A solar water heater for remote communities

The RADG has been developing a solar water heater suitable for use in remote areas. The original inspiration for this project was to provide hot water for remote Aboriginal communities. It was felt that a regular and plentiful supply of hot water would encourage showering and laundering and hence improve personal hygiene. Electric, fuel burning and solar water heaters are currently used in some communities. Solar water heaters are attractive for remote areas because they stand alone i.e. they require no external fuel source. Wood has traditionally been used as a fuel by Aboriginal people, but in permanent communities the demand on this resource may have a large impact on the environment. Solar water heaters can help to reduce this demand

Experiences and issues for environmental science sensor network deployments

Sensor network research is a large and growing area of academic effort, examining technological and deployment issues in the area of environmental monitoring. These technologies are used by environmental engineers and scientists to monitor a multiplicity of environments and services, and, specific to this paper, energy and water supplied to the built environment. Although the technology is developed by Computer Science specialists, the use and deployment is traditionally performed by environmental engineers. This paper examines deployment from the perspectives of environmental engineers and scientists and asks what computer scientists can do to improve the process. The paper uses a case study to demonstrate the agile operation of WSNs within the Cloud Computing infrastructure, and thus the demand-driven, collaboration-intense paradigm of Digital Ecosystems in Complex Environments

Experiences and issues for environmental engineering sensor network deployments

Sensor network research is a large and growing area of academic effort, examining technological and deployment issues in the area of environmental monitoring. These technologies are used by environmental engineers and scientists to monitor a multiplicity of environments and services, and, specific to this paper, energy and water supplied to the built environment. Although the technology is developed by Computer Science specialists, the use and deployment is traditionally performed by environmental engineers. This paper examines deployment from the perspectives of environmental engineers and scientists and asks what computer scientists can do to improve the process. The paper uses a case study to demonstrate the agile operation of WSNs within the Cloud Computing infrastructure, and thus the demand-driven, collaboration-intense paradigm of Digital Ecosystems in Complex Environments

On-site wastewater reuse technology options in Australia

Domestic wastewater reuse is currently not permitted anywhere in Australia but is widely supported by the community, promoted by researchers, and improvised by up to 20% of householders. Its widespread implementation will make an enormous contribution to the sustainability of water resources. Integrated with other strategies in the outdoor living environment of settlements in arid lands great benefit will be derived. This paper describes six options for wastewater reuse under research by the Remote Area Developments Group (RADG) at Murdoch University and case studies are given where productive use is being made for revegetation and food production strategies at household and community scales. Pollution control techniques, public health precautions and maintenance requirements are described. The special case of remote Aboriginal communities is explained where prototype systems have been installed by RADG to generate windbreaks and orchards. New Australian design standards and draft guidelines for domestic greywater reuse produced by the Western Australian state government agencies for mainstream communities are evaluated. It is recommended that dry composting toilets be coupled with domestic greywater reuse and the various types available in Australia are described. For situations where only the flushing toilet will suffice the unique "net composting" system can be used and this also is described. A vision for household and community-scale on-site application is presented

Sustainable urban biophilia: The case of greenskins for urban density

Green infrastructure ameliorates the urban heat island effect, contributes positively to liveability and enables sustainability in higher density urban environments. Greenskins (living architectures) are a more specific form of green infrastructure, including green walls and green roofs, for dense urban areas. These offer a new approach for sustainable urban biophilia and some forms can be built using the ecological design principles of constructed wetlands. The paper compares findings from two urban centres in warm Mediterranean climates. In general from Adelaide, South Australia and more specifically from university collaborative projects on particular technical and social parameters necessary to sustain Greenskins in dense urban conditions in Fremantle, Western Australia. Results from trials of a prototype greywater Greenskin using vertical constructed wetland cells are reported. Through an experimental investigation of designing living green walls in urban Fremantle, this paper challenges the conventional "triple-bottom-line" approach to sustainable dense urban systems by addressing the greater aesthetic needs of sustainability and its thinking. Here landscape aesthetics looks to the collaborative fields of urban design, environmental engineering and landscape architecture to design new urban biophilic experiences and restorative landscapes for regenerative cultural pleasure, ecological responsibility, environmental stewardship and intellectual gain

Student Movements in the United States and Mexico: A Testimony

The author reflects on his experiences teaching and going to graduate school in Mexico City in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I discuss my participation in Chicano Movement organizations before moving to Mexico, and the reasons that propelled me to go to graduate school there. I highlight lessons learned teaching as a volunteer at a normal popular, or people’s teachers college, and as a professor at the Universidad Autónoma Chapingo (UACh). I also describe my graduate studies at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). The conclusion focuses on the impact that these experiences had on the author’s professional life in the United States

Bistability of persistent currents in mesoscopic rings

We study the persistent currents flowing in a mesoscopic ring threaded by a magnetic flux and connected to a stub of finite length. Multistability processes and Coulomb blockade are demonstrated to be present in this system. These properties are functions of the magnetic flux crossing the ring which plays the role that the external applied potential fulfills in the multistability behaviour of the standard mesoscopic heterostructures.Comment: 13 pages (Revtex), 4 PostScript figures. Send e-mail to: [email protected]