IN-PERSON Lisbon Livable Cities. Section A
Abstract
The aquaponics project outlined in this abstract was initially developed by the authors to address the challenges brought on by the climate crisis facing soil-based vegetable growing. The system design began in April 2020 and was established on a campus balcony of Kyushu University Faculty of Design in Japan housed in a PVC pipe geodesic dome. Two fish tanks were each stocked with 25 rainbow trout, one supplying nutrients to the Light Expanded Clay Aggregate (LECA) method and the other for the raft method. Three separate 60-liter plastic containers were filled with a combination of 10%, 5%, and 0% bamboo biochar (control bed) in the LECA method to determine if bamboo biochar could be a beneficial additive that can improve vegetable growth and better-quality vegetables with this design tactic. However, there was not any significant difference in sugar content or root growth between the bamboo biochar amended beds and the control bed. Shade cloth and water-cooling systems were used to maintain a safe water temperature (<20C) for the trout in the summer. Even though the temperature rose to 50 degrees inside the South-facing dome, fish measuring around 30 cm (500g) were consumed every year of the project. With the tacit knowledge gained in this three-year project we will disseminate innovative design ideas on resilience in a stressed urban environment with this sustainable method of vegetable production for individuals or in a shared community setting that can reduce potential serious urban food issues due to increasing climate change challenges.
Michael Hall has a B.A. in Business Administration and a Ph.D. in Design. Past research focused on cutting down the overgrowth of bamboo in Fukuoka, Japan to make bamboo biochar, and then use it to amend the soil to improve organic vegetable production. Over the past three years the focus has shifted from soil-based organic growing techniques to aquaponics using rainbow trout as the nutrient supplier. The need to vastly reduce water consumption in vegetable growing and the increased difficulty in raising superior quality crops due to climate change brought about this new research direction.
Yuko Yoshida works as an associate professor at Shiga University, Japan. Her Ph.D. dissertation “Silence After Catastrophe: Disaster Survivor Witnessing in Contemporary Japan” will be defended at University of Amsterdam in 2025. She conducts her research on testimony and acts of witnessing to disaster survivors’ psychological traumas and growth. She explores how to create a breakthrough of addressing the trauma survivor’s resilience through innovative memory practices. This research experience contributes to establish future memory beyond disaster survival after natural disasters accelerated by recent climate crisis.
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Wednesday 9th July, 2025