Environment, Coasts, Oceans, & Infrastructure

Good morning everyone, My background is water resources engineering and .I am interested in learning to design aquaponics infrastructures that can be customized accordingly to the environmental conditions of the Andes regions in South America: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Building a micro level of small infrastructures that fits their budget and it can serve as educational tool to their local neighborhoods (churches, schools, local governments) and it will help recover their health of their watershed environmental conditions and at the same time be sustainable I want to use these infrastructures as a BMP to recover the health of micro watersheds and improve local economies by creating some local jobs for families that cannot afford to have big business. I have already connections with local governments in Ecuador and Colombia. Water source for the infrastructures can be rainwater and it can be recycled and stored. Other sources: rivers, aquifers or lakes. These systems will sustain growing local fish and vegetables. Do you have any specific books that walk through the design of these infrastructures either small or big scale? Any thoughts/suggestions on books or articles already working on this idea? Thank you, Carlos Zhingre | Graduate Student - Water Resources Civil Engineer | Minneapolis MN

Reply
Reference material is available at ECHO located outside of Ft. Myers Florida.  
Experience in doing it.  In Haiti, about an 8 foot diameter tank was built by hand using wire and concrete.  Concrete was mixed on the road and hauled by buckets to home where frame held concrete and wire mesh.  A week later that tank was filled with water and talapia fingerlings were added.  In 6 months family had fish to eat and sell at the market.

Seeds are available for planting trees on hillsides and mountains to improve watershed from ECHO.  Fruit trees and Moringa trees can stabilize soil, and provide food.  Seeds are available from ECHO.  Pamphlets and books are available at ECHO. 

I would also recommend exploring "Farming God's Way", an agricultural method used in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Uganda that has increased crop yields many times over traditional methods.

A search for ECHO and Farming God's Way should get you to their websites.  If not, let me know.

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Barry Johnson
Env Engineer
Ann Arbor MI
(734) 663-6136
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