Have moved the Fergusson College EcoClub to the NGOs in Pune page. Sanskriti 17:56, 6 September 2008 (UTC)Sanskriti

Notes from a meeting at PMC on the idea of environmental (and other) projects for citizens and students, how such projects may generate and enhance local knowledge, and the use of this wiki platform to support such local knowledge generation

Content of presentation by Girish Sant, Prayas

Information / Data related to energy could help to understand importance of each fuel / end use for meeting future energy demand (limiting load shedding) and better planning; help assess energy conservation potential. It would also help identify major issues of concern / conflict / trade-offs as well as the impact of energy use on air quality and carbon foot-print. Ultimately, such info is needed for designing corrective action.

Further, it would help to make the service provider accountable for Quality of service (e.g. load shedding), the Quality of supply and Planning. It would help empower citizens to seek redressal and take corrective actions.

Data may be classified by fuels (& electricity); User category; End-use; By major issues of concern / correction; By agency (MSEDCL, Oil companies, RTO)

An example of agency wise data: MSEDCL is the agency. Data would be Area wise, consumer category wise electricity usage; T&D losses by area; Down time by area; Billing complaints by area / category Oil companies; Petrol / diesel consumption by area; Shortages …

Other types of projects and info could include Electricity Supply Monitoring Initiative (by Prayas); Experiences of renewable energy technology; Energy efficiency tips; Electricity Load data (time of use, linkage of consumption with number of appliances) to identify energy saving potential; China Air Pollution Map: http://air.ipe.org.cn/en/qyInfoEn.do China Water Pollution Map: http://www.ipe.org.cn/english/index.jsp

Some requirements for enabling the projects and the wiki idea: An information framework; A group which is the ‘Holder’ of the frame-work; and Guidelines for people to add data / information

(rest of the notes will be posted later) Sanskriti 13:56, 21 August 2008 (UTC)Sanskriti Download the original attachment

Modeling Pune ecosystem

Madhav Gadgil, madhav.gadgil@gmail.com

We live in a complicated world that is continually in flux. To understand it, we need to view it in terms of a variety of entities that relate to each other in a myriad ways. It is up to us to decide on a set of entities appropriate to our purpose, organize them in a classificatory scheme, specify the attributes that will be of interest to us, and describe how these relate to each other. In other words, we need to think of the phenomenon of our concern as a system with a certain structure and functioning. This greatly facilitates our understanding what is going on. Of course, we continually do this in an intuitive fashion. It is useful to do it more systematically, and in a quantitative fashion to take our understanding further, to predict what will happen in future, especially in the context of deciding upon what interventions would lead to what consequences.

It is in this spirit that we propose building a model of the Pune ecosystem. At the most general level one may visualize the following nine classes of entities: [1] People; [2] Institutions; [3] Knowledge; [4] Concerns; [5] Activities; [6] Artifacts; [7] Geosphere; [8] Biosphere; [9] Energy, material, information flows. We will need to talk of them in terms of spatial coordinates and time course of events.

Their interrelationships may be visualized in the following fashion:

To build our model, we need to decide on classes, subclasses, sub-subclasses etc of nested entities at different hierarchical level, attributes of various entities, relationships amongst various entities. So, as a concrete example, let us consider one of the highest level classes, [7] Geosphere. Its three subclasses may be atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. As we will discuss below, the spatial coordinates of any location may bay specified as a location on the geosphere. For hydrosphere, i.e. water on surface of earth, one may structure the information in the following fashion:

1. Geosphere: Hydrosphere

1. States of water 1. Gaseous o Humidity o Cloud cover o Evaporation o Transpiration

2. Liquid 1. Flowing o Rainfall o Surface flow through watershed o Percolation to groundwater o Flow via pumps and other water lifting devices o Streams, rivers and other water courses of different orders o Flood waters o Canals o Water pipes

2. Standing o Rain water puddles o Natural ponds and lakes o Man-made ponds, lakes, reservoirs o Closed and open water storage tanks

3. Ground water o In the aquifer o In open wells o In tube wells

4. Solid o Ice

2. Composition of water o pH o Salinity o Turbidity o BOD o Nitrate, phosphate o Arsenic o Fluoride o Heavy metals o Pesticides o Sewage o Industrial effluents o Coliform bacteria o Cyanobacteria causing algal blooms o Occurrence of bio-indicators of water quality o Occurrence of food organisms such as fish and shellfish o Occurrence of nuisance organisms such as water hyacinth, besharam, mosquitoes o Occurrence of aesthetically pleasing organisms such as dragonflies and birds o Occurrence of organisms of cultural and religious significance such as water lilies, turtles o Occurrence of organisms of recreational significance such as mahseer fish o Occurrence of broader spectrum of biodiversity

