Designing with flooding in mind - Home, land and people.

After a solitary month of droughts – the rains have fell heavily on Britain throughout the spring, summer and early autumn; with a brief reprieve in mid-winter before the heavens opened again  and caused some of the most significant damage of the entire raining year.

Insurance companies attempted to back out of payments on policy technicalities, houses being demolished by rain, or earmarked to be demolished as the foundations too frail or the building inevitably will collapse. Although it was predictable that Global Warming was cited as the reason for these terrible floods – the triage of damage control is re-housing those who have lost homes, get funds (Government, Insurance, private) to support these decimated communities with the intermediate focus then being on rebuilding the lost homes.

What do we do now? Build on stilts in vulnerable flooding areas? Why wasn’t this practice adhered to twenty years ago when insurance companies back then were warning [the public, industry and the Government] against insuring in areas that could become flooded with global warming/increased sea levels etc.

Perhaps a combination of efforts could be the solution for better practice against floods (and droughts!) and damage control for when future floods (albeit possibly reduced ones) still hit our communities.

Build on stilts:

The only way is up? If we built our homes, so that the ground floor (and basement) would be enforced yet also sacrificial so that integrity of the remainder of the houses were unaffected then we would have less a chance of losing our precious homes. If the soils/foundations were better enforced, had naturally stronger resilience to soil properties compromise and street design was planned in an appropriate format to channel excess water away from the houses, streets and farmlands and into the water systems (or absorption factors like soakways, water collection butts etc) then our homes would be better protected.

Although the stilts would not be seen as hidden within the homes/office building walls; the overall structure would be sound in the event of a harsh flood – if the ground floor is destroyed the rest of the house will remain intact.

Going off on a slight tangent – with floods hitting our agricultural systems, would Vertical Farming be one format to reduce impacts and still keep the farms working whilst the flatlands/rolling hills are recovering from flood damage?

More natural soakways:

More gardens in future planning and design of houses and communities would help support more rain absorption, a comprehensive planting programme: planting more trees and wildflowers adding one billion additional indigenous seedlings will really help combat flooding strikes.

Soil conditioning:

Conditioning? Soil can’t be any richer can it? What if a few billion worms were added to the soils at tens of thousands of points across the country? Implementing more active wormeries functioning on a community level would improve out soils properties and condition the soils to support more growth of grasses, flowers and trees to ensure a healthier water cycle is as efficient as possible.

Rain Water collection and Natural Soakways:

Installing a water butt/rainwater barrel may be an obvious issue, yet people only contemplate it when floods are in the news, or droughts have caused us discomfort. The issue of plastic water butts does raise the issue of depleting our oil reserves more - unless you can source all the plastic materials from recycled sources.

The most low embodied and practical option is more grass areas/spaces. Many design principles and planning practices of decades before have eradicated the front/rear garden adjacent to houses; so Britain lost so much more green space and water absorbing properties.

Natural soakways of digging down one metre into the ground and adding rocks before covering it all with soil will help absorb [some] rainwater yet all these token measures when executed by thousands of people will significantly reduce localised/national flooding impacts.

In previous blogs, Davius has explained the basic figures for how many millions of tons of waters/litres ofwaters can be taken out of the flooding equation by simply installing one water butt in every household.

We can all make this happen – it does not necessarily have to expensive to create ‘natural soakways’: a spade, some rocks/stones/bricks from skips. It costs £50 for a decent water butt/rainwater barrel (which sensible people can save £1 a week for a year to implement!) the planting initiaitves which are already happening on a global level by many small pockets of people can easily be expanded, with more locals getting involved spreading the plant seedlings around their districts to increase water retention via plants (which doubles as a biodiversity support mechanism for threatened/declining important species of bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects/birds etc.)

Now what?

You set the example by doing one thing – a few of your neighbours will follow suit. It is understandable that humans only react when threatened, as opposed to plan out for all disasters (which is a little paranoid) as a source of good practice. The flooding warnings are coming at a sharper rate over the last twenty years; we should all try and do something about it now! Get digging, planting and barrelling folks !!

