The Bangladesh Sundarbans - Proactive Design for a Sustainable Future

What does "Resilience" Mean?

Resiliency is commonly interpreted as a structurally sound building capable of withstanding difficult situations like harsh climate. However, resiliency also refers to the ability of the structure to provide for the people who inhabit the location and ensuring it can endure with the goals of sustainability and preservation of their environment in mind.

Primary Goals:

• Protection (from the harsh conditions)
• Preservation (culture and environment)
• Harness (use the extreme conditions to help the structure/people)
• Sustainability (can it last? how will the structure provide for its inhabitants)
• Refuge (How can the location be a center compatible for "work, play and growth"? Evaluate its potential for expansion and enabling civilization to develop, instead of being just a 'survival bunker')
• Real-life practicality (How can you combine previous designs that have shown success or use them to support the construction idea?)

Software:

• Revit
• Twin motion

The Sundarbans - An Overview

The Sundarbans. A beautiful, lush mangrove forest, the largest one in the world, conserved cooperatively by India and Bangladesh. At first glance it may appear as paradise, however its coastal location facing the unrelenting waves of the Bay of Bengal exposes the region to cyclones and flooding. Consequentially leading the Sundarbans to experience a definitively "extreme" situation: a water salination crisis, capable of affecting the very existence of humans, flora, and fauna. Encroaching ocean water from flood waters threatens access to clean water for rice farming and agriculture, as the mangroves struggle to desalinate the region and maintain the balance the Sundarbans is dependent on with human activities.

Water is vital for the development of human societies and determines the presence of humans to the greatest degree. Problems with the quality of the water, harms the people living there, the mangrove forest and consequently the entire ecosystem that the region is dependent upon. These problems are but one of many that plague the region, including the lack of proper infrastructure and housing that can brave storms.

Thus, the structure must be able to handle the elements, offer a sustained solution for population center expansion, and be positioned to help communities the most (location, i.e. where people are most affected).

To better understand the situation in the Sundarbans, it is first important to consider the causes of the water crisis.

Major Problems Identified:

• Shrimp Farming
• Offering a lucrative and steady supply of income for countless societies, this type of farming has been the mainstay for the region in recent years. Previously, communities were dependent on the increasingly scarce supply of fish in the Sundarbans. Although overfishing plagued the region, shrimp farming threatens the ecological balance of salinity as shrimp habituate in the high saline environments created by humans. Essentially, dismantling the ecosystem.
• Flooding and Cyclones
• Located at the delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers, the region suffers from devastating storms as they are a result of the warm sea temperatures in the area.
• Lack of Infrastructure (focusing specifically on reduced access to healthcare systems during natural disasters)
• Much of the habitation in the Sundarbans lacks proper infrastructure that can be developed on to accommodate a surging population without detrimental environmental effects. This must be addressed.

Possible Solutions:

Flooding (Housing)

• Current Designs & Limitations:
• Mud houses with thatched roofs have been historically the choice of many villagers living in this area, with concrete housing available to those who can afford the cost.
• For mud houses, tidal changes wash these homes away.
• Concrete housing although durable during a storm surge, is prone to high environmental costs especially in terms of scalability in the future to help the millions of inhabitants near the mangroves.
• New innovative solutions include using bamboo, wood and reusable plastics to reinforce the walls of the mud dwelling. Keeping the structure environmentally friendly, in tune with its surroundings and adhere to a carbon-negative standard, since the construction is derived from the natural surrounding with little implications and can be built entirely from reusable materials. Benefit: ability to reconstruct, stronger houses, low environmental cost.

Desalination

• Incorporating reverse osmosis systems within homes would be an amazing solution to the problem, however it is important to consider that these solutions are being conducted on rural areas where electricity can suffer outages, especially during storms. This jeopardizes the efficiency of this system during critical storm events.
• Thus, a combination of reverse osmosis systems, a backup generator, and MIT's solar-powered system for desalination can be used in conjunction to produce clean drinking water in times of distress. This allows for a steady stream while also ensuring that contingencies have been addressed, such as power outages and lack of sunlight.
• Micro hydropower systems offer great promise, especially with the ability for them to be constructed at ease, and potential to help power a small community. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, inclusion of a turbine, pump, or waterwheels, are common practices that can have high voltage yields in a rural area that has access to flowing water. This is the case for the Sundarbans as they are strategically located near bodies of water next to the mangrove.

Shrimp Farming [Fish population decrease]

• Known as the second largest industry in the region, with textiles at first, Shrimp farming is a popular choice for the locals due to fish depletion within the region. This practice introduces salts into the water surrounding it as the shrimp only thrive in these saltwater regions, and the establishment of these farms near croplands and rivers effectively undermines rice farming and depletes freshwater fish populations.
• The cause for this trend can be attributed to overfishing which interfered with fish breeding seasons, however this trend is still affecting the fish population.
• Rather incorporation of aquaponics can help relieve the stresses placed on communities to resort to shrimp farming, and potentially expand the importance of native fish species to the community, such as Hilsa, Bhetki, and Parshe, vital for the ecosystem and economy.
• Aquasilviculture, an existing implementation in the Sunderbans which combines mangrove forestry with fish raising practices that have shown significant benefits for the ecosystem. Expansion of aquasilviculture, would then prove invaluable for the development of communities in the region while also remaining sustainable.

Lack of Infrastructure

• While it may be unreasonable to construct an entire system that interconnects all places in the mangrove forest region of the Sundarbans, there is an alternative solution that offers a solution: Modular design
• Modular design in its traditional sense would be a housing unit that is divided into segments that would form one entity in a whole. Communal Modular design would be the panacea to tackle this issue, because now communities can be better organized and tailored to their needs. The flexibility offered by this approach, and the low-cost (ability to construct only what is needed when it is required) makes it an attractive approach for implementing infrastructure such as hospitals and energy generation systems in cohesion with the village and the mangrove. Despite being seen as a "kit" approach, the greater benefits include accommodating expansion without destroying the mangrove.

Brainstorming a possible solution for the site was not easy. So, I started my design process with the idea that the site would be located near a coastal region right at the delta, the highest risk region.

I first started to weave my way into the mangrove forest trying to blend in with it opposed to standing out. This led me to approach a canopy type system, which was already utilized by many villagers in the region. Then, the supporting structure would rest upon a wooden frame (sourced from controlled reforestation regions). The basic structure would resemble that of the mangrove tree, alongside usage of mud as form of cement inspired from pre-existing structures in the region.

Thus, this would help create a strong structure against the winds with its curved design and the water with its stilts. Moreover, the wooden frame would prove durable against cyclones, because of an increasingly popular idea in coastal regions: floating homes.

Though this is just an initial concept idea, further development and improvement can help model different variations. As the structure stands now, it can be included within a system of interconnected buildings that can span the forest region from the treetops to the water. This design is inclusive of all the desalination issue and water intrusion with the lining of mangrove trees around it. This allows the trees to desalinate the water as well as fish and crabs to thrive under the water. Thus, leading to increased populations and a constant source of livelihood opposed to devastating shrimp farming techniques. The trees also serve as an added barrier against cyclones and offers protection from strong winds as well.