The Role Of Civil Engineering In Coping With Overpopulation
In the role of being a civil engineer, the main aspect is to eradicate problems and make life sustainable. One of the concerns of civil engineers is the population of the world as it is rapidly increasing and soon it would become overpopulated. The proceeding document describes what overpopulation is, the factors affecting it and whether it can be overcome or not. Introduction The world is populated by many species of living organisms with the required resources to enable them to survive. All the species if not kept on check can rapidly reach overpopulation. Nature which is considered to be the manner in which all the species interact with each other keeps all but one species in check, humans. This means there is an unbalance in nature which will require engineering and innovation in order to ensure the planet and all species survive.
The human population is currently at 7.3 billion which according to many scientists is approximately 2.7 billion less than the maximum carrying capacity as it is estimated to be around 9 to 10 billion. World population is expected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030 and 9.7 billion in 2050. China and India currently remain the 2 largest countries in the world with both having more than 1 billion each accounting for 19% and 18% of the Earth’s population. Currently the 10 largest countries in the world are, one in Africa (Nigeria), five in Asia (India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Indonesia), one in Europe (Russian Federation), one is in Northern America (USA) and two are in Latin America (Mexico and Brazil).
Due to Africa’s highest rate of population growth, it is predictable to account for more than half of the world’s population growth between 2015 and 2050. Populations of 28 African countries are projected to double by 2100 and ten other African countries are estimated to increase by at least a factor of five. In recent years fertility has decreased in virtually all areas of the world even in Africa. Depending on the path future fertility takes determines the future population as minute changes in fertility, when projected over decades can create large differences in total population.
Due to the decrease in fertility over the world is causing the proportion of older person to increase over time which is expected to double the number of persons over 60 by 2050 and triple by 2100. Even though the proportion of elderly persons are increasing, populations in many regions are still young. In 2015, children under 15 account for 41% of Africa’s population and young aged persons between 15 and 24 account for a further 19%. Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia, having a greater decline in fertility, have approximately 25% of children and approximately 17% of youth.
Even with the decline in the world’s fertility, overpopulation is still going to happen. Population control can be implemented. China’s one-child policy has been the most famous population control policy. Chinese families are now fined an amount equal to 3-10 times the household income if they have more than one child. In India, the state governments are trying to slow births by paying couples to wait to have babies. The state offers newlyweds a cash grant of 5000 rupees or USD$106 to wait two years to have their first child. Uzbekistan, a secretive nation has instituted a policy of forced sterilizations of women after having a second child. The sterilizations are done without the knowledge or consent of women according to a BBC report. The C-section rate has risen to 80% because it makes forced sterilizations easier. In Iran, the government instituted mandatory contraception education for couples before marriage and provided free condoms from a state-owned condom factory
A Harvard University Sociobiologist, Edward O. Wilson, based the estimated 9-10 billion persons maximum carrying capacity, on the calculations of the Earth’s available resources. This is with many conditions to be applied as that humans are the only species that store and consume more food than we require. At the current rate of consumption, it was estimated by some scientists that the Earth’s maximum carrying capacity was 4 billion which has been exceeded 44 years ago.
The 9-10 billion carrying capacity, while only taking food into concern can only be achieved by many restrictions. The present 3.5 billion acres of arable land with maximum efficiency of grain production would produce an estimated 2 billion tons of grains annually. This can support 10 billion people only if it was dedicated to feeding humans as feeding livestock to convert plant energy into food energy is very inefficient. The estimated 2 billion of grains if directed to feeding omnivores can only feed 2.5 billion U.S people due to the amount of vegetation is dedicated to livestock and poultry in the U.S.
According to Valentin Thurn, director of a German documentary, food being produced is already enough for 9 to 12 billion people. One third of the harvest is discarded worldwide and currently the amount of food wasted can be realistically be reduced by 80%. Another way of increasing food production is by increasing the productivity of existing arable lands as expects believe it can be doubled by providing basic means such as training credits and land rights.
The growing demand for food can be met if more food can be produced but the land on earth is limited. If there is more land, then food production wouldn’t be a problem. NASA has been doing many researches on mars. According to the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, Martian soil doesn’t have all the nutrients found in earth’s soil and it is also much fine allowing water to seep through it much faster than on Earth.