Volunteering emerges as a strong community engagement factor for Sustainability

Volunteering is frequently underrated. Perhaps it is something to go on a CV that attempts to show 'you have character'; to get you into a better College/Uni (as well as grades) or move up the job ladder more quickly? Claiming to be a kind hearted person and will make sacrifices? These are actually clichés that would put some regular people off volunteering as do-gooders are often infamous. It would seem volunteers have re-invented themselves as serious players in many fields hence the Government 3^rd sector are embracing them and even making funds available to encourage furthering many of these volunteer organisations which are contributing significant improvements to your locality.

You'd be surprised how much volunteering begins with just one or two people attempting to contribute something in sustainability in terms of social inclusion (neighbourhood watch) local economy (maintaining stronger local links within businesses/commerce) or environmental terms (clean up the local streets/monuments/parks/rivers etc.). People notice something new is emerging and wish to partake – within a year these volunteer group numbers will expand. Word of mouth carries and local publicity will praise the work achieved through volunteering.

Some examples of volunteering show they engage industry; connecting the communities,highlighting to locals where all the local markets/local social/local greenhubs are - requires local businesses and organisations to become involved and this and several loyalty schemes with hundreds, even thousands of members grow – building local connections, keeping shops from shutting down by volunteers raising awareness that said shops exist and local services are available.

Volunteers who have begun greening the cities have to procure the specific indigenous wildflowers from local growers – this stimulates more local economic growth through volunteering; as they purchase seedlings and add thousands of beneficial plant species to urban areas.

Food growing co-operatives engage local markets and thus begins stronger social inclusion and local economy links. Another example would be river clean ups where thescrap recovered is procured by local scrap merchants and in all cases the funds are not for profit yet ploughed back into the volunteering operations.

General feedback from new and old volunteers has been that it’s important to actively be part of something – yet as a social bonus it should not be understated the important benefits of who you meet which may improve your quality of life. New friends, new local networks, new exchanges of skills. It may be business managers may attend volunteering days to see the raw talents that are out there and this may be a tool to find people jobs who would not otherwise be available to you through conventional channels.

This is not about opportunism though - it's just the natural flow. People meet, people talk, people learn to trust the genuine others they come across through volunteering activities. When one witnesses selfless acts taking place of people volunteering their time, their physical contribution (gardening, labouring, digging, clearing debris etc.) or their mental contribution (community support groups, neighbourhood watch.) you will see a pool of talents that will benefit other areas of your community. It is a human resource that is largely untapped – yet this should not be brutally exploited, rather appreciated that volunteer groups should be supported as inevitably they will benefit the social connections, local economy and improve the natural/built environment. Isn’t that what the triad of Sustainability is supposed to be all about?

A better network is grown out of this volunteering environment that appears to be making ground on a national level, even in the adversity of all of us suffering the blows of a global recession. Sustainability is continually emerging and the economy in one respect will re-invent itself - just as a lot of communities are as they link up through common goals and feelings of being isolated become rescinded. Local connections will inevitably be improved and with this other attributes in your area will follow in a positive direction.

Consider volunteering at a local group in your area - you may well be very pleasantly surprised at what you find going on. Build new associations all pushing for common good. Watch the links in your community build up! Watch your community begin to thrive again in urban and rural environments. Please – get involved.

Smart Meters and Artificial Intelligence; Monitoring and looking after your water, energy, heat, home and land.

Introduction:

Smart Meters made some headway in the media in the late 2000’s yet it has gone a little quiet now. Monitoring is important, in our busy lifestyles we easily lose track of our resource consumption and many other ‘distractions’ of new emerging social/economic/environmental challenges. People attempt to create personal/professional hierarchies of these challenges as new priorities succeed previous ones which then gradually build up …….. many things begin to percolate in the background until they are at an uncontrollable stage. Too many times this causes collapse – as we have seen with phenomenon like the recessions that keep emerging over the last century and a half.

What's yours called?

Many predicted that homes would be run by computers in this era; for the sake of this article we shall call the home AI/computer ‘Central’; turning off unwanted heat sources or lights that are not required. With fridges ordering your groceries, bins gauging how much recyclate you have built up or making recommendations for reduction/non-use or waste minimisation. Perhaps the garage deciding how much juice to charge your hybrid/electric car with.

‘Central’ would take a lot of responsibility. Save you money, time and resources. Yet some people may be concerned that they are molly cuddled or becoming too dependent on technologies. Yet what if many of our distractions in life could be handled by Central? People could then focus fully on their domestic lives, family, community, leisure and work.

