SHORT-LIFE OIL SANDS VS SUSTAINABLE LIVING PATCHWORK In-situ scenario in Okitipupa and Irele region Gwenaëlle Charrier and Qixuan Yang Master project: Engaging uncertainty, Landscapes of Nigeria’s Oils Sands Supervisor : MLA Christina Milos Sommer Semester 2014
Comparison and forecast
In 2050, Nigeria will be the 3th most populous country of the world. How will be the megalopolitan area between Lagos and Benin City? How many people and how will they eat? Because of the lack of financial, political and human investments, land potential in Nigeria is underexploited. Are nigerians condemned to sell what they have in their underground then to buy what they can have on their ground? Our work focus on how we can prepare the ground. By using oil sands in-situ operations as an instrument for the futur land planning, we think that different spatial components (swamp forest, citiy, farming, wood industry, oil sands) can coexist together, shaping a patchwork system. Instead of waiting the coming of oil sands operations and its end, things should start now.
SIMULTANEOUS DEVELOPMENT
I
II
IV
III
Patchwork strategy infrastructures food and energy production urban expansion
Short-term oil sands AND long-term sustainable land uses in-situ exploration
In-situ exploitation 70 years
Lagos Oil sands Benin City
Jobs
Wood industry Income
Farming Export
On site
Bight of Benin
ATLANTIC OCEAN
Oil sands operations are coming soon ...
and the land has huge underexploited land potential. 83 % of Arable surfaces which 50% are Cultivated
70% of Nigerians are farmers 50% of food are imported In-situ operation example in Cold lake, Alberta, Canada.
80% of the energy comes from the biomass
No bitumen companies without community benefits Implantation of in-situ compagnies should be regularisd by the local governments. • Exploration lines and pads patterns should be an opportunity to generate long-term thinking of regional planning. • The infrastructures (roads, water pipelines, electricity) needed for the oil sands exploitations should benefit also the locals.
Ecological interests
PATCHWORK SYSTEM Spatial relations between the components In situ + settlement limit
Impulsing the development of infrastructres through in-situ operations Farming
Intensifying faming areas around the cities and along the roads
Cites + infrastructures
Wood Industry
Preparing environmental protection by favorising wood industries along the swamp forest
Fresh water swamp forest
Avoiding water pollution by setting a settlement limit of in-situ operations
Mapping the patchwork system
Scenario of region of Okitipupa and Irele with two in-situ compagnies
Ilado
Ilutitin
Okitipupa
0
5
10km
Irele
Edge evolutions Irele
0
4 km
I t - now
II t - exploration
III t - exploitation
IV t - after...
IDENTIFYING THE COMPONENTS OF THE BITUMEN BELT Regional strip strategy / integrating the in-situ bitumen belt Lagos
150 km
Benin city
Food and energy patchwork elements Flexible activity, in a changing landscape and growing development 2 - 40 ha
Economical and infrastructural links between the two biggest cities in the belt In-situ potential belt and productive potential area 1 year
20 years
Water landscape preserved as as natural ressources 100 - 15000 ha
Degrees of urbanisation
25 years
50 years
Fixed and limited activity, in a fragile landscape 40 000 ha
1000 000 years
Anticipating futur development with oil sands pattern and land patchwork In-situ pattern typologie (density/regularity)
Case 1: dense pattern in wood industry and farming areas
I Nowadays around Irele the landscape composed of a big oil palm plantation and a lot of small fields without clear limits or uses. A main road comes from Irele and across the plantation. Land development is limitated.
III
II
Dense and regular
Dense and unregular
Dispersed and regular
3m
Case 2: dense and regular pattern between two cities
In this scenario, the oil sands company settles at the north and explores the site until the middle of the plantation. 3 meters wide seismic lines are made every 90 meters. When it is possible they don’t have to clean the land. So in the field there is no footprint and in the plantation neither because the raw are spaced every 3 meters. The areas of the pads (1ha) and the new road (8m) are cleaned.
When the exploitation of the first pads are over, the areas are re-used. The infrasctrure is developping, the field can be cultivated with more efficient technique, their shapes become bigger and more regular because of the mechanisation. This phenomen begins along the road. In this context, the former pads are replanted in the initial field, with crops like before. The plantation will arrive at the end of its cycle and will be cut soon. So during this time, former pads can be planted with trees for energy or to anticipate the plantation extension and fix the future limit.
The city grows bigger and takes space over the plantation. The insitu operation left. The oil palm plantation is cutted. The site is replanted by species which Nigerians will need for energy or food or construction. The network left by the oil sands operation is settled and give access to the cultivated lands. The field continues to get bigger and more efficient and organised along the road.
In this scenario, a oil sand compagny settles at the north-east and explores the site with the seismic lines. This pattern deals with the existing roads and completes them, with a regular grid. More the denstity of the pads is high, more the city can use the pattern after.
The city grows by densifying at the first step the center At the mid-time of the oil sands exploitation, the first pad are left and another uses are possible. Those which are between the cities will be used for the urban expansion. They can be public spaces, markets, small gardens etc. The fields around the new road become bigger. Now part of the food need of the population can be supplied by this area.
And then the empty space between the crossroad will be built with the urban growth. Some former pads can be public spaces, in order to provide some breathes in the futur high urban density.
8m
90m
At the west of Okitipupa, Ilado and Ilutitun, two small city are linked by a main road. Around them, the fields have no strict and fixed limits. The city are not dense. There are already some settlements between them along the road, maybe agricultural buildings.
Dispersed and unregular
90m
IV
3m
10m