2. People People may be characterized by a whole range of attributes, some of these will involve relationship to water:

1. USES

o Drinking and cooking o Washing vehicles o Other domestic uses o House gardens and lawns o Water parks o For cultivation of rain fed crops o For cultivation of irrigated crops o For raising domestic livestock o For freshwater aquaculture o As a habitat of natural populations of organisms harvested through fishing o As a site for cultural, religious activities o As a sink for sewage

2. ACCESS

1. To water as a source of services o Free for all o Regulated o Purchased o Subsidized o Tools, time, and energy required to access water

2. To water as a sink of waste products o Free for all o Regulated o Purchased o Subsidized o Tools, time, and energy required to access water as a sink of waste products

3. To produce of water

o Free for all o Regulated o Purchased o Subsidized o Tools, time, and energy required to access produce of water

4. To waterscape elements (Lakes, rivers etc)

o Free for all o Regulated o Purchased

3. Institutions

Institutions may be characterized by a whole range of attributes, some of these will involve relationship to water:

1. USES o Restaurants and hotels o Institutional gardens and lawns, golf courses o Water parks o City avenues, parks o To support commercial, industrial, mining activities o As a sink for waste products of commercial, industrial, mining activities

2. MANAGEMENT

o Design and management of water structures o Design and management of waste- water structures o Conservation o Treatment – Chlorination, U.V, Filtration o Recycling, o Harvesting, o Purification o Pollution, o Over-extraction o Drought mitigation o Flood management

3. OWNERSHIP AND ENTITLEMENTS

1. Of water resources o State, local government, institutions, community, private

2. Of produce of water such as naturally produced or cultured fish, processed drinking water o State, local government, institutions, community, private

3. Of waterscape elements such as river, beaches, reservoirs, canals, city water tanks o State, local government, institutions, community, private

4. ACCESS 1. To water as a source of services

o Free for all o Regulated o Purchased o Subsidized o Tools, time, and energy required to access water

2. To water as a sink of waste products

o Free for all o Regulated o Purchased o Subsidized o Tools, time, and energy required to access water as a sink of waste products

3. To produce of water o Free for all o Regulated o Purchased o Subsidized o Tools, time, and energy required to access water as a sink of waste products

4. To waterscape elements o Free for all o Regulated o Purchased o Subsidized o Tools, time, and energy required to access waterscape elements

4. Knowledge:

Knowledge may involve manifold relationships to water: 1. End uses of water 2. Water management o Design and management of water structures o Design and management of waste- water structures o Conservation o Treatment – Chlorination, U.V, Filtration o Recycling, o Harvesting, o Purification o Pollution, o Over-extraction o Drought mitigation o Flood management

3. Ownership and entitlements

4. Access 1. water as a sink of waste products

5. Composition of water o pH o Salinity o Turbidity o BOD o Nitrate, phosphate o Arsenic o Fluoride o Heavy metals o Pesticides o Sewage o Industrial effluents o Coliform bacteria o Cyanobacteria causing algal blooms o Occurrence of bio-indicators of water quality o Occurrence of food organisms such as fish and shellfish o Occurrence of nuisance organisms such as water hyacinth, besharam, mosquitoes o Occurrence of aesthetically pleasing organisms such as dragonflies and birds o Occurrence of organisms of cultural and religious significance such as water lilies, turtles o Occurrence of organisms of recreational significance such as mahseer fish o Occurrence of broader spectrum of biodiversity

5. Concerns: Concerns may involve manifold relationships to water: 1. End uses of water 2. Water management 3. Ownership and entitlements 4. Access 5. Composition of water

6. Activities:

Activities may involve manifold relationships to water: 1. End uses of water o Drinking and cooking o Washing vehicles o Other domestic uses o Restaurants and hotels o House gardens and lawns o Institutional gardens and lawns, golf courses o Water parks o City avenues, parks o For cultivation of rain fed crops o For cultivation of irrigated crops o For raising domestic livestock o For freshwater aquaculture o To support commercial, industrial, mining activities o As a habitat of natural populations of organisms harvested through fishing o As a site for cultural, religious activities o As a habitat of natural biodiversity o As a sink for sewage o As a sink for waste products of commercial, industrial, mining activities