Invariably with the constant leaps in internet innovation, faster connections with 4G in the 2010’s, 5G in the 2020’s: we shall very much become more of an interconnected nation if not international community. This may sound all idealistic yet every Garden of Eden has its Asp. In Smart Meters this snake is the mass of privacy issues where people may feel their domestic AI is watching them and reporting on their activities.

Privacy issues:

Will your privacy be compromised? Will you domestic AI be spying on you? What of civil liberties? What privacy would be compromised in the home front? No-one likes their dirty laundry being aired out in public … so how do we balance our future lifestyles with a potential Smart meter monitoring economy? Some districts and counties internationally have stopped Smart Meters from being installed on the grounds of privacy and health. Are EMF’s an issue?

Privacy issues will demand that specific domestic information be deemed anonymous (names, birthdates, income etc.) yet a massive opportunity arises for collating real-time data of exactly what is going on in every house, office, factory and processing plant across the nation/planet.

We don't need to name and shame: just support the 'drainers'...

Who is not saving energy? Who is wasting energy? Who is partaking? Who is acting in a parasitic manner in the office place or community? Who is voting? Who is partaking? As opposed to name and shame communities where energy/water conservation is non-existent, utility companies can use the data to begin remedial efforts.

This will help mould policy to improve water leakages, energy savings, flooding impacts, health issues – the list is limitless and Home AI/Smart Meters can make a significant positive contribution. Politicians can see the low vote areas in many smaller and large scale elections and make efforts to embrace these communities.

This is not about impeding a person’s privacy as they have been naughty with wasting resources – rather rewards should be given to groups in workplaces or communities who are actively making positive changes embracing sustainability in their locality. As no persons details i.e. name can be gained through future enforced privacy acts and practices – just entire districts will show up in statistics engines whom have measured all these positive changes.

Practicalities of Smart Meters:

Do we really need [water/energy/heat/electricity/waste/health/livelihood/flooding] monitoring? The chances are we actually do. There have been some monitoring technologies/practices in use for decades. For example the trusty fire alarm, CCTV or the neighbourhood watch. These have helped improve our lives. Many people complained about CCTV in UK yet with the August 2011 London riots CCTV was embraced a saving grace in dealing with identification, tracking and apprehending of the criminals involved.

Using the theoretical causality analogy of a butterfly flapping it’s wings in Japan caused a hurricane in Tornado Valley. Everything is causal and has a knock on effect. A fire in your neighbourhood will have circumstances for everyone, a kidnapping will damage community confidence etc.

The flooding many countries suffer can be tackled with effective water management, rainwater collection and other measures to balance out floods and droughts. One thing is assured though – if higher latitude housing, offices and factories do not absorb some of the water fallen on the mountains and valleys then the lower ranges will suffer higher potential flooding risks. This gives further support to spread out the AI monitoring/Smart Meters as far high up into our valleys and mountainous communities. What can be monitored and invariably tackled at higher land altitudes can reduce negative impacts on lower altitude communities.

If richer countries do not absorb their runaway carbon emissions then poorer countries will unfairly be punished by the ravishes of Global Warming’s many backlashes of bizarre weather conditions etc. Additionally as developing countries do not have the financial and technological resources that developed countries do – the poorer countries will not be able to deal with these disasters as well as richer countries can/or recover as quickly afterwards.

Biodiversity:

Academics within the scientific community have lobbied more and more for biodiversity monitoring (and support) to improve many ecological issues. Invasive species are frequently mentioned in the media, or academic studies or field researchers work. Yet all too often the busy everyday person will quickly forget these problems until it is too late.

You won’t be bothered by some invasive  white ghost slugs who consume our much needed earth worms (who oxygenate our soils and therefore maintain soil fertility and integrity in order to keep our agricultural industry alive!)

Domestic AI/Smart Meters could be designed to monitor the ground as well as our built domestic environments. This may seem pointless yet if the innovations arise soon we could implement them and be able to gain sophisticated monitoring of ground water contamination, soil structures, pollution increases, invasive animal and plant species.

Things are getting so bad in many countries that Mortgages are refused in many cases where the infamous invasive plant Japanese Knotweed has taken vast roots in someone’s garden and will inevitably work under the foundations and compromise the integrity of the house. This severely compromises a lot of citizens abilities to move/relocate. All this can be dealt with if we had real-time AI/Smart Meter monitoring. More evidence will gain more public attention and increase our knowledge of many problems we are otherwise ignorant of.

