Science Barge

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Science Barge visits Manhattan Pier 84 jeh.jpg
Docked at North River Pier 84 in 2007
New York Science Barge 593866098.jpg
Closer view of the wind turbines in 2008

The Science Barge is a floating urban farm and environmental education center that has been docked in Yonkers, New York, USA since late 2008. [1] The Barge grows crops using a hydroponic greenhouse powered by solar panels, wind turbines, and biofuels. The crops in the greenhouse are irrigated by captured rainwater and desalinated river water. Food is grown without carbon emissions, no agricultural waste is discharged into the watershed and no pesticides are used. The Science Barge is also a public education tool and hosts school groups from Westchester, New York City and the greater New York area visiting during the week, and the general public on weekends. From 2006–2008, the Science Barge docked for periods of two months at each of six stops along the Manhattan waterfront with the goal of educating the public on urban sustainable agriculture.

Contents

In 2015, Nathalie Manzano-Smith and Ted Caplow won the Knight Cities Challenge grant competition from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with a proposal to build a Miami Science Barge and moor it in Museum Park in downtown Miami, FL. The Miami Science Barge opened on Earth Day, April 22, 2016. The following April, the Barge was gifted to Frost Science Museum. Compared with the original Science Barge, the Miami Science Barge places more emphasis on marine science, conservation, and sustainable aquaculture, while also updating many of the urban agricultural systems featured on the original.

Early history in Manhattan

The Science Barge was conceived and designed by Ted Caplow and built by New York Sun Works, a non-profit organization that developed the project in order to educate students and teachers about the science of sustainability through hydroponic farming. The exhibits and ecological experiments that comprise the Science Barge float on a steel deck barge, approximately 115 feet long, constructed in the 1940s and used for cargo and utility work in New York Harbor until leased by New York Sun Works from Hughes Marine in 2006. The Science Barge urban farm systems were built on the barge in Red Hook, Brooklyn in the summer of 2006, and deployed briefly to pier 92 before opening to the public at pier 84 on May 4, 2007, adjacent to the Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises; and the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum. Over the next two years, the barge also made several visits to pier I in Riverside Park South as well as the Chelsea Piers complex in lower Manhattan.

Move to Yonkers

Yonkers Science Barge Yonkers 2016 jeh.jpg
Yonkers

After touring for two years, New York Sun Works sought a permanent home for the Barge and decided to sell the Science Barge to Groundwork Hudson Valley in Yonkers, NY in October 2008 for $2.00. [1] Groundwork Hudson Valley is a non-profit organization focused on environmental justice in distressed communities in the lower Hudson Valley. In November 2008, the Science Barge docked in Yonkers, at the mouth of the Saw Mill River. The site has helped attract visitors to the downtown Yonkers area especially due to its accessibility by mass transit. The placement by the Saw Mill River, a major Hudson River tributary, has called attention to the current restoration work and continued the revitalization of downtown Yonkers. [2] Groundwork Hudson Valley uses the Science Barge to provide a research, training, and development platform for its Yonkers-based food programs including the Get Fresh Yonkers Food Co-op, Farmers Market, and Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA).

Technical details

The greenhouse on the barge is approximately 1200 ft2, purchased new from Nexus, Inc and constructed in place on the barge. The structure is aluminum and secured to the barge deck via bolts and custom-made welded steel brackets. The walls of the greenhouse are glass and the roof is a rigid, doubled walled polycarbonate plastic. Ventilation is achieved via four mechanical fans, a padwall evaporative cooling system, and a large, automatically controlled atrium roof vent to maximize passive ventilation. Rainwater is harvested from the greenhouse roof and stored in tanks with a 1200-gallon aggregate capacity before being used to irrigate hydroponic crops in a broad and constantly evolving variety of different growing systems and media. The barge has also hosted a number of aquaponic and marine science experiments, including cultivation of tilapia, catfish, crayfish, clams, and oysters, among others. [3]

The energy systems on the barge, in their original configuration, included 2.5 KW of solar capacity mounted on passive trackers, 2 kW of micro wind turbines, a 4 kW biodiesel backup generator, a large lead-acid battery bank providing 1000 amp-hours at 48 volts, and associated support hardware. The barge also deployed a semi-custom reverse osmosis system to desalinate water from the Hudson River for backup use. [4]

Response

The public launch of the Science Barge on May 4, 2007 was attended by dignitary speakers including New York City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, New York State Senator Thomas Duane, noted ecological design pioneer John Todd, who in his public remarks called the Science Barge "a crucible for visualizing the city of the future" and United Nations senior adviser Jeffrey Sachs who said that “The Science Barge is not only an invitation to ideas and learning, but to change.” [5] [6]

