Engineering – �鶹��Ƶ

Combating Agricultural Waste and Boosting Farmer Income: Sustainable Smart Farming in Permatang Pauh

Ada Inman — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 17:33:00 +0000

Even though the State of Penang is experiencing urban expansion, a large part of the state has desakota characteristics (urban and agricultural forms of land use coexist). In the town of Permatang Pauh, Seberang Perai District, there are 4,070 hectares of agricultural land, with an estimated 2,000 farmers. Many of these farmers engage in wet-rice farming. Unfortunately, inefficient agricultural waste management increases the threat to the environment and the livelihood of the people as most farmers dispose of their wastes through either landfill or open-air incineration. The would like to improve the livelihood of the people and reduce the negative externalities to the environment.

The Problem

Permatang Pauh’s paddy farmers were facing two critical challenges: inefficient agricultural waste management and shrinking incomes. The burning of paddy husk post-harvest contributed significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, deteriorating air quality, and increasing health risks. Many farmers relied on outdated practices, with over 80% resorting to open burning. With most farmers nearing retirement age and limited exposure to modern farming methods, their ability to generate sustainable income was severely impacted. The community needed a solution to both reduce environmental harm and increase the farmers’ profitability.

The Opportunity

Recognizing that better waste management could lead to environmental and economic benefits, the �鶹��Ƶ Model was adopted to empower farmers and youth. If local farmers could learn sustainable practices like composting and aquaponics, they could turn agricultural waste into valuable organic compost, boost crop yield, and diversify their income. The project envisioned a greener future through smart farming, where knowledge-sharing between academia, local government, and industry could spark lasting change.

The Partnership

The project was led by Sultan Idris Education University (UPSI) in partnership with the Seberang Perai City Council (MBSP) and Urbanest Sdn Bhd. Prof. Dr. Che Zalina Zulkifli from UPSI spearheaded the initiative, bringing expertise from university professors and students. “This collaboration bridges the gap between academia and the real-world challenges farmers face,” said Prof. Che Zalina. The Green Edu Centre, the first of its kind in Malaysia, provided the training ground for the 42 farmers and youth. “We aim to localize the technology, making it accessible and affordable for the community,” said a representative from Urbanest. MBSP’s involvement ensured the program aligned with local government initiatives to promote sustainability. Together, the partnership trained participants in composting, aquaponics, and fertigation techniques, all designed to reduce environmental damage while increasing income potential.

The Result

The results were immediate and promising. “97.5% of participants rated the program 4 or 5 stars,” said Karthigayan Gunasegaran, a project lead from UPSI. Farmers who had never received formal training before learned how to turn agricultural waste into organic compost, drastically reducing their reliance on harmful practices like open burning. “The training gave us the tools we needed to not only protect our land but also make more money,” shared one local farmer. The Green Edu Centre is now a hub for ongoing research and community education, ensuring the knowledge continues to grow beyond the initial project.

Looking Ahead

The partnership is committed to continuing its support for farmers in Permatang Pauh. Plans are already in place for follow-up training sessions that will focus on expanding smart farming techniques to more farmers. With the right funding, the program will also incorporate an agro-business component, helping farmers access new markets and reduce their reliance on traditional wholesale channels. The journey toward sustainable, smart farming is just beginning, and the partnership aims to keep the momentum going for years to come.

Partnership Contact Information

Seberang Perai City Council Contact
Mr. Chew Eng Seng
Local Agenda 21 Officer
Seberang Perai City Council
eschew@mbsp.gov.my

Written by: Alice Murphy
Edited by: Kay Phanthuwongpakdee

Pushing the Urban Resource Recovery and Reuse Program: Where is the Data (and How to Use It)

Victor Manzanilla — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:39:11 +0000

