this is incredible. Hanging solar panels a few meters above crops of tomatoes and jalapeños multiplied their yield 2-3x, used substantially less water, controlled temperatures, and increased the output of the solar panels
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2301355120 #
science #
solar #
environment #
agriculture
Friendica software. To learn how to make your own, go look at https://friendi.ca
Wow.
Solution to the #ClimateCrisis using #SolarPanels for #farming: #Agrivoltaics
"Properly designed solar installations can increase food #harvests, reduce the need for #irrigation, revive dying lakes, rescue #pollinators, restore #soils + cool overheated humans—all while producing more power than conventional solar arrays."
"In 1982, researchers @ the #FraunhoferInstitute for Solar Energy (ISE) in Germany proposed a... solution..."
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2301355120
1A Remaking America: Can solar power help fix drought-ravaged farmlands? | 1A
June Leffler (WAMU 88.5 - American University Radio)(1/8)
Combining the new solar-panel-above fields method* with ancient raised-field #WaruWaru #farming #technology could facilitate #WaterConservation and management, raise yields, reduce #fertilizer concentration, and reduce #erosion.
The solution to our current #drought problems in many areas might have been with us for 2,300 years at least, probably first developed by the #Tiahuanaco culture of the #Andean...
*See previous toot (Part 1)
...highlands of #Bolivia + #Peru.
Raised-field agriculture has also been used in countries like #China, #Mexico + #Morocco.
#WaruWaru also stems #desertification + creates a cooling (+warming during the night) #microclimate when combined w/ the #SolarPanels, similar to the #irrigated #gardens created by the Muslims, e.g. in the #Alhambra in #Andalucia. In combination with the solar panels. Jointly with the building of #Roman type #cisterns, #agriculture might even be extended to years..
...without rainfall for some time.
I am not an engineer, but it seems quite logic that the reflective capabilities of the
#SolarPanels will also protect the organic #soil from #erosion by rain, sun, and to some degree, wind.
After some interest in the 1960’s through 1980s and early 2000’s, a 2019 Master thesis from #Italy with the chief aim of #WaterConservation and management takes aim to solve South American cities’ recurring #flood problems using #WaruWaru:
https://www.politesi.polimi.it/handle/10589/148696.
Whereas #WaruWaru (also called #camellones in #Peru) was developed for mountain #agriculture, the author Beatrice Salinetti, like me, seems to see an application for many arid regions on all continents.
[TO BE CONTINUED in (5/8):
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/110003784757750634]
Other Sources:
https://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread913772/pg1 (nice intro into #WaruWaru)
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/farming-like-the-incas-70263217/ (she incorrectly attributes the technology to the conquering #Incas, who were but a small pastoral tribe until the 12th century)...
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
2023-03-11 08:49:07
Farming Like the Incas
Smithsonian Magazine(1/15)
I did not want to provide another installment today, but I just came across this older boost of mine about special weather conditions on the #US #WestCoast, that leads to recurrent #FloodingEvents called Atmospheric Rivers (AR).
https://mastodon.social/@UncensoredNews/109610717322432046
Now, I am not a #meterologist, but we know from Part 2 that the ancient Andean people had recurring over-abundant rainfall issues, too (El Niño events).
[Footnote I of V:
10th #AtmosphericRiver in #California on 03/11/2023:]
"This marks the state’s 10th atmospheric river *this winter*.”
#WaruWaru style #flood prevention and #WaterManagement are decades overdue.
"In the...#Andes, pre-#Inca cultures developed nature-based #water harvesting technologies to manage #drought and #flood risks under natural climatic extremes.
These technologies have gained renewed attention as a..."
#flood #news #planetsdyincloud
https://youtu.be/vsp1yrkCHsw
[Footnote II of V:
10th #AtmosphericRiver in #California on 03/11/2023:]
"...potential strategy to increase #WaterSecurity...
The technology is a combination of #rehabilitation of marginal #soils, #drainage improvement, #WaterStorage, optimal utilization of available radiant energy, and attenuation of the effects of #frost. The main feature of this system is the construction of a network of #embankments and #canals."
Take a look of the cartographed #ElNiño events in #SouthAmerica...
[Footnote III of IV:
10th #AtmosphericRiver in #California on 03/11/2023:]
#WaruWaru #WaterManagement
...comparison to atmospheric river events is brutally obvious....
Source:
Waru Waru: the new pueblo
Flood attenuation system for Latin-American cities
Master Thesis by
Beatrice Salinetti
Milan, Italy, 2019
https://www.academia.edu/90681352/Waru_Waru_the_new_pueblo_Floods_attenuation_system_for_latin_american_cities
[Footnote IV of V:
10th #AtmosphericRiver in #California on 03/11/2023:]
Atmospheric Rivers have become a problem for most of the #WestCoast of #NorthAmerica, including even #BritishColumbia and #Alaska:
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/06/world/atmospheric-river-arctic-sea-ice-climate/index.html
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/11/16/whats-an-atmospheric-river.html
What’s an atmospheric river? Here’s why B.C. is seeing floods, mudslides
Toronto Star[Footnote V of V: 10th #AtmosphericRiver in #California on 03/11/2023:]
And in case you were wondering how the #reservoirs were doing while #CA has been experiencing all these floods due to Atmospheric River events, here is the answer:
Many California reservoirs are still below their historical levels.
