcome for the next issue. Writers wanted!

URL: http://www.greenblue.org/cradle_vision.html

as. This European non-profit association was founded in 1988 to promote "the total replacement of fossil and nuclear energies with renewable energy resources". Started and fuelled Hermann Scheer, member of the German Bundestag and honoured with the Right Livelihood Award 1999, Eurosolar has now 14 local sections and is a rather active association. Among these are the Second International Renewable Energy Storage Conference (IRES II) in Bonn (Nov. 19-21, 2007) and the 7th International Conference on Solar Energy in Architecture and Urban Planning "Sun and Sense" (March 11th-14th, 2008 in Berlin/Germany).

Eurosolar: http://www.eurosolar.de/en/
IRES II: http://www.eurosolar.de/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=271&Itemid=43
Sun and Sense: http://www.eurosolar.de/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=270&Itemid=43

as. Even though this has been published in the Ecosan newsletter before, it may still be interesting to our readers (or serve as a reminder) that WHO has published comprehensive guidelines for reusing wastewater, excreta or greywater in agriculture and aquaculture.

Volume 3 focussing on "Wastewater and excreta use in aquaculture" and volume 4 about "Excreta and greywater use in agriculture" are of particular interest to ecological engineers around the globe. The volumes can be downloaded as PDF or ordered as paper copy from:

© World Health Organization 2006
ISBN 92 4 154684 0
Price: CHF 50.00/US$ 45.00
In developing countries: CHF 35.00/US$ 31.50

URL: http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/wastewater/gsuww/en/index.html

as. Patrick Kangas is the man who wrote the most comprehensive book on Ecological Engineering in recent years. This is of course a most subjective statement that cries for correction from anybody who knows a better one. If you do, please don't hesitate to write.

Anyway, Patrick Kangas' website is a nice collection of information on his teachings, publications and projects. Very inspiring. Don't miss out on it.

URL: http://www.nrmt.umd.edu/kangas.htm

as. The Barefoot College describes its message as follows:

" The Barefoot College is a place of learning and unlearning. It's a place where the teacher is the learner and the learner is the teacher. It's a place where NO degrees and certificates are given because in development there are no experts-only resource persons. It's a place where people are encouraged to make mistakes so that they can learn humility, curiosity, the courage to take risks, to innovate, to improvise and to constantly experiment. It's a place where all are treated as equals and there is no hierarchy."

The main campus is located in Tilonia, Rajastan, India where it was started in 1972 "with the conviction that solutions to rural problems lie within the community". Today, BC runs 24 locations (if I counted correctly) throughout India and is starting to spread its ideas in Africa, too. They focus on numerous programmes - particularly interesting fopr ecological engineers are the programs on drinking water and rainwater harvesting.

Anyone interested to write something about the BC inour next newsletter, please contact the editor.

URL: http://www.barefootcollege.org/

John Todd Ecological Design, Inc. is searching for a P.E. with experience in the design and project management of natural waste, storm, and industrial wastewater systems. The successful candidate will have experience in project design and management for the above areas of activity.

JTED is a practical ecological solutions company offering systems integration of outside and proprietary technology to clients for a variety of environmental solutions. Our clients are primarily companies and developers looking for wastewater solutions that utilize ecological services and energy efficiency.

We are looking for a candidate able to work with biologists, other engineers, architects, and ecological designers to generate stamped construction documents.

Duties will include hands on engineering, reports, site visits, fluency with autodesk engineering software, and general project management. This will include working with other engineering groups that we collaborate with regularly.

Check out the company website at www.toddecological.com

Download this job posting (PDF, 7 kB)

Please forward resume to:

Kim Sousa / Admin. Asst.
John Todd Ecological Design, Inc
www.toddecological.com

87 Water Street / PO Box 497
Woods Hole, MA USA 02543
508.548.2545 / 508.540.3962 fax

(Posted Oct. 23, 2007)

as. Imagine a future in which gardens, greenhouses and groves of trees replace sewage outfall pipes and leachfields. Sewage will grow ecological tree plantations that provide fuel, fiber, construction materials, wildlife habitat and beautiful landscapes. A pig farm's wastewater will fertilize a tree farm instead of pollute a river. A house's wastewater will irrigate and fertilize its surrounding landscape. A planted roof will collect and filter rainwater for use in the house.

The beauty of these scenarios is that they save money, protect public and environmental health, they turn what was a disposal challenge into an amenity and a resource.

That future is here. Reusing the Resource: Adventures in Ecological Wastewater Recycling profiles more than 30 successful ecological wastewater recycling systems that use plants to stabilize, clean, filter and use up wastewater or discharge it to be used again to flush toilets, nourish plants, etc.

Reusing the Resource: Adventures in Ecological Wastewater Recycling, by Carol Steinfeld and David Del Porto, 7.75 x 9, 124 pages, 300+ color photos and diagrams, $24.95 ISBN: 0-9666783-2-X

URL: http://www.carol-steinfeld.com/reusingresource.html

as. The Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants at the University of Florida, USA, provides a good source of information on all sorts of aquatic plants. The plants can be searched by common name (in English), category, scientific name, line drawing or photos. The database focusses on plants of Florida but of course contains numerous species that are found all over the world.

URL: http://aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu/welcome.html

An equally interesting and well-done source on aquatic (and other) plants is habitas.org.uk, the web site of the Ulster Museum Sciences Division. Among others it harbours the flora of Northern Ireland, a collection of photos, habitat maps and text information on plants of Northern Ireland.

URL: http://www.habitas.org.uk/flora/index.html