The Town+Gown:NYC’s Urban Resource Recovery Working Group has been developing an initiative to leverage the City’s capital program to close construction and demolition waste (CDW) material loops. It is called Closing Loops City Program Initiative or CLCPI. At several Working Group meetings, members raised the issue of needing CDW material and volume data to inform CLCPI development and estimate potential capital cost savings from the CLCPI. Meetings with participating agencies revealed a mixed bag at the agency level, running from no data, to procurement data from which CDW materials and volumes might be estimated, to a less-than- complete level of CDW materials and volumes generated on past projects. During a 2019 Pratt/Design Corps project involving a communications strategy to educate the general public and design and construction professionals about the environmental and financial sustainability benefits of closing the soil loop, the students researched New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (NYS DEC) beneficial use designations (BUDs) for excavated soils, which led to the discovery of NYS DEC’s reports that could serve as an initial data source to get a sense of CDW material and volumes generated at the City level. This public data set generated a data science project that NYU/Tandon-CUSP’s capstone program picked up for spring/summer 2021. Publicly available data from transfer stations (Permitted C&D Debris Handling and Recovery Facility Annual Report) and landfills (Active Construction and Demolition (C&D) Debris Landfill Annual/Quarterly Report) permits the creation of CDW “trip” data (origin and endpoint) by CDW material and volume. These reports, which show the middle and end segments of the CDW journey, are, however, in the form of typed or handwritten forms submitted to and scanned by NYS DEC., so that extracting the CDW trip data for purposes of estimating CDW materials and volumes and potential cost savings has been an initial impediment for the City CLCPI to estimate potential capital cost savings. The CUSP team spent the spring semester developing code to machine read these reports to create the CDW trip data, but the code could not work due to the variety in form completion (handwritten, typed, “see attached” in fields) and other data aspects. The CUSP team then manually created CDW trip data from the forms to have sufficient data to develop the data visualization tool, which is an important first step to enable “order of magnitude” and directional CDW flow analyses for local governments, including the City, to support policy development for CDW recycling and reuse. You cannot truly have zero waste without including CDW.

Future growth of organic solar cells in the building integrated photovoltaic market

Victor Manzanilla — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:39:00 +0000

The World heavily relies on using coal, natural gases and oil for its energy; the global economy is strongly dependent on nonrenewable fossil fuelsas an energy source. These fuels are a finite source of energy that will eventually decrease, becometoo costly and largely play a damaging role to the environment.Looking for a better permanent solution, renewable energy sources such as wind, hydro and solar are the wave of clean renewable energy for the future. These resources areabundant in our everyday lives; renewable energy such as wind and solar are never ending and isconstantly be replenished. This paper will examinethe solarsector of renewables, which is currently growing rapidly. Solar energy can be a key player in providing the future with a source of clean renewable energy.

The Sage Project Contact Info
Kristofer Patron
Program Administrator
kpatron@sdsu.edu
(619) 594-0103

University Faculty Contact
Samuel Kassegne
Mechanical Engineering

Local Government / Community Contact

Tourism: Preparing for the Dark Sky Designation

Victor Manzanilla — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:38:32 +0000

The New Glarus School District desires to operate more sustainably, and has already
made great strides in implementing energy saving methods such as new roofs, energy efficient
lights, and better insulation throughout the past five years. Now, NGSD is ready to switch some
of its energy sources to renewable technologies. Different renewable energy sources were
analyzed for the purposes of supplementing the current energy supply to the school district. It is
necessary that a new system is compatible with the current landscape, and is able to be combined
with other community projects, such as the construction of a new pool, in order to ensure the
town’s support. The largest constraints that impact the scope of the design are budget and land
area. The client gave no preference of the type of design, and only wished that the design be
spatially conservative and fall within a budget of $200,000. Limiting factors also include
environmental variables, such as the soil type or the average amount of sunlight and wind the
area receives.
The design process consisted of brainstorming efforts followed by evaluation,
categorization, and research into chosen topics. After an initial analysis, options were once again
evaluated and categorized based on the potential of groups of ideas to reach the energy goal.
Although there were a multitude of brainstormed ideas, notable options which were originally
researched include solar hot water, geothermal, solar photovoltaic, renewable energy credits and
power purchase agreements. Solar hot water was omitted for the reason that the school buildings
do not use a substantial amount of water throughout the day, and therefore the resulting energy
savings would be insignificant and not worth the installation cost for the system. Geothermal,
while logistically viable, was disqualified because there were too many unknowns to proceed
forward without spending thousands of dollars just to assess feasibility. It was an option that was
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better suited for a customer who knew that they wanted to pursue geothermal as a preferred
energy solution, not a curiosity-based inquiry into sustainable design. Eventually, a rooftop solar
photovoltaic system was chosen, as it would best fit the constraints of the client by leaving space
available for parking and further landscape development projects.
The final design provided options for different tiers of commitment for several system
sizes, because of the presently unknown public and committee responses in New Glarus. Three
system sizes were explored for the New Glarus Secondary School rooftop. Financing options
include school district funding, available cash grants from the state and utility, or a public-private
partnership. A public-private partnership would involve third party funding and ownership of the
panels, but would guarantee the building of a system large enough to cover the energy needs of
the school district. Otherwise, the district could finance the project and build a smaller system
within the allotted budget, which could be scaled up yearly as desired. If the latter method is
chosen, it is possible to enroll in a renewable energy credit purchase through WPPI, which would
ensure that the energy purchased by the school district is sourced from off site renewable energy
systems. Power provided from a 250 kW solar photovoltaic system would provide approximately
70% of the school district’s energy load, compared to a small system (10kW) which would
provide around 3%. The cost for these designs would be approximately $682,000 and $32,000
respectively, with multiple financing options presented to the district.

