Climate change and importance of coastal protection

Click on the link to read the blog on climate change and development:http://blog.openmedicine.ca/node/107

Something which I would like to highlight:
One example of adaptation is what the Vietnam Red Cross (VNRC) has done. In Vietnam’s northern coastal provinces, the VNRC has financed the planting of 12,000 hectares of mangrove trees to break the waves typically associated with tropical typhoons and to act as a buffer to 110 kilometers of sea dyke. While US$ 1.1 million was spent on the program, the benefits have proved to be greater than the costs as dyke maintenance have been reduced by US$ 7.3 million each year.12 While building better infrastructure to protect human settlements is necessary, it is impossible to protect all cities, coastlines and farm land with physical structures. Ultimately the best solution to climate change is to prevent it from happening in the first place.

I hope that you can also relate this to the topic of coastal protection - Soft engineering such as tree planting or mangrove conservation do help to complement hard engineering such as the building of dykes.

Read Users' Comments (0)

Flood Management

Read the following summary from BBC:
Flood managementSteps can be taken to manage flooding. Often these involve trying to lengthen the amount of time it takes for water to reach the river channel, thereby increasing the lag time. Flood management techniques can be divided into hard and soft engineering options.
'Hard' options tend to be more expensive and have a greater impact on the river and the surrounding landscape. 'Soft' options are more ecologically sensitive. The tables summarise the main flood management techniques.


Hard engineering options:
Dam constructionDams are often built along the course of a river in order to control the amount of discharge. Water is held back by the dam and released in a controlled way. This controls flooding.
Water is usually stored in a
reservoir behind the dam. This water can then be used to generate hydroelectric power or for recreation purposes.
Building a dam can be very expensive, and sediment is often trapped behind the wall of the dam, leading to erosion further downstream. Settlements and agricultural land may be lost when the river valley is flooded to form a reservoir.
River engineeringThe river channel may be widened or deepened allowing it to carry more water. A river channel may be straightened so that water can travel faster along the course.
The channel course of the river can also be altered, diverting floodwaters away from settlements.
Altering the river channel may lead to a greater risk of flooding downstream, as the water is carried there faster.


Soft engineering options:
AfforestationTrees are planted near to the river. This means greater interception of rainwater and lower river discharge.
This is a relatively low cost option, which enhances the environmental quality of the drainage basin.

Managed flooding (also called ecological flooding)
The river is allowed to flood naturally in places, to prevent flooding in other areas - for example, near settlements.


PlanningLocal authorities and the national government introduce policies to control urban development close to or on the floodplain. This reduces the chance of flooding and the risk of damage to property.
There can be resistance to development restrictions in areas where there is a shortage of housing.
Enforcing planning regulations and controls may be harder in LEDCs.

Views on flood management techniques
Governments and developers often favour large hard engineering options, such as dam building. Building a dam and a reservoir can generate income. Profits can be made from generating electric or leisure revenue.
Environmental groups and local residents often prefer softer options, such as planting trees. This causes little damage to the environment and does not involve the resettlement of communities.

Read Users' Comments (2)

Parenthood Package 2008

From the today newspaper - compare the first cartoon on the parenthood package implemented wef 17 August (the cartoon was published on 4th Sept on Today) and the views on those surveyed on marriage and parenthood in July 2008. Do you think the new marriage and parenthood package would help to bring up the birth rate?





Read Users' Comments (0)

GM Food

How do you feel about GM food? Would you consume meat which is cloned as shown in the news article from my paper below?

Read this article from the Straits Times to learn more about GM food:

June 21, 2006 GM food facts

What are GMOs?
Genetically modified (GM) organisms are plants or animals that have had one or a few selected genes introduced into them through genetic engineering techniques. Examples include potatoes and corn that are resistant to insects and soya beans that are resistant to certain types of herbicide.

What's the difference between GM and conventional breeding?
Conventional breeding, also known as selective breeding, is an inexact science, and involves the random transfer of thousands of genes.
Genetic modification is generally faster and more specific than traditional breeding methods. It can also overcome natural barriers that limited breeders in the past. For example, cross-breeding of a plant with a bacterium was impossible, but GM techniques allow bacteria DNA to be inserted into a crop, to make it resistant to the pest.

Are there GM foods on the market?
Yes. These come mainly from maize, soya bean and canola and can also be found in ingredients in refined products such as corn syrup.

Are they safe?
There are no scientific studies to date that show that GM foods are dangerous. All GMO foods here are certified safe from their countries of origin. The authorities also perform stringent checks on importers of GM foods.

Are GM foods more nutritious?
They are generally equivalent to conventional food products in terms of nutritional value.
Whole foods like grains, fruits and vegetables can be modified to contain more vitamins, proteins or even less fat, but none are being sold commercially so far.

Is there any way to tell if a food product is GM?
Not for shoppers here, because products are not labelled as such. Consumers who wish to avoid GM foods can opt for organic foods or foods with the 'non-GMO' label, says the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA).