/END Footnotes
(continues in 12/15)
...Furthermore, e.g. Italy has been the target of similar events in recent decades.
And the #monsoon season in Asia has been a phenomenon for thousands of years.
Fun fact: did you know that there was a monsoon in the #US, too?
So, we can safely assume that building #Roman-Type cisterns or other huge water basins and the like will be an issue for many countries around the globe in the decades to come.
I read an article about about repurposing dried-out fields in #California for this..
...draining rain water into #aquifers, but I can't find it anymore for the time being.
However, I found an up-to-date-article here, which focuses more on the #WaterManagement than on the construction aspects:
"Over the past decade, #Dahlke’s experiments with submerging small plots have suggested 👉intentional #flooding can replenish aquifers without damaging either #groundwater quality or crops"👈
It is based on a law enacted in 2014:
"#California adopted a landmark law,...
...the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (#SGMA), that promotes the practice. It requires farmers to treat aquifers like bank accounts, clamping down on overdrafts but also allowing those who deposit water into them to make bigger withdrawals later."
It is a very interesting proposition and in combination with new (solar panels, where feasible) and re-discovered (#WaruWaru) farming technologies, more arable land should remain for this century...
https://www.science.org/content/article/can-california-s-floods-help-recharge-depleted-groundwater-supplies
As I have learned from this #Oxfam video about "Culturas hidráulicas de #Moxos"* and the "#camellones", the latest research dates the raised-field technology in #SouthAmerica even earlier, to 850 to 1,000 BCE.
Furthermore, this technology was in use in many more regions of #SouthAmerica.
*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnMUnTYhuzo
In the language of the conquering tribe, #Quechua, the term is #WaruWaru. However, using the term in...
[Other sources continued:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waru_Waru]
Further good news from the world of #Agrivoltaics:
#AppliedEnergy:
"..putting agriculture under solar installations—is a good way to maximize land use. It also makes the #SolarPanels *last longer*...
Solar panels mounted 4 meters above a #soybean crop were connected to temperature reductions of up to *10* degrees Celsius, the study found, compared to..."
https://www.fastcompany.com/90861486/agrivoltaics-crops-under-solar-panels-good-for-panels
"...#SolarPanels mounted half a meter above bare soil...
higher temperatures can decrease the lifetime and
"...efficiency of #SolarPanels.
Cooling mechanisms:
-#evapotranspiration
-plants reflect less solar radiation than the bare soil
- panel higher above ground...better air circulation
"There are a lot more questions to answer about the relationship between solar energy and #crops (how to more effectively plant, grow, and #harvest those crops...
"...underneath panels is a major one). This research is only the beginning."
Max #Zhang is a professor of mechanical engineering at #CornellUniversity".
Imagine the enormous additional cooling effects putting #WaruWaru canals below the panels in #Agrivoltaics!
https://www.fastcompany.com/90861486/agrivoltaics-crops-under-solar-panels-good-for-panels
If you like to have a more animated view of the technology, I have discovered this nice #YouTube video which focuses on the intricacies of the #WaruWaru canals in #English.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxeVweYYi4c
[Continued in Part 3: #ClimateChange and #AtmosphericRivers, applying it to other geographic regions than the #Andean highlands]
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/109973294976182469
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
2023-03-05 23:35:10
The Mysterious Waru Waru Constructions Next to Lake Titicaca
YouTubeHere is it: https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/109972629386382918
If not, just ignore.
@KLB
@kellogh
@Sfwmson
@dreamwishes3
@Leisureguy
@ForfarFairLady
@thepoliticalcat
@Caymon
@thousandleaves
@ChrisBoese
@casualcraftsman
@alison
@davew
@Johnmullinax
@RIDDLES
@fraggedy_andy
@JacquelineJannotta
@TheTraveler@toot.community
@tadbithuman
#ClimateChange
#WaruWaru
#Irrigation
#Desertification
#farming
#science
#technology
#SolarPanels
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
2023-03-05 20:45:54
Yes, I was quite angry, when I read it. We could've head a second #GreenRevolution FOUR DECADES ago.
But it gets even better than that. We could have had an agricultural revolution for arid landscapes outside of the #Andean regions 490 years ago: in 1532 the conquistador Francisco #Pizarro captured the Sapa #Inca #Atahualpa #Cajamarca. A year later, the #Spaniards could have told the #ReyesCatólicos of #Spain about the advanced...
@kellogh
...#WaruWaru technology and revolutionized agriculture. Instead, they hunted for gold and silver.
However, since 1982 humanity would have had the chance to combine the technologies. It still hasn't done so.
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/109972629386382918
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
2023-03-05 20:45:54