By using manure or other fertilizers, it would provide a quick boost of nutrients like nitrogen and might even change the textile of the soil, slowing down the seepage of water. Nitrogen in Earth’s soil comes from the atmosphere and is held in by bacteria that reside in the roots of various plants. Martian soil also has chemicals which have to be chemically removed in order for plants to grow. Earth has 3 times the gravity but through experiments on the International Space Station, some plants can grow relatively normal in microgravity. Willow seedlings grown in microgravity grew twisty as they never developed their orientation, but tomatoes, wheat, cress and mustard leaves grew particularly well. They even flowered and made seeds after being in Martian soil for 50 days with any fertilizers. The plants grew better than in poor river soil from Earth.
Civil Engineers have been around since the 18th century building everything man required to survive up to today. MIT graduates presented research on food and water security issues during the MIT Water and Food Security Student Symposium. Water withdrawn differs in different parts of the world. Industry and domestic uses in South Asia, Middle East, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and East Asia Pacific withdraw great amounts of water putting stress on the water resources for food production and the ability to obtain food security. Water is also a very finite resource which is under stress as the other economic and environmental sectors are also competing for it.
Paige Midstokke is tackling the drought planning process by researching the water security for a state in India. The index she made is intended to improve early detections of a drought so planning for water scarcity at the district and local levels can be improved. Luke Schiferl is comparing how air quality affects crop production on a global scale and how these effects can be quantified. The research shows the effects and once they are understood, it’ll show how crop losses can be mitigated by air quality improvements.
Higher food production requires more land to cultivate but due to settlements, the land preferable for agriculture is being constructed into houses, buildings and structures that make it almost impossible until the green roof initiative. It is a vegetative layer grown on rooftops. Green roofs have been becoming quite popular all over the world, not only for the appearance but also because of their benefits towards environmental sustainability. At the moment, Germany is leading the world as they have executed green roof systems on approximately 10% of homes in Germany. For the green roof’s infrastructure; a wide-ranging watering system engineered to supply adequate amount of resources and the roof itself being engineered to provide working improvements to environmental sustainability is all taken care of by the civil engineers.
Overcrowding in cities are putting pressure on urban populations and to handle these issues, civil engineers are designing floating homes. The houses resist flooding as its foundation was made of concrete and Styrofoam allowing them to float. This allows housing to be anywhere off-land providing more land for agriculture and being that the world is covered 75% by water makes this a great way to battle overpopulation.
Even with floating homes decreasing the land usage for houses, it doesn’t mean that land is infinite. Earth has approximately 15.77 billion acres of habitable land which is also shared with other species (animals and trees). Which means that have limited land but being that the world is currently suffering from Global Warming caused by the quantity of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it’s a clear indication of the theory that there’s a balance between food and consumers but all is required is means of obtaining the resource.
This is where vertical farming comes in handy. Vertical farming is using multi-storey high rises to grow food. This procedure when compared to old-style agricultural methods, growing food indoors uses 98% less water and 70% percent less fertilizer on average. Using a combination of LED lights and hydroponic technology, the amount of light and water required by the plants are supplied. Labour cost is also reduced by the employment of modern automation techniques to operate these systems. The capital cost of vertical farming is high but because of the reduction in resource requirement, makes this method available in area where agriculture is impossible. This would help eradicate starvation in drought prone areas and also areas where resources are low like Africa and India.
Vertical farming have reduced the amount of water required but it doesn’t mean water isn’t required. Dutch engineers and researchers have observed that rainwater harvesting can reduce stormwater runoff by 20 to 50% reducing the strain that additional storm rainfall usually places on sewers and drainage systems. This is made possible by mounting rainwater catchment devices on the roofs of buildings, transferred to a treatment system and then into storage tanks.
Conclusion
Overpopulation is inevitable unless population is being controlled but with the advancements of technology and civil engineers the definition of overpopulation can be changed. If this possible, by the year 2050, even with a population of 12 billion, this world wouldn’t be seen as overpopulated as the resources necessary for survival would still be well below the amount produced. At this very moment, millions of people are suffering from starvation but if the above mentioned is apply even at city sized scale, this statistic would be changed greatly.
