Sustainable low impact materials
Overview:
This session will present a suite of possible solutions for scalable and sustainable urban food production and distribution networks. The solutions were generated through a collaboration between students at UNSW Sydney and IIT Ropar. The session will be moderated by Greg Leslie, Director of UNSW’s Global Water Institute.Program
1. Welcome & Purpose of the session (Greg Leslie) (5 minutes)- a. Opportunity & Challenges of urban agriculture networks
- b. Student led, co-design activities – “A Hackathon”
3. Design solutions from the UNSW-IIT Ropar hackathon (25 Minutes)
- a. Development of rooftop and e-agriculture for urban population, Kapil Garg, IIT Ropar
- b. "Hydroponics: a smart solution to urban gardening", Devesh Singh, IIT Ropar
- c. "Utilisation of existing housing spaces in Delhi for rooftop farming", Teja KVS, IIT Ropar
- d. “Vaccum Bag: A Sustainable Bridge Between Production And Supply of Harvest”, Viney Ghai, IIT Ropar
- a. Dr Sapna Narula, Head, Department of Business Sustainability
Background
Rapid urbanization challenges how we plan and manage our systems to manage water, energy and transport. Moreover, encroachment of cities onto farm lands disrupts traditional approaches to agriculture. Consequently we need to reassess food production, processing and distribution in an urban context. The challenges of food security will be exacerbated by variability in climate – less frequent but more intense rainfall events; shorter winters; collapse of bee colonies; salinization of soil; proliferation of pests; all disrupt conventional agricultural systems. Under these conditions food production must move closer to the point of food consumption. Building scalable and sustainable urban food systems requires a multi-disciplinary approach involving; building and precinct design, water, horticulture, energy, food storage and distribution and e-commerce to efficiently connect growers with consumers. More importantly, the solutions must be insured by and harness the creative power of communities.
The Urban Agriculture hack brought groups of undergraduates from Australia and India together to imagine and design a new approach for food production in urban areas. Students from different cultural and educational backgrounds gathered and formed teams with the objective of building a sustainable and profitable community business to connect local growers with consumers. Experts in water, vertical farming, energy and supply chains provided advice and ideas on possible solutions. Entrepreneurs from successful start ups provided advice on developing business models and strategies and how to “pitch” an idea to potential investors.
This session will present a suite of ideas and new approaches for the building industry to establish urban agriculture systems. Experts from Australia and India will be available to discuss ideas and answer questions on micro-food grids, rooftop aquaculture, recycling food waste and preventing food spoilage.