Update

Just a quick update on the workings for the project.  We met up today to talk about goals before the trip.  We plan on collecting sources and doing research this week.  Next week we will come together with our information and develop a plan for our trip on the 18th of March.

We are also planning on developing a survey for the residents/mentors of Al-Amal to see what their needs are along with their understanding of water issues in the area.

Hope you all have a great week!

RVG2013

Marhaba everyone,

it was an interesting week in Beirut, Lebanon. What a great city to wake up in.

Since we are already interested in working more closely with the American University of Beirut, it seemed like a perfect match to involve the Nature Conservation Center, previously IBSAR, a research group at the AUB. From previous experience, Dr. Najat Saliba, a chemical engineering professor, had been of great help. Her expertise in native rural farming can come in truly handy as agricultural behaviour can greatly influence the use and management of water in a community. In the past, NCC as Ibsar has published a recipe book of native meals that can be easily made using the existing plants in Lebanon's rural areas, that often remain undermined. The recipe book is an aesthetic approach to community outreach and to create more civic engagement in maintaining Lebanon's rich biodiversity.

The Nature Conservation Center states their aims "to promote conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity for the purpose of enhancing wellbeing of people and nature by providing an open innovative and collaborative platform. Their mission is achieved through research, education, community outreach and knowledge dissemination. They hope to establish a recognised reference centre for the study and sustainable use of dry land biodiversity."

This is extremely interesting for us as the Rock Village is, as the name implies, an arid area of rural land. Together with the NCC we thus discussed not only the issues of water management in general terms but also the possibility to promote native agriculture, rather than invasive and imported species of agricultural seeds, that can also lead to extra produce so that farmers can build a strong network with economic benefits to the community. This will be discussed further in the coming month together with skilled staff and academics that could potentially join us in Arnoun.

Nassib and Maria El-Solh, the wonderful people of the Al-Amal Center, will take these discussions forward from now on.

At the same time, the timing of these meetings with the NCC worked well for everyone of us as many AUB professors and courses are participating in the IBDAA competition, the International Biodiversity Day At AUB in April this year. This means, students from various disciplines, such as Computer Science, Chemistry, Biology, Engineering, Writing, Social Sciences, Landscape Architecture and many more, come together to form teams and work on projects around the theme of Water and Biodiversity in the region, preferably Lebanon. As there were still students who had not chosen a project, we were able, with Maria, to present the Rock Village project in one morning class and offer it to students to get involved in. Within a day, several students from varying courses showed interest and are now looking into setting a focus to investigate further. They will also travel to the site to gain a better understanding. This can help us advance a lot in the research phase as we are slowly but steadily building a bigger picture of the project.
As the final IBDAA presentations are not too far from our final presentations, we can easily highlight their contribution within Aalto as well, which would benefit all the students involved and bring some attention towards the doings of universities in the Middle East, a field often overlooked in Finland.

HERE you can find the short presentation we held at AUB.

Thanks for a great week and many interesting meetings. We will be back in March and are looking forward to visiting the site!

- Nina

Project Plan

Today we met to go over our project plans.  After going around with other groups we realized how broad of a topic we have chosen to cover.  We plan to start our research and have it mostly completed by the time we travel to Beirut around the 18th of March.  Hopefully the engineer from American University of Beirut can help us answer some questions about water availability in the area.  

Project Planning

The group met today to discuss and work on the project plan that will need to be completed in a couple of weeks time. We started off by revisiting our objective and strategy trees from the workshop from last week and confirmed that the main objective and strategy we will be focusing on is achieving a self-sufficient water supply and management process for the Rock Village project. 

We then began to analyse the components of our project plan which will involve: 

• Background
• Beneficiaries 
• Monitoring objectives
• Implementation
• Risk analysis and risk management; and
• Budget 

It was a productive meeting and we have made a solid start in our project plan. Desmond has already begun significant research of the current water sourcing and supply situation  of Lebanon and it has provided an excellent foundation for the group to begin the task ahead of us. 

In other preliminary research, it was discovered that there are other NGOs in Lebanon with projects that share some of our more general aims and goals, and we plan to investigate further about these other projects to establish whether there are any elements which will be useful to our own research. 

Conveniently, one of our group members will be visiting Lebanon very soon and will be setting aside some time to meet representatives of the Al-Amal Institute, and so between now and when she leaves we endeavour to brainstorm a set of questions for the organisation, and in particularly the current plans and goals for implementation as well as a clearer indication of what they wish to achieve in the social context of the project. 

At the conclusion of this meeting, I would be confident to say the group has a relatively clear idea of where our research will be heading towards this semester and that we all look forward to providing worthwhile research towards the eventual implementation of this project! 

