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Green Buildings – from the home to the cityUrban Permaculture ideas

S.Vishwanathwww.biome-solutions.com

www.rainwaterclub.orgYou-tube, Twitter, Slide-share, Face-book :

zenrainman

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What is permaculture ?

• One definition (there are many )

• CREATING SUSTAINABLE HUMAN HABITATS BY FOLLOWING NATURE'S PATTERNS

• Comes from permanent agriculture and then permanent culture

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Who is it for ?

• It is for everyone wishing to live sustainable and tread more lightly on the Earth.

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Ethics

• Earth care respecting the earth the source of life

• People care Fair share Helping each other to live using the earths resource

sustainably equitably

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Permaculture principles

• Work with nature not against• See solutions not problems• Seek diversity not monoculture• Every element should serve many functions• Yield is limited only by imagination• Work in cycles and zones

– Source Permaculture a beginners guide –G.Burnett

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Earth

• The removal of good top soil for brick making destroys the soil in the peri-urban areas of cities

• The use of sand for construction destroys rivers and water sources as well as land due to a process called filtered sand

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Earth

• Every site has earth• In the design of the building incorporate earth• Remove the top soil and keep it• Design a basement to excavate earth• Use this to make earth blocks /cob/rammed

earth for construction• The material for walls can come from the site• Sand requirement can be reduced by 50% – 60 %

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A basement provides earth for the house

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Making Earth Blocks at site

RAMMED EARTH WALLING

A thermally stable place

09/15/09

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What the city does/should do

• Property tax rebate for earth construction• Approved as a building material in building

codes• Encourage skill development in earth

construction• Develop and encourage building codes

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Water

• Water the city comes from the Cauvery 100 km away and 300 mts below

• There is a limit of 1500 MLD available• Costliest water in Asia with embodied energy of 1.8

Units per Kilo-litre of water• SOLUTION

• Use rainwater falling on the site wisely• Capture it as high as possible and store• With the excess, recharge groundwater• Recycle and reuse all water

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We need to return to the culture of the open well

Where the well talks to us dailyWhere water can be drawn without electricity

Where water can be recharged

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Collect rooftop rainwater

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A rain barrel to collect water from the stair-case roof

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A simple cloth filter to clean rainwater

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Checking rainwater for bacteria – h2s vial test

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SODIS- Using the sun to kill bacteria

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Keeping the roof clean is important

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What the city does

• Made rainwater harvesting compulsory • For every square metre of roof area 20 litres

of storage or recharge• About 100,000 buildings are harvesting

rainwater• 100 ‘tanks’ or urban lakes are being revived

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Water table in Bangalore

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Energy

• Use solar energy for– water purification– Cooking– Water heating– Lighting

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Solar cooking

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Use a bio-mass water heater

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Solar water heating

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Solar lighting

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What the city does

• Solar water heaters now compulsory for new buildings

• Bangalore has the single largest installations of solar water heaters in India

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Nutrients

• Compost kitchen waste• Use ‘Eco-san’ principles and recycle nutrients

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Kitchen organics composterwww.dailydump.org

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Use ‘Ecological Sanitation’ generated fertilizer

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• COMPOSTING TOILET (SQUATTING PAN)

43COLLECTORS

44BATHROOM LAYOUT

What the city does The business of waste

• Sewage treatment insufficient and not all households are connected

• Untreated sewage is killing rivers though providing nutrients to farmers

Vijayapura- falling groundwater tables

Waste-water from the city

Used productively

Growing vegetables too

STP’s need to be linked to reuse

Nature as treatment

Lake ecosystem

• 37 acres on Sarjapur Road

• 360 plots• No BWSSB supply• Only groundwater as

source.• Incident rainfall =145

million litres

What Rainbow Drive did

• Banned private bore-wells• Shared community bore-wells 3 numbers• Made recharge as a community , over 260

recharge wells• Put in a place a tariff system based on true cost• Treated wastewater from WWTP being used

for non-potable use• Now almost completely self sufficient for water

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What we need

• Scientific inputs from the WHO guidelines for a sanitation safety plan and a waste-water reuse plan to manage negative impacts

India Sanitation (Census 2011)

Septic Tanks• (million)• Urban 30.09• Rural 24.67

• Total 54.76

Pit toilets• (million)• Urban 55.97• Rural 17.68

• Total 73 .65

• Grand Total 128.41

Septic tanks and Pit Latrines

Another 113 million rural households and 14 million urban households will build toilets and mostly pit toilets in the near future

This represents a massive sludge management challenge

Vacum sucking a pit latrine

the honey-sucker can reach 250 feet

It has eliminated manual scavenging

There are 300 of them in Bangalore City

The trucks are indigenously designed

In many apartments a daily visit

Nutrient value is recovered

But how to avoid soil and groundwater pollution ?

Nutrient analysis in progress

Farmers have understood the nutrient value

The crop

The fruits

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Nutrient management policy

• Solid waste management• Sewage management • Septage management

• All on the basis of nutrient reuse.

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BEFORE AND AFTER ECOSANBEFORE AND AFTER ECOSANCONSUMPTION (ltrs of water/day)

• DRINKING 3• COOKING 4• BATHING 15• CLOTHES 23• UTENSILS 25• GARDEN 25• FLUSHING 40• TOTAL 135

• 3• 4• 15• 20 ECOSAN • 25 saving• 0 67.5• 0.5 • 67.5

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Roof-scape Bengaluru...........

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Roofs are• Sterile,• Uninteresting

and• Heat sinks• Yet they

receive almost all of the rain, sun, wind and life

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Can roofs be smarter ?Since they receive

– maximum– Can they solve a city’s – water, – storm-water, – energy, – wastewater, – Food and– bio-diversity problem ?

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How about? A roof that grows rice

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Uses only treated grey water to grow

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Harvests rain

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RAINWATER AND ECOSAN RAINWATER AND ECOSAN

BANGALORE’S SCENARIO

100 SQ MT OF ROOF

PRODUCES:

• 97,000 LITRES RAIN• 88,000 LITRES

HARVESTEDDEMAND:

67.5 Ltrs/day X 4 pers X 365

= 98,550 LITRES

OUTCOME:• 325 DAYS OF WATER

DEMAND SUPPLIED FROM RAIN

• ZERO SEWAGE RUNOFF• NUTRIENTS USED

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Uses the Sun

87Biome Environmental Solutions Pvt

Ltd

PROVIDES FOR BIODIVERSITY

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Roof produces and takes care of

• 100 sq. mt. 100,000 litres of water• 100 sq. mt 200 kgs of rice and vegetables• 100 sq. mt. All the grey water –100 ltrs/day• 100 sq.mt All the urine 1500 litres / year• 100 sq. mt All the solid waste generated• 100 sq mt 32 different species of birds• 100 SQ mt heat 100 litres daily• Light 12 bulbs• Cook for 4 people lunch and dinner

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So what can a smart roof do?

• Provide– Food security… and grow rice, banana, vegetables –Water security .. and treat waste water– Energy security… and keep the house cool– Ecological security… and help save the sparrow

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The future then…

60% of built Bangalore or any metropolis is roofs.

What do we do about them?

Heat sinks or

Designed Ecological spaces

The choice is ours.

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