Technological Fix - Case Studies

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  • Created by: ellie98
  • Created on: 02-04-16 13:20

Hyperconnected Countries

  • Considered hyperconnected if their Digital Access Index is over 75
  • Includes countries such as:
  • Japan
  • South Korea
  • USA
  • UK
  • Netherlands
  • Canada
  • These locations are key to the knowledge economy
  • "An economy in which growth is dependant on the quantity, quality and accessibilty of the information available, rather than the means of production."
  • Industries driving technological devlopment 
  • Very wealthy and so can afford to invest in other sectors (education, healthcare..)
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The Indian - African Union Summit

  • At the end of the Indian-African Union Summit, in April 2008, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that India and Africa must meet their food needs through domestic production 
    -> promised to help Africa with technology to increase farm productivity
  • African leaders = ready for investment and technology from India's more mature economy
  • Sharing of experiences and information on food storage and processing technologies
  • This will encourage uptake of African and Indian developed technologies for farming and agricultural products
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CARFOCIAL, Andean Highlands, Columbia

  • Farming community working with scientists to experiment with high-tech innovations 
  • Encourages Latin American farmers to adopt technology to increase yields and productivity
  • Introduced in 1990 - a "local agricultural research committee" in San Basco, a village high in the Andes
  • Led to a mini-boom in cultivation of maize there
  • NGO funded project
  • Success due to technological advances in maize selection and production shared with 114 farming families
  • Acting as community based researchers for the International Center for Tropical Agriculture
  • Encouraged poor farmers to adopt new technology and incorporate it into their farming
  • Approach has involved farmers in both research + decision making
  • Bottom-up approach
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Agro-Technology Park, Gannoruwa, Sri Lanka

  • State of the art technology complex - ensures latest recommendations in crop cultivation and technology
  • Generated by public institutions (government departments and universities) and private institutions - adopted by farmers
  • The Park = leading research into rice development in Sri Lanka, including hybrid varieties and also organising their release into general cultivation 
  • GM crops
  • Also houses technological research gardens and food technology centres
  • Ensures food security increase and productivity increase for a larger income for the farmers
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High Speed Rail - Europe

  • Took off in September 1981
  • French Train a Grande Vitesse (TGV) started services between Paris + Lyon
  • Today = 3,000km of high speed railway in europe - 970 trains + 100 million passengers a year
  • Plans = build 6,000km more by 2020 - creating railway 'hubs' 
  • Railway holidays experiencing a renaissance
  • Demand doubled in 2006 compared to 2005
  • Eurostar - terminal at St Pancras opened in 2007
  • London - Paris, Lillle and Brussles reduced by 20km 
  • Paris - Strasbourg reduced by 2 hours 
  • Paris - Basel and Stuttgart  reduced by 1.5 hours
  • Construction: Spain - Italy lines and Spain - Portugal and France under construction
  • Rail tunnel under the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain to Morocco 
  • Europe could be linked to Africa by 2025
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High Speed Rail - Africa

  • Due to begin operating in Morocco in 2013
  • £1.5 billion rail line linking Tangier to Casablanca
  • Cut journey time by 2hours and 10 mins (instead of 5hours 45minutes)
  • Aims to carry 8 million passengers a day 
  • October 2007, Morocco and France signed agreement to allow French companies to design, build and operate the rail link ->  similar tech to the TGV in France
  • 1st African country to have high-speed rail
  • ALGERIA
  • SNTF rail operator plans to introduce TGV style trains - 8 lines in proposal
  • 80km Gautrain line
  • Expected to increase speeds to 180km/h (112mph) in 2010 - could be upgraded by another 12mph, to be classed as high-speed
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The Thames Barrier - London