So what direction now?

Domestic AI/Smart Meters will inevtaibly be amongst us within ten years and be common place in 2020. We could sleep a lot better knowing that ‘Central’ is watching over us, our water/heat/electricity usage, gardens and soils and much else besides. If it is to be undertaken then privacy issues are critically important and high priority with unhackable (realistic) AI/Smart Meters that can not be compromised.

What can you do? Will your company pioneer the best AI/Smart Meter Innovative Technologies? Will you become a market leader and save the earth in the process?

Why should we be supporting local groups?

Too many good people have a ‘what can I do about it?’ which holds many of us back. Significant problems that come along may seem overwhelming and too many times understandably we feel utterly helpless. This may be deemed true when giant projects are moved into your neighbourhood and many are vastly unsettled by such projects.

Networking is something that is still under-rated, with many people totally unaware of (new and long-term) projects being undertaken in their own locality. Projects such as mapping where anyone can find nearby projects of interest is a phenomenon that is emerging now.

Our prejudices sometimes get the better of us and we do not give some groups the benefit of the doubt to see whether they are worthy of our time. Are they just after our money or is the said group actually able to contribute something positive and significant to our locality.

Frequently the ‘little people’ are able tostop giant industrial projects which could cause damage to their locality (yet it is of no concern to the Industry owners who may be on the other side of the country – or planet!) and such activities can reconnect communities that it’s own locals may have given up on. There is always hope.

Getting the message out there is important, if you put a blog, a video, a public message out there – it will draw people in to work together and make a positive impact. What can you do?

Planning, Local Social interconnectivity and your Personal Health.

Where we live very much affects our health. Not just an issue off too many cars polluting our area, or a local incinerator, or second hand/passive smoking issues – yet how we access that which is around us and how this affects out health.

When the ‘local shop’ is more than several miles away we tend to use a car. If the local post office, school and college is some distance (what we consider out of walking distance) we either get the bus or use a car/taxi. For many people when access is ‘too far away’ or cost prohibitive – we reduce our use of the facilities and sadly for many they will discontinue use altogether.

Physiologically: With less walking, less carrying, less interaction – we become more sedentary and this leads the way to a declining state of personal state. All our main amenities should be within walking distance if we are to maintain good health in the local and good healthy community connections.

Psychologically: It goes without saying as one becomes disconnected from our local links; we become somewhat mentally lacking stimulation and eventually becoming withdrawn. Social disconnection is certainly not healthy and the ‘feeling of being isolated’ will lead to an inevitable mental condition of stress which leaves us vulnerable to worsening health conditions.

Gaining access is very much a planning issue now. It is a pointless endeavour to put a housing development on one side of a busy road and the shops, post office, chemists, schools, colleges, senior citizen facilities, bars etc. on the other side of the road. Such divides play on our minds and serves no positive community or personal benefit.

Designing our communities so that they easily interlink with easy walking distance to everywhere of immediate importance is vital for today and tomorrows towns. Rebuilding the infrastructure is no small feat given the majority of the world is in a serious economic depression.

Using the Japanese design principle of ‘getting it right first time around’ is important for planners, councils, builders and community groups.
• So how can you improve the walking access everywhere?
• Can Planning Aid give you some input on improving your locality?
• Will housing co-operatives a stronger proponent of integrating good spatial design, local amenities and infrastructure?
• Consider how you can improve ease of access in your area?
• What is lacking and what is vital to support reconnect communities?

All Government agencies, Local Authorities, Health Services, Planners, and Designers etc. will all link together more closely in time and develop joint proposals for increasing health in our communities. What can you do to get involved?

Introductory video of Sustainable Development

Video of basic introduction to Sustainable Development.

Are Co-Operatives re-emerging as a viable way forward for stable local economy, social inclusion and renewable energy to support our communities?

Co-Operatives in the UK – a viable solution to our problems?

Given a recent great deal of public lectures, interviews, surveys and research has been undertaken - it illuminates the fact that it would seem that Co-Operatives are making a strong resurgence in recent years. The internet makes for massive global co-operative, where we are encouraged to air our views by blogs, forums, videos, own websites, contributing to others websites - yet for the most part there is a global exchange of ideals, comments and proverbial exchange of (mental) fire.