Read the final student report delivered to the local gov/community partner.

UniverCity Year Contact Info
Gavin Luter
Managing Director
gavin@cows.org
608-261-1141

University Faculty Contact
Scott Williams
Civil and Environmental Engineering

spwilliams@wisc.edu

Local Government / Community Contact
Scott Anderson

Teacher at Juda School

Stormwater Best Management Practices Curriculum Units

Victor Manzanilla — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:37:42 +0000

The following document describes a project undertaken in conjunction with the
UniverCity Year in which we, a group of 4 UW-Madison students, worked with the Juda School
in order to improve their energy efficiency. Juda is a K through 12 school located in southern WI
that is seeking to be more sustainable, an effort led by Juda educator Scott Anderson. While Juda
has taken many steps toward sustainability, including installing a 7.5kW solar array, there is
room for improvement, and finding that “room” as economically and efficiently as possible was
the main objective of this venture. Our client, Scott, specifically requested that we aim for the
“low-hanging fruit” solutions–that is the cheapest possible solutions that would make an impact.
We determined that any energy-idea that we recommended to Juda would have to be practical,
economical, and politically feasible given that any major changes made at Juda would require
district approval. Ultimately we have come up with a list of 10 possible solutions that, if
implemented, will save Juda energy and money.
Proposed solutions fall into two categories: behavioral and structural. Behavioral
solutions were heavily emphasized as they are very inexpensive compared to their structural
counterparts. Additionally, Scott expressed a desire to begin cultural change at Juda in regards to
sustainability, as, in his opinion, school-wide energy saving behaviors were severely lacking. In
this spirit, two behavioral solutions are aimed at instigating long term change at Juda. The first is
the Cool Choices program which uses friendly competition and an interactive game to instill
good habits in staff and students that will continue to save energy even after the game ends. The
second is to institute stickers above every light switch that gently remind the last person to leave
a room to turn off the light. These slight changes in behavior save a surprising amount of energy.
The other behavioral solutions are one-time changes that will save energy moving forward,
including lowering sleep settings on school computers and other electronics and using smart
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power strips to eliminate phantom energy consumption when teacher workstations are not in use.
All of these behavioral solutions cost very little–two are even free–thus demonstrating the
benefit of this type of intervention.
The portion of our recommendations with the biggest energy saving potential, as well as
the biggest budget, are the structural solutions. The benefit of these solutions, in addition to the
obvious advantage of saving large quantities of energy, is that once they are implemented, they
require little further effort: all 6 structural solutions have a lifetime of at least 10 years. These
solutions include external building improvements, such as roof coating and window insulation,
as well as modifications of current Juda systems, such as HVAC insulation and modification of
occupancy sensor time reductions. Some of the most impactful solutions, however, involve the
addition of new appliances including replacing the remainder of Juda’s non-LED lights with
LEDs and installing occupancy sensors in the rooms that currently lack them. Though some of
these solutions have a high price tag, the benefits they return outweigh the initial cost, with
payback periods within the lifetime of the product. Included in this report is one solution, the
installation of smart thermostats, that is not currently feasible at Juda, but has been included for
potential future application if the opportunity should arise.
The combination of all of these proposed solutions could reduce Juda’s energy
consumption, taking both electricity and gas into account, by 8.5 percent. Considering in the last
year Juda consumed over 2,365,000 kWh, this is a significant improvement. We hope that Juda
can use these solutions going forward in their pursuit of sustainability.

Read the final student report delivered to the local gov/community partner.

UniverCity Year Contact Info
Gavin Luter
Managing Director
gavin@cows.org
608-261-1141

University Faculty Contact
Scott Williams
Civil and Environmental Engineering

spwilliams@wisc.edu

Local Government / Community Contact
Scott Anderson

Teacher at Juda School

Designing an Outdoor Performance Space for Big Lake’s Lakeside Park

Victor Manzanilla — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:37:20 +0000

PLACE’s Via development in St. Louis Park, MN will be a “mixed-use, mixed-income, transit-oriented community demonstrating profound environmental design.” The Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure has developed Envision criteria to assess the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure. The Envision rating system consists of “60 sustainability criteria that address the full range of environmental, social, and economic impacts to sustainability in project design, construction, and operation.” Students in Construction and Engineering Economic Analysis will conduct an assessment of the Via development using the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure’s Envision criteria, analyzing and communicating how the Via development achieves various criteria. This rating will provide a powerful framework to communicate about the innovative design of the Via development. Students will also provide recommendations regarding actions to increase sustainability in this and future developments.

Read the final student report delivered to the local gov/community partner.

Sustainable Communities Partnership Contact Info

University Faculty Contact
Deb Besser
Engineering

deb.besser@stthomas.edu
6519627741

Local Government / Community Contact