  • Cost £535 million, operational in 1982
  • Expected to last until 2030
  • Largest movable flood barrier
  • Flood Risk Event: Barrier puts a wall of steel across the river, stopping incoming tide that would otherwise sweep up the Thames to Central London
  • July 2007 - barrier operated 103 times
  • Why protect Britain?
  • 7 million population (12% of UK total)
  • Highest population density 
  • Major international business centre 
  • Generates 20% of UK's GDP
  • TECH USED: 9 concrete islands, 6 openings for vessels and 4 openings when no flood risk
  • Main gates = 20m high, 3700 tonnes
  • Computer software operates gates if there is a flood risk
  • RISK OF FLOODING INCREASING: Global warming - rise in sea levels, predicted the flood defence will not withstand future flood surges
  • NEW PLANS: Put forward in 2007 - new £20 billion flood defence scheme fo Lonodon, offering protection against a one-in-one-thousand year flood event
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Flood Protection - Dhaka

  • Dhaka - capital of Bangladesh - 5,378,023 population
  • Located on the floodplain of the Buriganga River - flat land, close to sea level
  • Dhaka Integrated Flood Potection Project (DIFPP)
  • Set up as part of the national Flood Action Plan - focused on structural measures - e.g building embankments and levees
  • Set to cover 260km2 of Dhaka - Not enough money raised for this
  • Started to protect the more densely populated western part of the city
  • 1998 Floods:
  • Proved engineering solutions on their own were not enough to protect Dhaka - water entered through buried sewage pipes and breached/incomplete flood walls
  • Pumping stations were inadequate and couldn't cope with excess water
  • Lack of coordination between flood protection agencies and drainage of the city
  • $200million+ in repairs
  • Disease spead throughout Dhaka, as drinking water was contaminated
  • PHASE 2: AIMS: protecting eastern Dhaka (suffered the most damage), implement non-structural solutions (flood forecasting, warnings, land-use planning restrictions)
  • Improving coordination between agencies and drainage
  • Depsite this, Dhaka flooded again in 2004
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Access to Technology - Haiti

  • High risk society which lacks the technology to manage these risks and improve life expectancy
    NATURAL HAZARDS
  • Flooding from hurricanes regularly kill and lower life expectancy - e.g. Hurrican Jeanne killed 3,000 and destroyed crops
  • Storms cause landslides, destorying homes and roads
  • TECH REQUIRED: Warning and evacuation systems, storm shelters, flood control and slipe-stabilisation, afforestation programmes to reduce flooding and soil erosion
    DISEASE
  • 54% of Haitians have access to improved water supply + 30% to improved sanitation
  • Only 50% of children are immunised against measles 
  • 300/100,000 have TB + 6% of pop are HIV positive
  • TECH REQUIRED: Clean water supply and sewage systems, nationwide vaccination, medical technology, drugs and education
    MALNUTRITION
  • 2/3 of Haitians = farmers / 54% live on under 1$ per day / 45% = undernourished
  • Infant mortality rate is high - 74/1,000 live births
  • TECH REQUIRED: Farming tech to raise yields and income to improve food security and reduce child malnutrition + better transport to improve food distribution systems
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Ghana

  • Population = 24.9 million
  • Economic Issues: Trade pattern barely changed in 100 years - primary produce exports 
  • Imports = mainly manufactured goods
  • Developing countries remain dependent upon developed nations for trade
  • COLONIAL TIMES = world's largest producer of cocoa - global cocoa price dictated by Britain
  • CURRENT - World's second largest producer of cocoa - prices decided in commodity trading exhanges in London and NY
  • Dependant on varying supply / demand - Ivory coast = #1 producer
  • High prices in Ghana mean buyers will purchase elsewhere 
  • Irregular income for workers, poor government planning - low tax returns for government
  • Trade in primary goods keeps countries poor, because no value is added by processing - manufacturing
  • WTO: Ghana joined in 1995, WTO abolishes subsidies, devlop free trade - these subsidies previously paid to farmers
  • Farmers put out of work - produces can't sell as EU produce is cheaper
  • Need aid and investment to develop - western countries supply this, wealth is created by employment - construction,manufacturing/developing primary products - wealh "trickles down" via job creation - MULTIPLIER EFFECT
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The Green Revolution + The Gene Revolution