In essence we are contributing to a larger scale co-operative over the last two decades which is becoming increasingly more efficient and organised. It would seem there are no boundaries if you want to make some contribution and partake in something larger than ourselves as individual entities.

Co-operatives still bring to mind images of low key operations, yet they are making a strong stand now in the adverse face of economic decline and the possible failure of globalisation/outsourcing etc.

The retail business; John Lewis are constantly mentioned by the Government and media as example of a business philosophy where the rewards are shared amongst the staff involved in the running of the company - at ALL levels, with no one being left out in the cold. This supports a comprehensive Social Inclusion which is one of the three tiers of Sustainable Development.

On Thursday, 8^th March 2012 Veteran economist Robin Murray (London School of Economics) and Prof Stephen Yeo  (chair of the Co-Operative Heritage Trust) proudly gave a public lecture at Cardiff University on Co-Operatives in the 21st Century and reflected on where we came from and what direction are we going in? Why are Co-Operatives more successful in Europe than the UK?

The end result was although the status, the practice, the guidelines and rules that British Co-Operatives put up front are practical and functional which all involved parties are easily able to adhere to, what was lacking was up front funds. Something Northern European countries had been successful in was pulling in the funds up front to get so many ventures within the co-operatives started. So what can the UK do to improve this situation? (See 'the problem is ....' below)

(Renewable) Energy Co-Operatives

This is an area of great interest, particularly with its formidable opportunities of energy security and supporting the triad within Sustainability principles of:

1. Social Inclusion - local co-operatives for communities to get behind and reap the benefits from.
2. Stable Economics - local economic benefits, the sales made in the area directly feed the profits back into the local area/community to make improvements/regeneration.
3. Benign Environmental Activity - a Wind Power, Micro-Hydro or Community owned Solar/PV installation has obvious zero (or negative) Carbon positive environmental contributions to make. 

There are active Wind co-operatives such AAT (Awel Aman Tawe), Allt Dearg Community Wind Farm or Westmill Co-Operatives and organisations such as Arts Factory are engaging the concepts of community owned renewable energy Co-Operative initiatives. Additionally micro-Hydro co-operatives such as Torrs Hydro are in operation around the UK. How can we expand these to more communities everywhere? Are Co-Operatives the answer? What are the initial hurdles to overcome? 

Housing Co-Operatives

Housing Co-Operatives are becoming more evident over the years, with new exciting initiatives always on the horizon. One such group is Co-Housing Cymru, which is looking for prospective members to invest and partake in this sustainable housing co-operative. This will encourage real community roots, a stronger inter-connectivity within the social context, sourcing local materials (less transportation kilometres and energy waste) and environmentally benign building activities that makes for much less C&D (Construction and Demolishing) waste.

The problem is ……… 

In other European countries, the existing co-operatives have evolved in a different manner to British ones, they have a stronger source of central funding for the foundation of their projects. In the UK this is sadly something that has come up short.

The strong foundation of co-operative organisation is in place, the rules, the conduct, well managed strong social/economic ethos, the processing is all in place – yet finding the funding to get small to large scale projects up and running are a real challenge for the British Co-Operatives. So what can the UK do? The problem (like everything else) is a lack of money!

A proposal:

So how do we go forward? Marriage of socialism and capitalism – for example; a co-operative foundation set up an energy co-op. they have 5000 members in the locality of a small town, yet are severely short of fund. Thus the co-operative (successful in its bank application criteria) take out a conventional bank loan to set up the e.g. Micro-Hydro scheme or several wind turbines.

The loan equates to 3-9 million pounds, euro’s, dollars (your own countries currency) which will pay for the manufacturing of the hardware/turbine technology, planning, monitoring, the installation and commissioning and the many other necessities to make the projects viable.

The negotiations are concluded [between Bank and Co-operative] in a manner that sale of the electricity will fund the following processes: 

·         Repayment of the bank loan (for the first 5-10 years) Main immediate priority - short term.

·         Funds injected into the local community to support/set up/maintain - all long term priority! 

§  Post offices, Crèche, Public amenities etc.

§  Community rebuilding programmes.

§  Training programmes for those seeking new employment/career change etc.