- TANIA TAN

Read Users' Comments (0)

Blue Revolution

In the 1960s, India made headlines with its Green Revolution, using high-yielding varieties and improved technology to more than double its output of wheat between 1965 and 1972.
Today, India is pushing ahead with a Blue Revolution, the rapid increase of fish production in small ponds and water bodies, a boon to small farmers, the nation's nutrition and its gross domestic product.


source: http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:-lXRS3rZY_oJ:www.fao.org/NEWS/1998/980802-e.htm+blue+revolution+green&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us


Do you know that we that we are also doing research on aquaculture in Singapore too? Read the article below:

S'pore's very own super sea bass Oct 5, 2007 Straits Times

Hatched in AVA's research tanks, the fast-growing, hardy fry were fattened on an offshore farm in Riau By Tania Tan


JURONG Fishery Port was abuzz with activity yesterday as Singapore's first half-tonne shipment of 'super sea bass' arrived from Indonesia. Hatched in the research tanks of the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority's (AVA) Marine Aquaculture Centre (MAC) on St John's Island, the fast-growing fry were fattened for harvest on an offshore farm in Riau. With a survival rate of up to 80 per cent, MAC's fry are twice as hardy as wild fry, and able to grow up to 15 per cent faster, reaching market size - about 500g - in under six months. Yesterday's inaugural load is the first of many, said the AVA, as the successful harvest will help boost the Republic's future fish stocks - translating into a sustainable and affordable supply of quality fish. The entire shipment of live sea bass was snapped up even before the fish was netted out of the sea - at a wholesale price of about $7 per kg, comparable to current market prices, said the AVA.


To help widen the supply net, 400,000 of the specially bred fry have been supplied to the Riau farm since last year. The farm is expected to produce up to 100 tonnes of fresh fish monthly, for the next two years - or close to 7 per cent of all sea bass eaten here. At the same time, another 400,000 fry have been supplied to fish farms here, which have been already selling the adult sea bass to the local market over the past six months. A large-scale marine farm in southern Singapore is also expected by the end of this year, with a projected production capacity of up to 3,000 tonnes of fish annually by next year. Together, the farms will produce about 6 per cent of the fresh fish consumed here yearly, creating another stable supply of food for the Republic, said Mr Lim.

Singaporeans consume about 72,000 tonnes of fresh fish a year, with most coming from farms in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, said the AVA. The special sea bass fry were produced through a 'painstaking process of selective breeding', said Mr Lim. Generations of the fish were bred and selected for desirable qualities, including size, growth and survival rates - a process which took three years, he explained.

This is the first time that fish from the four-year-old research centre has been produced and sold on a commercial scale. Previous projects which have yet to achieve large-scale production include a 2004 pilot effort involving golden pomfret, which are reared here in deep-net cages, allowing for more fish to be stocked than traditional shallow coastal cages. The new sea bass have proven to be a hit with restaurants here, and plans are under way to boost production of MAC's super fry. And with the success of the sea bass project, researchers at MAC are turning their attention to other popular fish species, including red snapper and cobia. Looking at the wriggling sea bass, some weighing up to 3kg, Mr Lim said: 'It's a proud moment.'

taniat@sph.com.sg


Learn more about the marine aquaculture centre at St John's Island from this article published in 2003:


Fish the high-tech way

The Straits Times Photograph by Chew Seng Kim, Story by Chang Ai Lien


The AVA's Marine Aquaculture Centre aims to develop the technology that will allow Singapore to produce 40 per cent of its food fish needs in eight years. MORE of the fish you eat could be grown here over the next few years. Researchers at a $33-million research and development facility on St John's Island are perfecting the techniques of large-scale fish breeding and rearing. They hope their work will result in production of almost half the fish people eat here. Only 5,000 tonnes of fish and seafood, or 5 per cent of that eaten here a year, is produced locally now.
But the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority's (AVA) Marine Aquaculture Centre, which was opened officially yesterday, 11 aims to increase the annual figure to 40,000 tonnes in eight years. The centre will be working with commercial partners to hit the target, said AVA's chief executive officer Ngiam Tong Tau.

112 Large bags of micro-algae are grown 111 to feed micro-organisms such as brine shrimp which are used to feed the fry before they are weaned onto dry food. The fish being produced by the centre include Asian seabass, golden trevally, snapper and pompano. The AVA's involvement in aquaculture dates back to the 1970s, when, as the Primary Production Department, it worked with cf,mti kelong cf,mtr operators 15 to farm high-value species which they caught. It also pioneered the development of shallow coastal floating net cages ? where the fish live in nets placed in the sea. There are 86 such farms, which make up 4 per cent of the 100,000 tonnes of fish eaten here every year; the other 1 per cent comes from land-based farms.

With deep net-cage farms, which the centre is now testing 17 off St John's Island, more than three times the amount of fish can be produced over the same surface area as shallow cages.




Read Users' Comments (1)comments

Giant Dam Threatens Environment

The three Gorges Dam which spans the Chang River in central China, is the biggest in the world. Built for $25 billion, it is 2.2 kilometers (1.45 miles) wide and 188 meters (616 feet) high-higher than a 60-story skyscraper.

Even before its construction began in 1994, the dam was controversial; Chinese and foreign scientists warned about its impact on the local environment. But government officials kept a tight seal on their own opinions until this fall, when some of them spoke about an impending "catastrophe."

The most pressing concern, say the officials, is landslide control. The water in the 600-kilometer-(370-mile-) long reservoir behind the dam is undermining the reservoir's banks. At more than 90 locations, land has slumped into the reservoir, in some places churning up huge waves that have crashed like tsunamis into nearby shores. In July 2007, a mountain caved into one of the Chang's tributaries, pulling 13 farmers to their deaths and drowning 11 fishermen. Future landslides could force hundreds of thousands of people to move.


Source: Current Science Asia Edition

After reading the above report, reflect on the other ways whereby rivers are managed. What are the pros and cons of of river management? Are soft engineering better than hard engineering?

Read Users' Comments (0)