the new
optimists
Centre for Sustainability and Innovation
welcome!
forum
Monday, 11 June 12
possible food futures forBirmingham 2050
the new
optimists
Monday, 11 June 12
a radical change to the food supply chain?
Monday, 11 June 12
a radical change to the food supply chain?
Centre for Sustainability and Innovation
Monday, 11 June 12
forum sponsors
Monday, 11 June 12
The New Optimists & the Forum
• Began with the simple question What are you optimistic about to over regional scientists
• Over 80 responded . . . a book launched at the 2010 British Science Festival (through a not-for-profit company)
The New Optimists: Scientists View Tomorrow’s World & What It Means to Us
• New Optimists Forum: a space for regional scientists to bend their minds to help meet the big challenges of the 21st century . . .
Monday, 11 June 12
the big challenges
• climate change, resource depletion, population pressures
• but . . . BUT . . . BUT
• yet “doing nothing is not an option” (Sir John Lawton, 2006 Lunar Society Annual Lecture)
Monday, 11 June 12
• Carolyn Steel: Hungry City . . . food as a means to understand the complexity of cities . . .
• scenario planning as a thinking tool . . .
• grounded in space (my home city) & time (2050 is beyond today’s planning systems but within our psyche) . . .
• scientists bending their minds in facilitated conversations with live social media reporting . . .
• computational and youngsters’ analytical brainpower (their skin as well as their DNA is in the game)
• all under the watchful brief of a random grandmother . . .
working within our human cognition
Monday, 11 June 12
Monday, 11 June 12
the forum: where we’re at
Monday, 11 June 12
the forum: where we’re at
Monday, 11 June 12
• Introductions & scene setting
• Understanding the nature of the technologies
• How these technologies could make a difference to Birmingham by 2050
• What that means for now . . . and what next
what we’ll be doing this evening
Monday, 11 June 12
Birmingham & its immediate environs
Monday, 11 June 12
Birmingham & its immediate environs
• Birmingham is at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, roughly 60K hectares (232 square miles).
Monday, 11 June 12
Birmingham & its immediate environs
• Birmingham is at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, roughly 60K hectares (232 square miles).
• The city’s population is about 1M people (density 9,450/m2), part of a conurbation of over 3.6M people.
Monday, 11 June 12
Birmingham & its immediate environs
• Birmingham is at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, roughly 60K hectares (232 square miles).
• The city’s population is about 1M people (density 9,450/m2), part of a conurbation of over 3.6M people.
• Formerly a few hamlets, it grew explosively during the Industrial Revolution; it’s an 18th, 19th & 20th century city.
• Swathes were badly bombed in WW2, redeveloped in the 1960s.
• Its economy collapsed in the 1980s; it is still heavily dependent on the public sector. There has been significant investment in the central parts of the city over the last 20 years.
Monday, 11 June 12
Birmingham & its immediate environs
• It sits on the Birmingham Plateau, rising 500-1000 ft (150-300m) above sea level, between the basins of the Rivers Severn and Trent. It is served only by minor brooks and streams . . . & canals.
• Water is pumped in from the Elan aquaduct built in 1904.
Monday, 11 June 12
Birmingham & its immediate environs
• It sits on the Birmingham Plateau, rising 500-1000 ft (150-300m) above sea level, between the basins of the Rivers Severn and Trent. It is served only by minor brooks and streams . . . & canals.
• Water is pumped in from the Elan aquaduct built in 1904.
• Originally part of the ancient Forest of Arden, there is still dense oak tree cover, aided by policies of our Quaker philanthropist forebears — there are 94K street trees. Many district names end with “-ley”; others have the name “heath”.
• There is 3.2K hectares of parkland, plus the 1K hectares of Sandwell Valley.
Monday, 11 June 12
Birmingham & its immediate environs
• Originally part of the ancient Forest of Arden, there is still dense oak tree cover, aided by policies of our Quaker philanthropist forebears — there are 94K street tress. Many district names end with “-ley”; some have the name “heath”.
• There is 3.2K hectares of parkland, plus the 1K hectare of Sandwell Valley.
• The city has over 7K allotments, several community orchards, wildflower meadows, Bourneville and Moorpool garden estates, sizeable gardens aplenty.
Monday, 11 June 12
Birmingham & its immediate environs
• Originally part of the ancient Forest of Arden, there is still dense oak tree cover, aided by policies of our Quaker philanthropist forebears — there are 94K street tress. Many district names end with “-ley”; some have the name “heath”.
• There is 3.2K hectares of parkland, plus the 1K hectare of Sandwell Valley.
• The city has over 7K allotments, several community orchards, wildflower meadows, Bourneville and Moorpool garden estates, sizeable gardens aplenty.
• The shire counties of the West Midlands has some very fertile agricultural and horticultural land.
Monday, 11 June 12
Birmingham & its immediate environs
• Geologically, the city is dominated by the Birmingham Fault, running from the Lickey Hills in the south-west to Sutton Coldfield in the north-east.
• SE of the fault, the ground is largely Keuper Marl (layers of siltstone and mudstone) . . .
• To the NW, there is a long ridge of Keuper Sandstone.
Monday, 11 June 12
Birmingham & its immediate environs
• Geologically, the city is dominated by the Birmingham Fault, running from the Lickey Hills in the south-west to Sutton Coldfield in the north-east.
• SE of the fauly, the ground is largely Keuper Marl (layers of siltstone and mudstone) . . .
• To the NW, there is a long ridge of Keuper Sandstone.
• Similar to other UK cities, Birmingham has considerable urban heat effect.
• Relative to other built-up areas in the UK, it is a snowy city due to its inland location and comparatively high elevation.
Monday, 11 June 12
Birmingham & its immediate environs
Tyseley Plant
•366K tonnes of household waste burnt per year
•providing 166MW electricity (average individual consumption is 5.85MW pa)
•& 282K tonnes of CO2
Monday, 11 June 12
Birmingham & its immediate environs
Tyseley Plant
•366K tonnes of household waste burnt per year
•providing 166MW electricity (average individual consumption is 5.85MW pa)
•& 282K tonnes of CO2
Possibility . . . a distributed energy generation system
Monday, 11 June 12
Birmingham & its immediate environs
Tyseley Plant
•366K tonnes of household waste burnt per year
•providing 166MW electricity (average individual consumption is 5.85MW pa)
•& 282K tonnes of CO2
Possibility . . . a distributed energy generation system
•fuel: the detritus of 1-3.6M people
•mini-plants: on currently non-productive former industrial land
•heat by-product: fed into the city’s existing CHP system
Monday, 11 June 12
Monday, 11 June 12
Monday, 11 June 12
Monday, 11 June 12
Monday, 11 June 12
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