Best, 

RVG2013

Hard at work, with our objective and strategy trees providing inspiration.

Start to the semester.. Intro RVG2013

Hey everybody!  So I guess a few introductions are in order.  Four of us have been selected to continue the excellent work done so far the Rock Village in Lebanon.  After looking at last year's report it looks like we have quite the big shoes to fill!  The energy stuff you guys did was great, and it looks really promising for the future of the village.

So for the introductions:

Erik

I am a Geological Engineering major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and am studying in Finland during the spring through an exchange program this spring.  Hoping to get a Certificate in Energy Sustainability as well.

 Santo

A Architectural Engineering & Finance major from Adelaide Australia   Both of his skill sets will be put to good use during this project.  He is also on exchange, but he is lucky enough to be here for a whole year!

 Nina

Currently getting her master's degree in New Media, and she already has a degree in International Design Business.  Again both skill will be very useful as we continue the work you have all started. On top of that, she is already very active in Lebanon and travels to Beirut quite often.  It will be nice to have some connections over the course of the semester.

Desmond

Majoring in Creative Sustainability and Real Estates, Desmond hails from Cameroon Africa.  Once again his skill are well suited for the challenges presented by this product.

So far we are still planning how to attack the giant challenge creating a sustainable community in a country known not only for it's volatile politics, but its volatile energy supply as well.  During our brainstorm session today, we decided that the energy part of the project had been well discussed previously, and to provide another element to the project we decided to focus on the availability of water in the village.

Here is our problem tree.  We decided that the water would be used in village in three main ways: Agriculture, Everyday Use (Washing and Drinking), and Waste Water.  The lack of infrastructure poses a problem because there are no wells from which we can get data about ground water, and no way to transport the water.  There is also little info about rainwater in the region, and if it is a viable option to collect it.

Another large problem is the cleanliness of the water.  Is it suitable to drink? Are the ways to sanitize that don't use tons of energy?  How much energy is needed for hot water in the region?  All of these questions relate to the energy issue which in turn relates to the cost of water in the region.

After feeling a little depressed about all the problems we were facing ;) we looked to create a strategy tree to help us attack the problems:

There are two main sources of water in the region: Groundwater and Rainwater which both need research into how much is available for use, how to collect it, and how to efficiently use it once we have.  Perhaps the farming methods in place are not the best going forward.  Would greenhouses lead to better water conservation and crop yields? Physically installing observation wells and running pumping tests to determine aquifer properties is not really an option, so we will have to rely mostly on research of nearby areas to develop a plan that can be used to determine properties in the area.  On top of this, the people of the village need to be informed and aware of how precious this resource is.  This way they can be an active part of the project.  The way the project is presented is also an important part of this.  Specific terminology can be used to reinforce these principles, especially because the population has special needs.  This also leads to another important aspect of the project, because the majority of our clients are special needs, are there different ways water can be incorporated as therapy for the village?

As the semester continues we will search for answers to these questions and more, and we will definitely be keeping you all updated on our progress.  Any help would be greatly appreciated, and we all hope we can contribute to this amazing project in a significant way.  More to come, and until next time hope you're all having a great spring :)

Sincerely,

RVG2013

Final report

The Sustainable Global Technologies (SGT) Rock Village project was a great opportunity for us to challenge our knowledge with working in an environment and culture, which differs so much from our own. The outcome of this project is for a great part a result of the tremendous support and expertise we have got during this spring.

We want to thank everyone who has supported us during the way to reach our objectives.

• FINAL REPORT: Self-Sustainable Energy Solution for Rock Village (pdf)

Final presentation on 7th May and some new information.

The final presentation of the project was held on 7th May at Design Factory. The group got a good response on their presentation although we were the last group to present their work in a four-hour presentation marathon. We still have some work to do with our final report as we want to make as informative as possible. The final report can be downloaded from this blog most probably on Tuesday 15th.

During the presentation the group was happy to hear that a new law is coming in Lebanon that would allow private actors to sell solar energy to the grid. We feel that this is a huge step in Lebanese energy independence, which is crucial for the future generations! We were asked why we've chose to go with wind energy as this possibility has presented itself.

As we started this project, we were told that selling energy to the grid is not allowed. Therefore in the report there is no discussion about this option. What we can tell you, something we've heard from professor Jukka Paatero at Aalto University, is that the equipment needed to convert low-voltage solar energy into high-voltage grid electricity is very expensive. Since Rock Village mainly runs on donations and we feel that the purpose of the project is not to make money by selling energy we do not recommend trying to sell the energy, but rather keep the system independent as suggested in the upcoming report.