·        Once the bank loan is repaid – more money will be available for the local economy and regeneration processes.

Obviously, even with the cuts (although as of April 2012 this may have been held off yet again!) in Fit’s [Feed in Tariff’s] the potentially lower rates paid for export of renewable energy to the grid, will still support renewable energy schemes as an additional bonus to help reduce payback period and inject more funds into the community. Many incentives are set up, public demand is there; it is merely down to strong and sound minds forming the initial co-operative and moving the notion forward.

The list of community improvements will be extensive and many of the co-operatives being established at present will have some very unique ideas. Now doubt these ideas and results will be published online in the future as case studies to encourage people all over the world to partake in such new ventures.

Is this revolutionary?

Are these ideas really that new? Or are we just going back to basics? Centuries ago; co-operatives were the norm as a means of fair and equal sharing, where everyone in the community (as equals) were involved. Basic guidelines gave us a standard to work to, this evolved as the co-operatives were pulled to growth. In one respect, we are merely realigning ourselves with what has been established for a very long time before our selfish dabble of materialism began, en mass, in the mid-20^th century to present - which although believed to be a strong source of supporting GDP [Gross Domestic Product] such indulgences of materialism and acquiring it, was one of the main contributory factors for causing many recessions.

Just as there has been a recent re-ignition of so many old traditional ways of life: Co-Operatives, Generational housing, communities are reconnecting – frequently pulled to growth as people understand we cannot go it alone. Establishment of farmers markets are bringing farmers and the communities back together. Credit Unions are pushing to get more local funds available for their respective members.

We can get there!

More people are taking a strong interest in investing in Community Renewable Energy platforms, Local Food Markets, Sustainable Housing projects - We encourage you to do your research and get involved in this exciting re-emerging Co-Operatives markets. It will be a strong foot forward to improving our quality of life; socially, economically, environmentally, spiritually and make for happier lifestyles and a productive society!

Paying it forward and reconnecting with your community.

It is not necessary that we become as inter-dependent as many countries have with their large scale economies (‘USA catches a cold – the rest of the economic world sneezes’ as with the 2007 Credit Crunch and 2008 Global Recession!) yet by supporting each other in a manner that one does not outstretch their own frugal resources; yet are able to give token support to others then we can pay things forward. Executing this on a small scale of the local community will help support a greater quality of life. This does not mean we all get rich – it means we improve our health, our wellbeing, our local links with neighbours and businesses.

Networking has obviously grown as a significant phenomenon, this has grown in gargantuan leaps (and most of the time for free!) with social media/social networking in the forms of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Vimeo etc. Adding a ‘like’ or comments will make others aware of your concerns/thoughts/indulgences (yes – there is an entire chapter on privacy & ethics in there that others have produced over recent years) yet it is an ironic ‘detached way to attach/connect up with like-minded others’.

This recession may invited more selfishness, greater opportunism, greater thefts of precious resources - yet if we really are going to reinvent ourselves into a better, permanent stable economy without Boom and Bust (which every successive Political Party said they’d stop from reoccurring, for the last 30 years or so) then we must strategically work together, not keep consistently ‘economically injuring each other’.

Supporting each other does not necessitate great sacrifice, often it is being primed with knowledge or a connection that you can freely pay forward and encourage others to participate in. As we have become continually disassociated from our friends, families, neighbours, our local businesses through being overworked, or convinced it is more convenient to go to ‘big stores’ in our cars – we skip over many local assets, until they are vastly ignored and dwindle away into oblivion.

Supporting organisations such as Friends of the Earth or The Cardiff Transition (part of the nationwide Transition network)with their ‘Show and Tell’ initiatives to bring about a video of local positiveorganisations with their sensible proposals  to connect up the local people to platforms they were not previously aware of. Enviro Cymru have produced a very in-depth blog on this and should be highly commended for their excellent work.

In every pocket all around the UK these respective groups exist, no matter what angle or local problems (social, economic or environmental) you tackle – you are embracing one of the three main cornerstones of the triad of sustainability. Whether you begin on your own, or team up with one of two like-minded individuals – your project will grow in this challenging decade and it will attract positive attention. By producing blogs, videos, local newspaper entries, an academic paper, a local college lecture, put a notice up in your local religious establishment things will move forward.

What can you do?