'Will You Live In The Sea?'

West Antarctica Glaciers Collapsing

As the effect of global warming, the sea level rise is becoming an urgent issue throughout the whole world. And there is a statement that sea level rise has accelerated in the recent years.

According to the IPCC TAR WGII report, current and future climate change would be excepted to have a number of impacts, particularly on coastal systems including increased coastal erosion, higher storm-surge flooding, inhibition of primary production processes, more extensive coastal inundation, changes in surface water quality and groundwater characteristics, and so on. 

For the terrible outcomes of sea level rise, I think that human should consider to protect our earth immediately. As a student who studies about the environment, I also should draw attention on this issue. So in this blog, I will talk about a method which I think is interesting to alleviate the global issue--sea level rising, which is land reclamation. 

Land reclamation by the ship

What is land reclamation? Usually, land reclamation known as land fill, is a kind of process of creating new land from ocean, riverbeds, or lake beds. The most popular method to do this process is simply filling the area with large amount of heavy rock with cement, and then filling with clay and dirt until the desired height is reached, which is called 'infilling'.

The Palm Island In Dubai

However, creating land by land reclamation may contribute to some bad impacts on environment. For example, if we fill the wetland with cement or rock, the habitat may be destructed. Another danger related to the earthquakes. Reclaimed land is highly susceptible to  soil liquefaction while earthquakes, which may have adverse impact on buildings and infrastructure on the land.

Based on those advantages and disadvantages, will you live on the land which is created by infilling?

Pictures from:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/05/140512-thwaites-glacier-melting-collapse-west-antarctica-ice-warming/
http://www.shutterstock.com/zh/video/clip-5313473-stock-footage-aerial-view-dubai-residential-property-along-golden-mile-on-palm-jumeirah-dubai-uae-red-epic-k.html

Hybrid Vehicle

With the increasing number of private cars, more and more gasoline and diesel will be needed as energy for cars. However, the use of this kind of fossil fuel will produce green house gas (GHGs) which will cause global warming. What`s more, the amount of fossil fuel on the earth is limited and it is a kind of unrenewable resources. Based on these reasons, Hybrid vehicle is invented.

Toyota Prius, a hybrid electric car marketed worldwide

A hybrid vehicle uses two or more distinct types of power, such as internal combustion engine+electric motor, e.g. in diesel-electric trains using diesel engines and electricity from overhead lines, and submarines that use diesels when surfaced and batteries when submerged. Other means to store energy include pressurized fluid, inhydraulic hybrids. 
Hybrid fuel(dual mode)
In addition to vehicles that use two or more different devices for propulsion, some also consider vehicles that use distinct energy sources or input types (‘fuels’) using the same engine to be hybrids, although to avoid confusion with hybrids as described above and to use correctly the terms, these are perhaps more correctly described as dual mode vehicles:
1. Some electric trolleybuses can switch between an on-board diesel engine and overhead electrical power depending on conditions.
2. Flexible-fuel vehicles can use a mixture of input fuels mixed in one tank--typically gasoline and ethanol, or methanol, or biobutanol.
3. Bi-fuel vehicle: liquified petroleum gas and natural gas are very difficult from petroleum or diesel and cannot be used in the same tanks, so it would be impossible to build an flexible fuel system. Instead vehicle are built with two, parallel, fuel systems feeding one engine.

hybrid-cars-gasoline electric hybrid system with internal combustion engine

Benefits of hybrid vehicle.

The hybrid vehicle typically achieves greater fuel economy and lower emissions than conventional internal combustion engine vehicles(ICEVs), resulting in fewer emissions being generated. These savings are primarily achieved by three elements of a typical hybrid design:

1. Relying on both the engine and the electric motors for peak power needs, resulting in a smaller engine size more for average usage rather than peak power usage. A smaller engine can have less internal losses and lower weight.
2. Having significant battery storage capacity to store and reuse recaptured energy, especially in stop-and-go traffic typical of the city drive cycle.
3. Recapturing significant amounts of energy during braking that are normally wasted as heat. This regenerative braking reduces vehicle speed by converting some of its kinetic energy into electricity, depending upon the power rating of the motor/generator;

Images from:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Toyota_Prius_Life_%28ZVW30%29_front-2_20110116.jpg
http://www.consulente-energia.com/in556.jpg

How to manage the waste?

daily garbage

Nowadays, waste is a big global issue both in the developing and developed countries. In our daily life, tons of waste are produced everyday! It consists of many different types; in terms of physical classification, it includes solid waste, liquid waste, gas waste, etc. About solid waste, we could easily think of waste food, paper, bottles, abandoned building concrete and so on. Liquid waste usually refers to  daily waste water such as dishwater, bath water and  flushing water and industrial waste water. Gas liquid includes vehicle exhaust, industrial gaseous waste. Such things flood our life and most of them can`t be reused and are ruining our environment at the meanwhile.