In March 2009, the Science Barge was named "Best Class Trip" by New York magazine in its annual "Best Of..." issue. [7] In July 2009, GOOD created a short video of the purpose and methods of the Barge. [8] In the same month, former CBS News Anchor Dan Rather hosted an episode of "Dan Rather Reports" on the Barge. A hydroponic greenhouse, inspired by the Science Barge, opened in 2010 on the roof of the Manhattan School for Children. [9]

The Science Barge has been covered by the New York Times, ABC World News, Voice of America, Science, and the Economist, among others. [10] A double-page photo of the Science Barge appeared in National Geographic in March 2009 as part of an issue dedicated to energy efficiency. [11]

Interest in the Science Barge has continued as awareness and public interest in sustainable food production methods and Building-integrated agriculture has grown. During an August 2014 visit to the Science Barge, Westchester County Legislator Catherine Parker said “"I think really that the county government is making such a mandate of doing this. I'm hoping that residents will also see that this is the way that they can do their part too." [12]

Sources

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westchester County, New York</span> County in New York, United States

Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population of 1,004,456, its highest decennial count ever and an increase of 55,344 (5.8%) from the 949,113 counted in 2010. Westchester covers an area of 450 square miles (1,200 km2), consisting of six cities, 19 towns, and 23 villages. Established in 1683, Westchester was named after the city of Chester, England. The county seat is the city of White Plains, while the most populous municipality in the county is the city of Yonkers, with 211,569 residents per the 2020 census. The county is part of the Hudson Valley region of the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yonkers, New York</span> City in New York, United States

Yonkers is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. The city, a suburb of the New York metropolitan area, had a population of 211,569 in the 2020 United States census. It is classified as an inner suburb of New York City, north of the Bronx and approximately 2.4 miles (4 km) north of Marble Hill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irvington, New York</span> Village in New York, United States

Irvington, sometimes known as Irvington-on-Hudson, is a suburban village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, 20 miles (32 km) north of midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a station stop on the Metro-North Hudson Line. To the north of Irvington is the village of Tarrytown, to the south the village of Dobbs Ferry, and to the east unincorporated parts of Greenburgh, including East Irvington. Irvington includes within its boundaries the community of Ardsley-on-Hudson, which has its own ZIP code and Metro-North station, but which should not be confused with the nearby village of Ardsley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Desalination</span> Removal of salts from water

Desalination is a process that takes away mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination is the removal of salts and minerals from a target substance, as in soil desalination, which is an issue for agriculture. Saltwater is desalinated to produce water suitable for human consumption or irrigation. The by-product of the desalination process is brine. Desalination is used on many seagoing ships and submarines. Most of the modern interest in desalination is focused on cost-effective provision of fresh water for human use. Along with recycled wastewater, it is one of the few rainfall-independent water resources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hudson Valley</span> Region in New York

The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to Yonkers in Westchester County, bordering New York City.

Environmental design is the process of addressing surrounding environmental parameters when devising plans, programs, policies, buildings, or products. It seeks to create spaces that will enhance the natural, social, cultural and physical environment of particular areas. Classical prudent design may have always considered environmental factors; however, the environmental movement beginning in the 1940s has made the concept more explicit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Getty Square</span> Public square in Yonkers, New York

Getty Square is the name for downtown Yonkers, New York, centered on the public square. Getty Square is the civic center, central business district, and transit hub of the City of Yonkers. A dense and growing residential area, it is located in southern Westchester County, New York. The square is named after prominent 19th-century merchant Robert Getty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reflective surfaces (climate engineering)</span>

Reflective surfaces, or ground-based albedo modification (GBAM), is a solar radiation management method of enhancing Earth's albedo. The IPCC described this method as "whitening roofs, changes in land use management, change of albedo at a larger scale ."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hudson River Museum</span> Art museum, Planetarium in Yonkers, New York

The Hudson River Museum, located in Trevor Park in Yonkers, New York, is the largest museum in Westchester County. The Yonkers Museum, founded in 1919 at City Hall, became the Hudson River Museum in 1948. While often considered an art museum by the public, due to the extensive collection of Hudson River School paintings, the museum also features exhibits on the history, science and heritage of the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Register of Historic Places listings in New York</span>

Buildings, sites, districts, and objects in New York listed on the National Register of Historic Places:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vertical farming</span> Practice of growing crops in vertically stacked layers

Vertical farming is the practice of growing crops in vertically stacked layers. It often incorporates controlled-environment agriculture, which aims to optimize plant growth, and soilless farming techniques such as hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics. Some common choices of structures to house vertical farming systems include buildings, shipping containers, underground tunnels, and abandoned mine shafts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saw Mill River</span> River in the United States of America

