Sustainable Resource & Waste Management: Dome It Challenge
What would happen if your neighborhood was suddenly cut off from local infrastructure? (The Floating Pavilion in Rotterdam, Netherlands)Copyright 2013 Caryssa Joustra, University of South Florida
How does infrastructure meet our needs? What happens when we are cut off from that supporting infrastructure? As a class, students brainstorm, identify and explore the pathways where their food, water and energy originate, and where wastewater and solid waste go. After creating a diagram that maps a neighborhood's inputs and waste outputs, closed and open system concepts are introduced by imagining the neighborhood enclosed in a giant dome, cut off from its infrastructure systems. Students consider the implications and the importance of sustainable resource and waste management. They learn that resources are interdependent and that recycling wastes into resources is key to sustain a closed system.
The established water, food, energy, wastewater and solid waste infrastructure typical of most U.S. communities is designed by engineers and often taken for granted, its importance in our everyday lives unrecognized. Civil and environmental engineers, inspired by the balance seen in nature, are continually challenged to find better ways to sustainably manage the resources and wastes generated by a large population through designing improved infrastructure and creating new technologies.
After this lesson, students should be able to:
- Identify and map water, food, energy, wastewater and solid waste infrastructure designed by engineers.
- Define what is meant by open and closed systems.
- Describe how recycling can be used to sustain a closed system.
- Provide examples of how resources are interdependent.