Scale Effective Solutions for Environmental Problems

February 1, 2009

<faculty development proposal 2009>

link to Multiple perspective framework from Jan 31

Applied and mission-driven scientific research needs to provide workable solutions for environmental problems. In the past, I interpreted this effort as the attempt to understand some problem at a small scale, find a solution at that scale and then address the "scale up" issue. For algal culture work, this meant studying a process at the flask scale (< 1 liter), then going to bench-top (5 to 10 liters), then to proto-scale production (20 to 30 liter carboys) and finally to large scale (100+ liters). For lake ecophysiology, this meant studying the processes at flask scale, mesocosm size in lake bags (100 + liters), near shore transects at scales of 100s of meters. This "scale up" problem is a significant intellectual challenge. It is not as simple as just studying larger volumes. Often there are fundamentally different processes operating at different scales.

My new view of this is that we need to solve the problem at an appropriate scale (Schumacher 1973). This scale might be a small hydrologic unit of a marsh, a section of stream, or a part of a watershed. If I can find a possible solution can be proposed and implemented in this situation then it should be possible to replicate this solution many times rather than "scaling up". It is important that the solution meets the criteria of solving the problem AND being financially feasible. For example, it seems possible to provide drip irrigation for a small farm using solar power, a shallow water pump, some pipes, storage tank and drip tape. This solution can be applied to several acres and could pay off the investment over several years of selling market vegetables and fruit (such as watermelon). This combination of technologies fits this scale and is financially feasible. Installing drip irrigation not only breaks even financially but provides social and ecological benefits that are much harder to account for with dollars. Other similar projects might be a small scale pump that moves water through a wetland to remove phosphorus. The payment would come from incentives for P-removal. The benefits from increased marsh growth for migratory bird food or enhancement of fish habitat are side-products of the P-removal.

In both of the examples above, appropriate technology is applied to a problem at one scale and provides an "effective" solution. The goal is to solve the problem and provide economic, ecological and social benefits in the process. The solution is "scale effective" or in Wendell Berry's (1981) words, solves the problem "in the pattern" of the environment. This "pattern" may be the specifics of the topology of the watershed, the individual farmer's need for drip irrigation in one part of his land, or taking advantage of the diversity in fringe marshes to a lake. Instead of taking a solution and making it bigger, which is the common practice justified by trying to achieve "economies of scale" (an efficiency argument, this approach takes a solution that is feasible at one scale and simply replicate it over and over again.

Multiple instances of small scale technologies is a familiar situations. We currently use networks of computers, cell phones, and other almost disposable individual products that are combined into a resilient and very durable network. Constructing a network of small, appropriate technologies can allow for turnover of the individual units that leads to incremental improvement of the unit design and the possibility for re-arrangement of the units in a process of self-organizing such as preferential attachment.

Scale-effective solutions start with scientific adaptive management driven inquiry (Norton 2005) targeted at the central scale of the problem. Part of that solution needs to be that the technology and process that is implemented at that scale is independently financially feasible. The other benefits (to individuals, the community, or natural capital) do not need to be documented or explicitly compared to the financial benefits, thus allowing a truly effective solution that focuses on the quality of the outcome (Drucker 2006). Then, instead of increasing efficiency by scaling up to larger scales with higher energy density and potentially increasing indeterminacy (Adams 1988, Pahl-Wostl 1998). Thus this approach transforms the problem from attempting to finding an efficient solution of sale efficiency (following the traditional approach in which an intractable scaling-up process is required and may be one of the most difficult aspects of the overall project) to one that is looking for an effective scale solution that employs appropriate technology looking for the highest quality outcome.

References:

Adams, R. N. (1988). The Eighth Day: Social evolution as the self-organization of energy. Austin, TX, University of Texas Press.

Berry, W. (1981). "Solving for Pattern". In: The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays Cultural and Agricultural. San Francisco, CA, North Point Press.

Drucker, Peter F. (2006) The Effective Executive: The definitive guide to getting the right things done. Harperbusiness Essentials.

Norton, B. G. (2005). Sustainability: A philosophy of adaptive ecosystem management. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

Pahl-Wostl, C. (1998). Ecosystem organization across a continuum of scales: A comparative analysis of lakes and rivers. Ecological Scale. D. L. Peterson, and V. Thomas Parker. New York, NY, Columbia University Press: 141 - 170.

Schumacher, E. F. (1973). Small is beautiful. Economics as if people mattered. Port Roberts, WA, Hartley and Marks Publishers.