3"R" principle

For the sake of achieving sustainable development, how to appropriately manage the waste has attracted more and more attention of people. Waste managing needs to follow the 3"R" principle which is short for reduce, reuse and recycle. 


And there are three important factors that we need to notice when we manage the waste:
-different level of government involved
-different approaches to waste management
-many types of waste need to be handled



These mentioned above are about general principles and methods, however as a citizen, what we could do as an individual looks more important. That is because each of us can`t control the overall approaches of managing waste in a country, but we could help the country to manage the waste based on some principles in our daily life. For example, we could use fabric bags instead of plastic bags when we are shopping; we could choose walking or bicycles to replace motor vehicles in order to reduce the vehicle exhaust; we could also following the managing system of rubbish classification to make more waste reuse. That is the most significant and useful thing for each of us to do to manage waste from ourselves. 

sustainable development

And I believe if all of us could notice the importance of how to manage waste and really take the action for it, it would be very helpful to achieve the sustainable goal finally.













pictures are from:
http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article123341.ece/ALTERNATES/s1200/food-waste-pic-getty-images-245448043.jpg
http://www.going-energy.com/en/upload/2013Jun/jpg/20130603154724308_1.jpg
http://www.7continents5oceans.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Sustainable-Development-3.jpg

Green Roof, Green Wall

Having been living in Sydney for over one year, there is a building which impressed me is a apartment which is called One Central Park with vegetative walls. 

One Central Park in Sydney

Central park is a major mixed-use urban renewal project in Sydney, Australia. The One Central Park buildings are parts of the project, which are comprised with tow residential towers above the Central Park. This two residential towers combines technology, design, and vegetation, designed by world-renowned French architect Jean Nouvel. They are unique buildings providing residents with city living combined with nature.

To introduce One Central Park in Sydney is to introduce another two concept which are green wall and green roof.

Green Wall (Vertical Garden)

Green wall on the apartment

There are many definition about green wall, numbers of people hold the view that a green wall is comprised of plants grown in supported vertical systems that are generally attached to an internal or external wall.  In my opinion, a green wall is a wall partly or entirely combined with vegetation, which also could be named as 'vertical garden'. 

Why most people prize the green wall as a eco-friendly method to improve citizen's living standard. First of all, it provides space for gardening especially in compact cities where there is not much space for horizontal landscape. Secondly, it could be a method to build a green construction by direct shading of the wall surface, thus the building could rely on more natural ventilation instead of mechanical ventilation, which result in saving energy. Thirdly, from the aesthetic aspect, it could help to improve the amenity of the building.

However, there are some drawbacks of a vertical garden. The most concerned me is that how to maintain the garden to keep them work well. Second aspect which I am also caring about is how to build this kind of wall. The materials of the wall should be waterproof and how to build the wall with soil in a vertical direction.

A well-designed green wall system could fulfill both design and functional aims. Nevertheless, there are still a number of issues should be tackled, thus we could build more green and environmental friendly living conditions.













Pictures from:
http://www.cppwind.com/portfolio/ctbuh-names-one-central-park-sydney-2014s-best-tall-building
http://www.growinggreenguide.org/technical-guide/introduction-to-roofs-walls-and-facades/green-wall-definition/

Cars- good or not?

figure 1: Cars in China`s city

figure 2: 1985-2007 the amount of private cars in China

In current society,  motor vehicles almost go into every family and become the most popular mode of transportation. Like we can see in the figure 1 'Cars in China`s city', roads in China`s cities are full of cars now, and what`s more, the increasing trend of the amount of private cars in China which is shown in the figure 2 illustrates that in the following future the total amount of the cars would keep increasing in a rapid rate.

With the increase of cars, many issues have been serious. 
1. waste of energy. More cars need more energy. Now cars usually use gasoline or diesel oil as their power energy which is non-renewable resource. So finding a renewable new resource to replace it become a significant thing. Solar power and electric power is on trial now, but it still can`t solve the 
problem of energy shortage now.
2. Air pollution. Automobile exhaust pollution is more and more serious. It could not only cause the health problems, but also affect lives` quality of people. 

People live in haze in Beijing

automobile exhaust

3. Traffic Jam. Auto vehicles could make residents` life more convenient that they could travel to anywhere including short distance and long distance trip with their cars. However the fact is that the increase of the cars impose huge pressure on the traffic especially in metropolis such as Beijing, Shanghai, Sydney, etc. Because of traffic congestion which is caused by large number of private cars, in peak hours, people may take extra more than 2 hours to get their destination (figure 1).