The Saw Mill River is a 23.5-mile (37.8 km) tributary of the Hudson River in Westchester County, New York, United States. It flows from an unnamed pond north of Chappaqua to Getty Square in Yonkers, where it empties into the Hudson as that river's southernmost tributary. It is the only major stream in southern Westchester County to drain into the Hudson instead of Long Island Sound. It drains an area of 26.5 square miles (69 km2), most of it heavily developed suburbia. For 16 miles (26 km), it flows parallel to the Saw Mill River Parkway, a commuter artery, an association that has been said to give the river an "identity crisis."

Controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) -- which includes indoor agriculture (IA) and vertical farming—is a technology-based approach toward food production. The aim of CEA is to provide protection from the outdoor elements and maintain optimal growing conditions throughout the development of the crop. Production takes place within an enclosed growing structure such as a greenhouse or plant factory.

Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. 97% of the water on Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh water; slightly over two-thirds of this is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. The remaining unfrozen freshwater is found mainly as groundwater, with only a small fraction present above ground or in the air. Natural sources of fresh water include surface water, under river flow, groundwater and frozen water. Non-natural or human-made sources of fresh water can include wastewater that has been treated for reuse options, and desalinated seawater. People use water resources for agricultural, industrial and household activities.

Building-integrated agriculture (BIA) is the practice of locating high-performance hydroponic greenhouse farming systems on and in mixed-use buildings to exploit synergies between the built environment and agriculture.

New York Sun Works, founded in 2004 by Ted Caplow, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that uses hydroponic farming technology to educate students and teachers about the science of sustainability. Their Hydroponic Classroom program was inspired by NY Sun Works' first project, the renowned Science Barge; a prototype, sustainable urban farm and environmental education center previously housed on the Hudson River and now located in Yonkers under different ownership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theodore Caplow</span>

Theodore "Ted" Caplow is an American social entrepreneur, environmental engineer, and inventor. He is the founder of greenhouse science lab provider New York Sun Works and the co-founder of AgTech supply-chain disruptor BrightFarms. Caplow's pioneering work in urban agriculture and vertical farming began with the Science Barge in Yonkers, New York (NY). Caplow has also patented a Vertically Integrated Greenhouse. Caplow subsequently co-founded Caplow|Manzano in 2017 with Nathalie Manzano to pursue innovations in resilient housing design and sustainable building technology. As an academic, Caplow holds a Ph.D. in engineering from Columbia University and has published a series of peer-reviewed articles on water contaminant dynamics in the Hudson River Estuary, in addition to articles on Building-integrated agriculture.

Sundrop Farms is a developer, owner and operator of high tech greenhouse facilities which grow crops using methods which reduce reliance on finite natural resources when compared to conventional greenhouse production. Sundrop Farms opened its first pilot facility in Port Augusta, South Australia, in 2010. This facility was originally designed as a Seawater Greenhouse. However, significant technology changes led to the Sundrop System, and the dissolution of the joint venture with Seawater Greenhouse Ltd. Sundrop Farms commissioned an expanded 20 ha facility south of Port Augusta in 2016. Sundrop Farms has offices in London, UK and Adelaide, Australia. In October 2016, Sundrop Farms was operating greenhouses in Portugal, the United States and had another facility planned in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miami Science Barge</span>

The Miami Science Barge was a floating marine laboratory and education platform docked in Museum Park, Miami, FL since 2016. The Barge, designed to help support a more sustainable city, had three main areas of focus: marine ecology and conservation, sustainability, and alternative agriculture. It is completely off-grid and off-pipe and provided approximately enough energy and food production to support an average American family. In its first year, over 3000 students came aboard to learn about the innovative technology on the Barge. The vessel opened to the public on Saturdays. The Miami Science Barge was conceived by Nathalie Manzano and designed by Manzano and Ted Caplow. They were inspired by the Science Barge built in 2006 by New York Sun Works, designed by Caplow. The vessels were of similar size and both had a sustainable technology focus, but they responded to very different local environments and housed differing technology and unique public education programs. The Miami Science Barge emphasized aquaculture. The Miami Science Barge was donated in April 2017 to the brand-new Philip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, who took over operations. The Miami Science Barge is no longer in use.

Gotham Greens is an American fresh food and urban agricultural company founded and headquartered in the Brooklyn borough of New York City that grows local produce year-round in greenhouses, with its lettuces, herbs, salad dressings and sauces sold under its brand name. The company owns and operates nine hydroponic greenhouse facilities in the United States.

References

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