BahatiEducation
From ESWStanford
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Sustainable Campus Design
During the 2008 winter quarter, ESW assisted Bahati Education in researching and documenting opportunities to incorporate sustainable (and/or appropriate) technology into the campus plan for Bahati Academy, to be located in Iringa, Tanzania. In addition to promoting an efficient and productive campus, we studied the long-term role of the campus itself as a model human-environmental system and a focal point for academic opportunities relating to environmental awareness and problem solving.
Weekly Meetings: Wed, 5:15-6:30, GeoCorner, Rm 221
Wiki Details
This wiki provides an online forum to share information and develop design concepts in real time. This main article serves as an introduction to our engineering report, with background information and ideas universally applicable to our design work. We have identified five "working group" subsections--each of these individual chapters are linked to below.
Access to copyrighted content on this site requires a Stanford login for appropriate subscription management.
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Background
Tanzania
Tanzania is located in East Africa. It has a rich cultural history and incredible natural setting. Some facts relating to development and the state of the educational system:
- 159th out of 177 countries on the Human Development Index [1]
- 9% of working population has received education past the primary level
- 8-13% secondary school enrollment (2004) [2]
1,291 secondary schools, accommodate only about 150,000 students, 500,000 students graduate annually from primary school
- Girls comprise only one-third of all high school students: 80% of girls graduating from primary school do not receive a spot in government secondary schools
Cultural Context
Julius Nyerere [3] was Tanzania's first president and known as "Baba wa Taifa" (Father of Nation). Nyerere is a legendary figure in modern Tanzanian culture; he was a teacher initially and even as president was referred to as Mwalimu (Teacher). His essay Education for Self Reliance lays out some of the founding principles still present in the Tanzanian educational system:
Summary:
Ecological Setting
Near Iringa is the southern end of the Eastern Arc Mountains, which have been recognized as a globally important biodiversity "hot spot" [4]. The arc consists of a series of heavily forested mountains isolated by stretches of dry plateau. The mountains have very high rates of endemicism in birds, plants, and other taxonomic groups including primates; however the mountains are one of the most threatened hotspot regions, with intense and increasing extinction risk in many plant and animal species [5]. People rely on the forests to provide firewood, medicinal plants, and lumber; additionally, the mountains form the hydrologic catchment area important for serving water to many cities in Tanzania. Much of the original forests, however, especially at the more accessible or lower elevations, have been cleared and converted to cropland.
Economic Development and Environmental Quality
This project takes place in a the broader context of interactions between environmental quality, human health, and economic development. This section provides resources on these interactions.
Here are a couple of articles by Jeffrey Sachs, an economist, head of Columbia's Earth Institute, and a leading innovative thinker on poverty and development.
- Geography of Poverty and Wealth (Sachs et al. 2001)
- Investments toward sustainable development (Sachs & Reid 2006)
Sachs and Reid (2006) refer the the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Report in their opinion piece. If you're interested, browse thru the Overall Synthesis report at the Millennium Assessment site [6].
Goals and Rationale
In this section we lay out our general design objectives as well as the criteria we propose to employ for evaluating designs.
Sustainability
What does sustainable mean?
Since there is no single definition of sustainability that is generally accepted, it seems appropriate to include multiple definitions. Washington State University’s School of Architecture compiled a number of definitions of sustainability. [7]
- Sustainable developments "meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs"(WECD, 1987).
- "Sustainable means using methods, systems and materials that won't deplete resources or harm natural cycles" (Rosenbaum, 1993).
- Sustainability "identifies a concept and attitude in development that looks at a site's natural land, water, and energy resources as integral aspects of the development" (Vieira, 1993).
- "Sustainability integrates natural systems with human patterns" (Early, 1993).
Design Evaluation frameworks
How do we select the best designs? This question will have a specific answer for each individual component, but here, perhaps we'll lay out some of our general thinking.
Site Characterization
The Bahati Academy
The Bahati Academy will be built in Iringa, Tanzania (approximately 7.78°S, 35.69°E).
Setting
The building site is located near a flat portion on top of a hill of about 1 acre; the rest of the site is gently sloping into a valley. There is low bush on the entire sit... a few streams, but not too many topo features aside from that.
- Site Photos
- Additional photos of schools in Tanzania: Tanzanian School Photos
School Population and Building Plans
The school development will begin with A-level instruction (Forms V and VI) with 50 students in each form. The teachers college will be next to start; the ultimate population here is not certain (although see table below). The final phase of development will be beginning O-level instruction (Forms I-IV).
Table: Preliminary School Plan |
Climate and Hydrology
We'd like to include some information about climate averages, variability, and future change projections.
Precipitation
This is an interesting article presenting precipitation data from Iringa and elsewhere in Western Tanzanian and documenting some of the climatological mechanisms controlling interannual variability in precipitation: Interannual rainfall variability over western Tanzania. According to the article, the rainfall patterns of western Tanzania's single wet season (which usually lasts from October to April) is correlated by "equatorial westerlies" and southeast tradewinds over the south Indian Ocean. Wetter years, characterized by more weeks of more even rainfall, are associated with weaker westerlies and an anticyclonic anomaly over the souther tropics. This results in less moisture diverted from East Africa. The reverse is true (stronger westerlies, cyclonic anomalies, etc) for drier seasons. Additionally, the authors of the paper found a trend of more dry seasons during the 1990s than the 1980s.
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This figure shows the long-term monthly mean precipitation over Africa on a 2.5° x 2.5° grid. Data are from the CPC Merged Analysis of Precipitation (CMAP) [8], which is a synthesis of gauge and satellite data with model results. Long term monthly means are derived from years 1979 to 2000. |
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Here is the average monthly rate of precipitation in Iringa, interpolated from the 2.5° x 2.5° CMAP data. |
Wind
Average daily wind speed at 10 m, extracted from the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis data set are presented below. Since the reanalysis product is a synthesis of data and model output and these data are interpolated from a relatively course resolution (approximately a 2° x 2° grid), the wind speeds here may be very wrong. Additionally, topography and local conditions may have a strong influence not accounted for here.
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Solar Insolation
The following data is from NASA's Atmospheric Data Center, extracted using the Surface meteorology and Solar Energy: SolarSizer Data tool [9]. (Free, registration required.)
| Lat -7.78 Lon 35.69 |
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
| 10-year Average | 5.41 | 5.71 | 5.82 | 5.45 | 5.18 | 5.39 | 5.54 | 5.95 | 6.56 | 6.63 | 6.32 | 5.68 |
Vulnerability to Climate Change
Reducing Vulnerability of agriculture and forestry: recommendations