In my own opinion, considering these disadvantages of private cars, I recommend that people should choose more public transportation, rides, and walking instead of cars as their trip mode. 

If so, it can take lots of advantages not only to the travelers themselves, but also to the whole society and environment. For instance. Spending some time on walking or riding is good for health and save money; taking bus could save time in peak hours because bus lines have priority; choosing public transportation could decrease the number of cars, and to some extend, alleviate congestion...

Taking public transportation is becoming more and more popular, and let`s join the trend of the time to make a contribution to promote and protect our environment.














Pictures are from:
http://www.caradvice.com.au/133570/how-many-cars-are-there-in-the-world/
http://s13.sinaimg.cn/mw690/001A83tXzy6Ygs11vhG4c&690
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02195/carExhaust_2195976b.jpg
http://photocdn.sohu.com/20151201/mp45679569_1448965764640_2.jpeg
https://flintonfull.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/bwb_logo.jpg

WE DON'T WANT TO LIVE IN A 'WATER CITY'!

I know most of people may be confused by the title, especially those who love to live in a coastal or water city such as  Venice, Sydney, Bangkok, and Amsterdam. 

Amsterdam

Bangkok

Sydney

Venice

The Sydney Airport flooded

I do not deny that those cities are famous and gorgeous. However, this blog will not talk about those beautiful water cities but focus on a severe urban problem which is urban drainage facilities.

As increasing urban expansion has caused problems with increased flash flooding after sudden rain because that vegetative land are replaced by concrete, asphalt or buildings resulting in the loss of rainwater absorb ability. So the urban drainage system plays an important role when there are a sudden heavy downpour. Especially, I have been studying in Sydney over one year, and I experienced several flash floods in Sydney particularly in the summer period. During that time, it is difficult to go out to work or study even you have private cars. Most of my classmates gain the feeling that we are likely to live in a 'water city', or they think that they could swim to the campus. In my opinion, this problem would not take place in developing countries but also some developed countries for the reason that those countries do not update their drainage system.

To alleviate this issue, countries and governments should build Sustainable Drainage System (SUDS) to help residents could live in a better living standard. So, what is SUDS? The concept of SUDS is to try to replicate natural systems that use cost effective solutions with low environmental impact to drain away surface water through collection, storage, and cleaning before it to be released back into the environment. There are several examples such as basins, rain-gardens, swales, filter drains, bio-retention basins, reed beds, and other kinds of wet habitats. 

Pictures from:

http://www.wsh0755.com/Article/201512/07/3485.html

http://wonderfulengineering.com/29-hd-sydney-wallpapers-the-roar-of-opera-house-in-the-harbor/

http://movisprivatetours.com/inspiration/venice/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2792337/sydney-hit-raging-storms-spring-snowfall-flash-floods-sydney-airport-closed.html

To Be Printed Out or To Be Shown On Screen?

To Be Printed Out or To Be Shown On Screen?

There is an interesting phenomenon I observed these days when I went to the ATM. I found that many people would like to choose print out rather than show on screen after check-in or check-out. From this phenomenon, there is a problem comes to my mind which relates to energy efficiency.

Energy efficiency can not only defined as to reduce the amount of traditional energy such as electricity and water but also relates to other different modes of sources. It is acknowledged that energy efficiency is a big problem among the world. So to address this problem, there are several motivations. Firstly, reducing energy cost could result in a financial cost saving which means that you could use less money to get identical energy. Second is renewable energy. The definition of renewable energy is a kind of energy collects resource from naturally replenish on a human timescale, such as sunlight, tides, waves and geothermal heat. Those resources always are seen as sustainable and eco-friendly substituted energy in four important fields including electricity, air and water heating/cooling, transportation and rural energy services.

In my blog, I will focus on the first solution which is reducing the usage of energy. In my observation, many people are like to print out their receipts which may cost paper waste when most of them just throw away without keeping those receipts. Maybe there are some people have appropriate reasons to need those bills, however, other persons who do not need also choose to print out would not help our environment protection. A good solution could be the bank should provide particular baskets placed nearby the ATM, which are only used to collect those receipts and could be used in a recycle way. This solution could help those who need papery receipts to get what they need. Another solution I suggested is to provide e-receipt, thus we could help to protect more trees and alleviate our environmental problem such as global warming.

Pictures from:

http://www.opuc.texas.gov/energyefficiency.html

http://www.investmauritius.com/investment-opportunities/energy.aspx