2. Water management o Design and management of water structures o Design and management of waste- water structures o Conservation o Treatment – Chlorination, U.V, Filtration o Recycling, o Harvesting, o Purification o Pollution, o Over-extraction o Drought mitigation o Flood management

7. Artifacts: Artifacts may involve manifold relationships to water: o Reservoirs o Canals o Pipes o Wash basins o Toilets o Water tanks o Water treatment plants o Effluent treatment plants o Sewage treatment plants o Boats

8. Biosphere: Biosphere may involve manifold relationships to water: 1. End uses of water o House gardens and lawns o Institutional gardens and lawns, golf courses o For cultivation of rain fed crops o For cultivation of irrigated crops o For raising domestic livestock o For freshwater aquaculture o As a habitat of natural biodiversity o As a sink for sewage

2. Water management o Treatment – Chlorination, U.V, Filtration o Pollution

9. Energy, material, information flows: Energy, material and information flows may involve manifold relationships to water:

Energy is consumed in construction of reservoirs, of canals, of manufacture of water pipes, sewerage pipes, taps, wash basins, washing machines etc, in treating water for domestic supply, pumping water from ground water sources, in pumping water to overhead tanks, treating sewage and industrial effluents and so on. Water flows are of course material flows. Flows of information are relevant in very many contexts such as rainfall in catchment areas of reservoirs, concentrations of pathogenic organisms such as E coli in city water supply, and so on.

10. Space-time coordiantes

As mentioned above, we will need to talk of them in terms of spatial coordinates, as locations on geosphere, as as time course of events. The spatial coordinates could be specified at different scales, e.g. [1] Pune Urban district, Pune Rural district, [2] Pune MC, Pimpri-Chinhwad MC, [3] Various wards, [4] Lat Long as determined with a GPS instrument. Etc. The space-time dimensions may also be specified as attributes of any entity.

11. An open ended, flexible model

We may visualize an open, participatory process of building such a model of Pune ecosystem. This could be undertaken as a Wiki based process. We could all work together to develop a list of entities about whom information may be collected, a hierarchical classificatory scheme for the entities, decide on the various attribute of interest for these entities, and the relationships amongst the constituent entities. The model would necessarily be quite complex, and various individuals/ groups would be interested in specific subsets of the model. For example, example, consider the presentation by Girish Sant, of Prayas. He proposes that:

Data may be classified by fuels (& electricity); User category; End-use; By major issues of concern / correction; By agency (MSEDCL, Oil companies, RTO). An example of agency wise data: MSEDCL is the agency. Data would be Area wise, consumer category wise electricity usage; T&D losses by area; Down time by area; Billing complaints by area / category Oil companies; Petrol / diesel consumption by area; Shortages. Other types of projects and info could include Electricity Supply Monitoring Initiative (by Prayas); Experiences of renewable energy technology; Energy efficiency tips; Electricity Load data (time of use, linkage of consumption with number of appliances) to identify energy saving potential;

In terms of the model proposed above, here are some examples relating to various classes: People: Users; Institutions: MSEDCL; Knowledge: T&D losses by area; Down time by area; Billing complaints by area; Concerns: Limiting load shedding ; Activities: Use of diesel gensets during load shedding; Artifacts: Diesel Gensets; Geosphere: Air quality. Biosphere: Vegetation as impacted by air quality; Energy, material, information flows: Electricity supply

12. Constructing and managing the database

The advantage of arriving at a set of commonly agreed upon entities, with certain attributes and relationships is that the data can then be organized in the form of a well designed Database Management System, either Object Oriented or Relational. A database enables one to pool together information collected by many different agents, and organized in many different ways, such as in different spreadsheets. One may then pose specific queries, and generate a variety of different types of reports that would take advantage of the large pool of gradually built up information. For this purpose, one may employ a database, such as My-SQL, or Postgres. For front-end development tools JAVA, C++ and PERL, or PYTHON can be used. This may be developed with a LINUX platform. Such a DBMS might be developed in parallel with the development of the model. Fortunately now devices like XML schemas allow us to remain highly flexible, and take advantage of DBMSs constructed at different stages of the development of the Pune Ecosystem model. Madhav.gadgil 07:25, 16 September 2008 (UTC)Madhav.gadgil