Upload
comenius-project-good-environmental-educational-practices-exchange
View
213
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Â
Citation preview
INDEX
A general idea of sustainable development
Water as a main reference
Example of unsustainable water: High Guadiana River
Biomass as a new/old resource
“Pastures” as a sustainable agricultural example
Definition
The concept of Sustainable Development was
described in 1987 in the report of the commission
of Bruntland as “development that satisfies the
needs of the present generation without
involving the capacity of future generations to
satisfy their own needs”
Biodiversity
The effect of human activities - increased these
latest years due to the population growth and the
global climate change - has decreased the biodiversity
of the systems around the world
Water
Although water covers more than two thirds of the
surface of the Earth, it is a scarce resource for
many people in the world (less than 0,5% of all the
water is immediately available for human use)
The lack of water, especially drinking water, is
mainly caused by inefficient resource systems and
not due to the lack of resources
Education for sustainable development
Educating for sustainable development means
incorporating the fundamental topics to the
teaching and learning process; for example: climate
change, biodiversity, reduction of poverty and
sustainable consumption
Sustainable lifestyles
Learning to know the products we buy, encouraging
curiosity about how and where our goods are produced,
as well as the working conditions of the country of
origin. How far do our products travel to reach the
supermarket shelves? What is the ecological footprint
of the production and transport of certain goods?
Learning to change consumption behaviour and habits
Spanish climate is charaterized by low precipitations and an extremely dry season in summer, we have a Mediterranean climate
In Spain it only rains 300-500 mm of water per year
SUSTAINABLE WATER We have to focus on two important ideas about Spain
in terms of water
UNDERGROUND WATER Rain water acumulated through pores in the rocks or
directly in the ground
Underground water represents 70% of the total water used in the European Union and 30% of all the water in Spain
We make use of underground water by means of wells
SUSTAINABLE WATER In 1992, the summit of Rio about sustainable
development wrote down Agenda 21, the idea of a serious water management for development
In Spain, water costs about € 1.36/m3
The average water consumption in Spain (households, factories, agriculture…) goes to 4,804 Hm3 per year
It is really important to purify waste water
AGRICULTURE, CROPS AND WATER Barley represents 65% of the total crops in Spain,
together with corn and sunflower (25%) they are the most important crops of he country.
20% of that water comes from underground water, the extraction cost goes to € 1,000 per Hm3
These data do not make agriculture in Spain as sustainable as we would like it to be
Very common system for crops: Drip irrigation
A system for crops or lawn: Sprinkler
A system we are going to talk about: Centre pivots
SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
“Increasing agricultural productivity is the main way to satisfy the growing demand for food given the limitations on expanding the amount of land and water used for food production” - (Final Declaration of the World Summit on Food Security in Rome - November 2009)
Agriculture sustainability means enough quantity of food and big variety of foods throughout the year
This availability has contributed to the improvement of feeding the world’s population
ADVANTAGES Economical
Efficiency in production processes
Incorporation of value-added products
Environmental
Optimization of the use of natural resources (energy, water, soil)
Decrease of Greenhouse gases emissions and waste per unit of production.
DISADVANTAGES Soil Erosion: In the world between 5 to
7 million hectares are lost per year
Salinization and waterlogging of
irrigated soils: Almost half of the
world's irrigated lands have decreased
their productivity due to this reason
Excessive use of fertilizers and
pesticides: It causes water pollution
when these products are washed away by
rain.
Depletion of aquifers
GUADIANA RIVER Guadiana river is the fourth longest river in the Iberian
Peninsula with 744 km.
Guadiana river rises in the “Eyes of Guadiana”
In this area there are some aquifers where water comes
from in a place called High Guadiana.
“TABLAS DE DAIMIEL” National park in Ciudad Real. Wetland which depends on
“Eyes of the Guadiana” to keep its humidity
“Lagunas de Ruidera” and “Tablas de Daimiel” make up
most part of “Wet La Mancha” (25,000 ha.)
It is a very important area because of its vegetation
and migratory birds variety
ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
For the last 30 years, these aquifers have suffered a huge exploitation and also water pollution because of uncontrolled irrigation
In the aquifers the water levels have fallen, causing the drying of “Eyes of the Guadiana”, the loss of water in “Lagunas de Ruidera” and the absolute drying of “Tablas de Daimiel”
Irrigation systems
Biomass is the use of organic matter as energy source.
The general uses of biomass are:
Thermal
Electrical
Industries use it for their thermal needs
Power stations use for electric generation just fuel or a
combination with biomass
Vehicles use it as fuel (replacing diesel or petrol)
Plant and animal biomass
Biomass energy is the energy from organic matter
(vegetable or animal origin)
Plant biomass comes from plants in general (trunks,
branches, stems, fruits, etc.)
Animal biomass is obtained from animal products
(fats, excrements, etc.)
Charcoal is fuel elaborated by carbonizing wood
Wood is heated in an oven at temperatures above 500°C
Water is eliminated and the heating power of wood
doubles to 30.000 kJ/kg (the same as coal)
Advantages Disadvantages Decrease of CO2 emissions Higher production cost than fossil fuels
A tree along its life produces enough oxygen and gets enough CO2 to compensate the amount of CO2 produced in its burning
Lower energetic performance than fossil fuels
No emission of sulphur pollutants Need of transformation to use it
Decrease of waste Big volume, problems of transport and storage
Economic increase in the rural world
Seasonal production
Decreases the dependande of fuels supply
Forests cleared for
agriculture and livestock
Interesting ecosystems:
good example of balance
between human
exploitation and
conservation of natural
resources
The area where the pastures are were occupied by forests with poor, sandy soils
Clearings were opened
Goats were replaced by cattle, sheep and pigs
Hibernating animals (cranes)
“Summer” animals (Montagu's harriers)
Sedentary animals (imperial eagles)
Colorful flowers (daffodils, lilies, lavender, rosemary)
Oak trees
Aromatic shrubs and bushes.
Ability to recover after droughts or harvests
Its use produces biomass
It is considered one of the most sustainable types
of agrarian use