the Useless

Kelp Landscapes at Work Alter the Prevailing NIYMBY Idea

Individual Work | Core Ⅲ Studio in GSD

Instructor: Danielle N. Choi, dchoi@gsd.harvard.edu

Time: 2020.09 - 2020.12 | Location: Massachusetts, US

Category: Littoral Landscape Design

This project creates employment opportunities suitable for the skills and circumstances of veterans and the elderly, who have been unfairly treated and often forgotten by the society.

At the same time, kelp, a marine organism, can absorb excessive nutrients and carbon dioxide in the ocean. Its growth can create a more suitable growth environment for other marine organisms, reduce the velocity of seawater and offer coastal protection. However, this marine agriculture is still in its infancy in Massachusetts.

Therefore, this project attempts to use the combination of offshore kelp farms and floating island units with different functions to form a complete kelp industrial process by using the two sites in Cape Cod and Saugus in the project, with the labor of the elderly and the veteran, and at the same time, combining with recreation space for the working people, aiming to alter the existing NIMBY idea.

Farming & Processing

Legend zones around incinerators within 20km interstate highway navy base in the east coast

Waste-to-energy Incinerators

1650,000-3510,000 tons/day

1050,000-1650,000 tons/day

575,000-1050,000 tons/day

200,000-575,000 tons/day

Population of county below Poverty Level

400,000-3,400,000

200,000-400,000

40,000-200,000

10,000-40,000

37-10,000

Naval Station Newport

Naval Submarine Base New London

When I firstly look into the site in Saugus, the Wheelabrator incinerator is the one that catches my eye most: Its existence leads to water pollution and floods, and the use of land further aggravates the degradation of salt marshes. In addition, what else? Very surprisingly, I found out that The Wheelabrator incineration plant in coastal Saugus has an unusually high proportion of workers who once served in the military - in particular, in the navy. And then I analyzed the situation of navy bases and incinerators on the east coast, just as this map shows, the purple cross, which represents the navy bases, and the blue dotes, which represents the incinerators, are often very close to each other.

Navy Fort Meade

US Naval Academy

Joint Base Andrews

Naval Support Activity Bethesda

Hampton Rose Base

Naval Amphibious Base

Little Creek

Naval Air Station

Oceana

‘Not in My Backyard': Incinerators, the Elderly, and the Veterans

The NIMBY thought, which means 'Not in my backyard', are very popular in the coastal area, also makes it worse for the environmental justice communities. It seems that people tend to think that as long as such polluting facilities as incineration plants are far away from themselves, their lives will not be threatened. However, as shown in the figure below, incineratiors provides electricity and steam for people far away, and also affects environmental elements such as groundwater, thus affecting people's lives in all aspects. Therefore, This project aims to create employment opportunities suitable for the skills and circumstances of veterans and the elderly, who have been unfairly treated and often forgotten by the society.

Households

Legend

Kelp in Massachusetts Site in Saugus

1. Kelp Farm and Processing Industries

2. Kelp Product Market

NOAA Fisheries has recently invested in seaweed aquaculture interships for veterans in the hope that the internships will lead to employment opportunities. Also according to the technical requirements of kelp farms, which often work on ships, it is in line with the naval veterans’ skills.

NIMBYism Most common protests stem from fears of having water views interfered with floating gear and watermen farming the area near their homes.

Site in Cape Cod

Kelp Agriculture is still in the early stages in Massachusetts, with variablity in where and when farmers get their kelp seed and inconsistency in their yields.

In Cape Cod and the islands off Cape Cod loacated the biggest kelp farm, also with a seed nursery place.

1. Kelp and Eelgrass Seedling

2. Recreation Space for the Elderly