Global and regional climate change, and water resource limitations, are high-profile concerns for governments, media and the scientific community. They are typically viewed as separate issues, so solutions and mitigation/adaptation strategies are often proposed for each problem separately. However, these concerns are often correlated.  Drought can be both a symptom of, and a contributing factor towards climate change.

Credit: © Leo Lintang / Fotolia

Credit: © Leo Lintang / Fotolia

Regarding policy discussions about drought, chronic water shortages and inadequate food supplies, there are many competing interests involved which create debates about the best course of action to follow. This adds additional challenges when developing solutions. With growing populations and the additional uncertainty associated with climate change, these are problems that are becoming more urgent.

Solutions Through Environmental Transformation

The environmental change fostered by IPR represents a powerful new approach for addressing each of these concerns simultaneously. Initial applications envision relatively small projects designed to increase rainfall in specific regions that feature favorable geography. However, the scale and impact of a project can be readily increased based on the over-all goals. Therefore, there is no need to artificially constrain the size of a project. Chronic water shortages and climate change are global problems, which will require ambitious approaches to fully resolve.

Several large-scale reforestation projects have already been proposed specifically for climate change mitigation. One notable study assesses the viability of afforesting (planting trees where none have existed in recent history) the Australian outback or the Sahara Desert using irrigation 1 . This study provides a good foundation for understanding the implementation details and necessary policy discussions associated with such a project. The analysis indicates that afforestation on this scale could sequester approximately 8-10 billion tons of carbon per year, which is equivalent to the annual amount of carbon released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. While this might effectively eliminate global warming and greatly reduce the impacts of climate change, it comes at a cost. According to the study, the proposed desalination plants for water, irrigation infrastructure, energy and labor costs would constitute a multi-trillion-dollar project. There are other challenges discussed in the assessment, however it is clear that such a project is theoretically possible.

Our vision for environmental transformation encompasses projects of a similar scale. Our approach is meant to bring the costs down considerably, by at least an order of magnitude or two, so that the sheer expense does not remain an obstacle to development. In addition, the primary goal of IPR has always been to increase the regional water supply. Therefore, in developing our methodologies, we have needed to question conventional wisdom and traditional methodologies. Primarily, we reject the often-quoted statement that “one can’t increase the amount of rain that falls”. In addition, we embrace other new scientific research that supports our development model. Our approach is based upon sustainable gradual change, and relies on natural processes as opposed to engineered systems. In essence, trees and other vegetation act as pumps for water, and the atmosphere itself provides the infrastructure to transport water further inland. Because of this, irrigation and power requirements are greatly reduced. Also, IPR provides additional co-benefits that increase the value and utility of the project. The resulting revenue generated from direct and indirect economic services and growth is expected to exceed the costs of the project over time.

Creating and Sustaining a New Environment

Although the afforestation study 1 (and others) indicated that precipitation levels would increase significantly throughout the afforested region, a self-sustaining eco-system requires a favorable species mix of vegetation for the region, and a more reliable source of precipitation. In other words, the desired final-state environment and overall water (hydrologic) cycle needs to be considered. This involves a lot of implementation details that will vary based on location, however the primary need is to increase the availability of water. Our approach is designed to not only increase the amount of precipitation, but to strengthen the water cycle and increase the residence time of water over land as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Strengthening the hydrologic cycle to enable environmental transformation

Figure 1: Strengthening the hydrologic cycle to enable environmental transformation

This involves not only increasing the amount of precipitation recycling (PR, indicated in the transformed state by the “mini water cycles”), but retaining water on the land once it is there. Forest and vegetation are necessary for PR, but also significantly improve ground infiltration and retention of water. The gradual increase of surface water (lakes, wetlands and rivers) and groundwater are important for a successful transformation process. In addition, the environmental and climate changes created by the increase in vegetation strengthen the inland flow of atmospheric moisture from the coast. The primary components of our methodology, as shown in Figure 1, include the following:

1. Consistent water source: IPR requires a water supply of some type for irrigation of the reforested or afforested region. Ideally, this would come from a different source than the existing water supply, since there is probably already a shortage. Although desalination plants have been proposed as a source for irrigation in the previously cited articles, these tend to be expensive and have environmental drawbacks as well. Where possible, we will use sources that are typically overlooked:

  • Partially processed waste-water (typically sewage or industrial effluent). An additional advantage here is that we convert a waste-stream that is usually a liability, into a useful resource.

  • Storm run-off. Some type of reservoir or storage system will probably be required with this source since it will probably be intermittent.

  • Fog and or dew captured by the trees. In some instances, this can provide the primary source of water, in others it will be more of a supplement.

  • Coastal brackish water or even sea water. Mangrove forests planted along the coast may be able to receive all their water requirements directly from the ocean.