  • Both examples of attempts to boost agricultural output to meet the demands of a growing population
  • Both are examples of leapfrogging
  • THE GREEN REVOLUTION
  • 1960s
  • High yield varieties (HYVS) of crops were selectively bred from thousands of varieties to increase productivity
  • To increase this further, new farming techniques using fertiliser, pesticides and irrigation were introduced
  • THE GENE REVOLUTION
  • 1990s
  • GM crops were developed as a technological response to solving a huge problem, feeding an exponentially expanding population
  • GM crops can be quickly tailored to meet specific needs: drought resistance, pest resistance
  • This is achieved by altering DNA
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Unforseen Consequences - Green and Gene Revolution

  • GREEN REVOLUTION
  • SOCIAL POLARISATION - larger farmers who could afford fertilisers, machinery and labour benefitted most - smaller farmers lost out and many became landless labourers
  • HYVs are vulnerable to new strains of disease, such as Ug99, a variety of black stem rust fungus discovered in Uganda in 1999, to which no known wheat variety is resistant
  • DEPENDANCY - Without high inputs of fertiliser, water and machinery, HYV yields are very low therefore farmers became dependant on purchasing these inputs
  • ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS - The widespread use of agrochemicals has led to eutrophication, while overuse of irrigation in arid areas has created salinisation of soils and water shortages
  • GENE REVOLUTION
  • Number of farms fell by 60,000 as the area of GM soybean tripled. Large farms benefitted from economies of scale, whereas small ones did not
  • The cultivated area of maize and sunflower fell by more than 5 million hectares, reducing food security among the poor
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Death by DDT - Unforseen Consequence

  • Synthetic pesticide DDT - unforseen consequence of its use
  • From 1939 it was used to control malarial mosquitoes and as a farm pesticide
  • In 1955 the WHO started a global malaria eradication programme based on the use of DDT 
  • Initial results = excellent
  • However, DDT resistance began to appear in mosquitoes
  • 1962: DDT blamed for a growing toll of wildlife deaths, through the process of biomagnification
  • Birds of prey - especially vulnerable, as DDT ingested by creatures they fed on built up in their own systems, restricting their ability to lay viable eggs
  • DDT banned in 1972 (US) and 1984 (UK)
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Pumpkin Tanks

  • Developed as part of a World Bank sponsored water and sanitation programme
  • Implemented 1995-1998
  • Community Water Suuple and Sanitation Programme (CWSSP)
  • Covers 3 districts
  • Hundreds of tanks built where conventional supply (such as pipes and groundwater supply) are difficult to provide
  • The tank has a capacity of around 5m3
  • Can provide water in mountainous areas 
  • Water used for:
    -Cooking
    -Washing (clothes and personal)
    Drinking (when boiled)
    -Watering livestock
  • Only towards the end of the dry season (DEC - APRIL) does the tank dry up and the family has to walk to the spring
  • Cost £77 to build
  • Gives almost constant supply year round
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Akosombo Dam

  • A Hydroelectric Dam, River Volta, South-East Ghana
  • Construction caused part of the Volta River Basin to flood to create the Lake Volta 
  • Largest man made lake formed - cost $258 million - Built 1961-1965
  • 3.6% of Ghana's total land was flooded
  • Forced relocation of 80,000 people into 52 resettlement villages
  • 1% of population resettled (mostly fishermen and subsistence farmers)
  • Aim - to provide electricity to the aluminium industry
  • Funded by - TNC Volta Aluminium Company (American) and Ghana's government (World Bank Loans)
  • Provides electricity to Ghana and some neighbouring countries
  • Ghana govertnment contracted to pay over 50% of the cost bu recieve only 20% of the electricity
  • IMPACTS:
  • Land surrounding the lake is not as fertile as the land underneath - farming loss
  • Use of fertilisers increase - aquatic weeds grow - effects transportation
  • Earthquake more common due to pressure on crust where lake water lies
  • Loss of fishing + agriculture activities, loss of homes, social values lost
  • Water borne diseases more common as vectors live alongside aquatic weeds (e.g. mosquitoes) - river blindness and malaria more common closer to lake
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