Can Biomimicry Be a Useful Tool for Design for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation? - Biotechnologies and Biomimetics for Civil Engineering - page 101

4.4.2.1 Mimicking How Ecosystems Work: Process Strategies
Systems-based climate change adaptation challenges conventional architectural
design and procurement thinking, particularly the typical boundaries of a building
site and design timescales. By mimicking process strategies in ecosystems,
designers may have successful models to follow in devising how systems in
buildings or urban environments should be put together and how they should work.
Research into intensive aquaculture systems stretching back several decades
demonstrates in the advantages of mimicking ecosystem processes to create
resilient and effective systems. Typically, such systems mimic the process in
ecosystems where waste becomes a resource for another component of the system,
or where energy is shared ensuring the system eliminates or reduces duplication of
effort. The Happy Shrimp Farm in the Netherlands (2007-2009) was strategically
located next to E.ON Benlux's pulverised coal power station in Rotterdam's
Maasvlakte (a part of the city's harbour and industrial area). Greenhouse enclosed
basins for raising shrimp were kept at a steady 30 C by a 2.5 km pipe which
transferred heat from the power plant's waste coolant water (60 C ) through a heat
exchange system to the farm. The 5,000 m 2 farm also supported the growth of
algae. Algae fed on the nitrogen-rich waste produced in the shrimp farming pro-
cess and became in turn feed for the shrimps, while helping to keep the basins
clear. This resulted in productivity up to 200 times higher than if traditional feeds
were used (Braungart et al. 2008 ).
Well-known examples of successful industrial ecology, such as Denmark's
Kalundborg industrial region, also illustrate how the process of cycling materials
in ecosystems can be mimicked, even between diverse companies. In Kalundborg
this sharing of waste as resource results in a reduction of 30 million m 3 of
groundwater used, and a reduction of 154,000 tonnes of CO 2 and 389 tonnes of
mono-nitrogen oxides (NO x ) emitted. Five companies and one local municipality
make up the industrial park where 20 different bi-product exchanges occur
(Jacobsen 2006 ). The UK Cardboard to Caviar (or ABLE) Project created by
Graham Wiles of the Green Business Network in Kirklees and Calderdale and the
design of a zero emissions beer brewery near Tsumeb, Namibia demonstrate
similar concepts of mimicking the waste cycling of ecosystems and both projects
report significant beneficial social outcomes (Mathews 2011 ). The elimination of
toxins and pollutants that lead to the degradation of ecosystems is also addressed
with such an approach. Analysis of further ecosystem processes other than cycling
of wastes or sharing of energy, suggests additional strategies for the built envi-
ronment to mimic (Korhonen 2001 ).
In aiming to capture cross-disciplinary understanding of how ecosystems work,
a comparative analysis of related knowledge in the disciplines of ecology, biology,
industrial ecology, ecological design and biomimicry was conducted to formulate
a group of ecosystem process strategies for biomimetic design (Table 4.3 ). For
methodology, justifications and sources see: Pedersen Zari ( 2012 ). Although many
aspects of ecosystems are suitable for designers to investigate in the creation of
sustainable built environments, features of ecosystems that make them resilient are