2. Precipitation initiation: Water vapor generated by an IPR plantation must condense and form fog or clouds to precipitate. Favorable local geography can assist with this process. Other techniques such as bio-precipitation may be used to increase the chance for rainfall events. It is important to ensure that clouds form and produce rain, fog or dew, rather than allowing the atmospheric moisture dissipate.

3. Secondary growth: New vegetation must help sustain and propagate the desired environmental changes. This will probably require some effort to plant and maintain the necessary transitional and final-state species in some locations, to help develop a robust eco-system that is appropriate for the region.

4. Ground water recharge: Areas receiving increased rainfall need to also retain the water in the soil to improve and maintain growing conditions. This can be accomplished in several ways including:

  • Improving soil permeability and water retention as a result of afforestation and/or new vegetation growth

  • Developing wetlands – either natural or constructed

  • Carbon farming techniques to improve the quality, structure and permeability of the soil

5. Storm runoff capture: Excess runoff from storms and increasing precipitation must be collected in wetlands or reservoirs, or it will be lost.

6. Effective management: The increased water supply must be appropriately apportioned between end users, and irrigation required for additional IPR plantations intended to accelerate the environmental transformation process.

The primary costs for afforestation projects are usually associated with providing and delivering water. Two potential sources described above that avoid these costs merit more attention:

Fog Capture

It has long been known that fog will condense as water drops on the leaves and stems of plants and trees, and drip off or run down the stems to water the ground below. This supplements rain and snowfall, and can be an important source of water for sustaining forests that otherwise wouldn’t receive enough precipitation.

What is now being revealed by new research is that plants can also absorb moisture from fog or dew directly through their leaves, by a process known as “foliar uptake” (see Ref 2 below). Several hundred different plant species have already been identified, across multiple ecosystems, that exhibit this behavior. In some cases, water can even be transferred into the ground through the roots, to be stored and used later as needed. The importance of these findings is that fog and dew are much more useful than previously realized for establishing and maintaining vegetation in arid regions.

Figure 2: Fog Capture (Foliar Uptake) by trees in a cloud forest (Ref 3)

Figure 2: Fog Capture (Foliar Uptake) by trees in a cloud forest (Ref 3)

Environmental transformation projects in arid regions near a coast that experience fog (e.g. Southern and Central California, Baha California, the Arab peninsula, Australia and the Sahara Desert, etc.) may use this source to help supply water to both the IPR plantation, and secondary growth generated by IPR. Terrain at higher altitudes that experience fog (as moist air rises and cools) will benefit similarly. It is expected that the extent of a region covered by fog or dew will extend further inland (another means to support self-propagating and self-sustaining growth) as vegetation grows and increases local atmospheric moisture through transpiration.

Mangrove forests

Figure 3: Mangrove trees growing in sea water. This photo of Pichavaram Mangrove Forest is courtesy of Trip Advisor (Ref 4)

Figure 3: Mangrove trees growing in sea water. This photo of Pichavaram Mangrove Forest is courtesy of Trip Advisor (Ref 4)

Mangrove trees provide a unique opportunity for IPR. Their roots have complex salt filtration systems, and some species are able to draw water directly from the ocean. Establishing a mangrove forest near an IPR plantation would increase the total amount of transpired moisture considerably, strengthening the overall effect. Mangroves provide additional benefits above and beyond the trees in an IPR plantation:

  • Prevent coastal erosion

  • Filter nitrates and other excess nutrients from ocean water

  • Provide a habitat for spawning fish, shell fish and other sea life

These benefits by themselves have prompted several Mangrove re-forestation projects, and extend the success of environmental transformation beyond the land and into the ocean. Although our main interest initially is how Mangroves can support IPR, we will also examine how these additional benefits enhance the overall goals of an environmental transformation project.

This discussion is focused on the physical principals behind our methodology, and has not attempted to address the complexities of local and regional water laws, regulations and politics. Although implementation of any proposed solution needs to navigate these successfully, our goal has been to develop a new methodology that may be used to help solve some of modern society’s difficult problems through environmental transformation, empowered by IPR.

  1. Leonard Ornstein, Igor Aeinov, David Rind (2009) Irrigated afforestation of the Sahara and Australian Outback to end global warming, Climatic Change. 2009 97;409-437. DOI 10.1007/s10584-009-9626-y

  2. Emily Burns Limm, Kevin A. Simonin, Aron G. Bothman, Todd E. Dawson (2009) Foliar water uptake: a common water acquisition strategy for plants of the redwood forest, Oecologia. 2009 Sep; 161(3): 449–459. Published online 2009 Jul 8. doi: 10.1007/s00442-009-1400-3 PMCID: PMC2727584

  3. Mike Whitfield (2016) Behind the Cover: New Phytologist 211:2, July 2016. Online Blog, Posted 2016-06-20. Downloaded from https://www.newphytologist.org/blog/behind-the-cover-211-2/on Nov 11, 2018.

  4. Mangrove Image from Trip Advisor, https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/05/20/83/ec/pichavaram-mangrove-forest.jpg