Developing Beyond Sustainability
A resource and sharing space for those navigating the frontiers of sustainability as it crosses the borders of technology, economics, politics, particle physics, conservation biology, and fields yet unknown. If you have any suggestions, comments, resources or interesting technologies, then by all means, fire away! ...learn more
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Created: Jun 26, 2009
Updated: Nov 21, 2009
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LInk to Floating Island International Website http://www.floatingislandinternational.com/index.php
Link to Floating Islands West - Licensee and Contact for California and Oregon - (Website still under construction) http://www.floatingislandswest.com/
TV News Report of Floating Island Launch in Florida
What is a BioHaven floating island?
A BioHaven floating island is a floating treatment wetland. Planted with wetland or garden plants, it is a beautiful water feature which provides many other benefits, from habitat restoration to water cleansing.
There are two main products in the BioHaven range: BioHaven floating islands, and BioHaven Living Walkways.
BioHaven floating islands are a type of constructed wetland. They put back what we humans have made a habit of destroying - valuable wetland area. When a BioHaven is launched, a whole diverse eco-system is created which soon attracts life in all its forms, from microbes to nymphs, to butterflies, to fish, birds.... all the way up the food chain.
Wetlands are Nature's way to cleanse water. Simply put, they offer surface area and circulation: surface area for the growth of microbes, which are responsible for removing nutrients and other polltants from water; circulation for getting the water in contact with these microbes. BioHaven wetlands provide an augmented surface area, which we call a "concentrated wetland effect".
When you walk on a land-based wetland you expect to get wet feet; it's the same on a floating island. They support plant life and an appropriate numbers of waterfowl, but if you want to sustain human activity you need our alternative, the Living Walkway.
BioHaven Living Walkways are designed to be weight-bearing and so support all kinds of fun activities, from picnics to fishing, to calm contemplation of nature... and a host of other activities in between. They can be made super-buoyant and water-impervious, and could even support an army tank if designed for it! And because it is basically a wetland with added rigidity, it comes with the same aesthetic and water-quality benefits you get with a BioHaven floating island.
BioHaven floating islands are buoyant mats, planted like a garden and launched onto a waterway. They are made from a matrix of fibers which look like a pot-scrub or loofah. The matrix is water filtration material made from 100% recycled plastic, from drink bottles, which use the most inert plastic available. Layers of matrix are bonded together with foam, which also provides buoyancy.
They can be made in virtually any shape or size. Large islands and Living Walkways are constructed using a modular system, reinforced for extra buoyancy, yet flexible enough to move with the water.
Floating islands can be launched into any waterway, be it pond, lake, stream, effluent pond, lagoon, embayment - any waterway will benefit from a floating island, even the ocean.
They are usually anchored or tethered in place, though they can be left to float around freely.
BioHavens were inspired by Nature, in particular, by the floating peat bogs of Northern Wisconsin, which are associated with clean water and great fishing. Using Nature to cleanse Nature is a form of Biomimetics.
BioHavens do five things:
1. They remove pollutants from a waterway, including nitrates, phosphates, ammonia and heavy metals
2. They provide critical riparian edge habitat - in fact, new land mass for use by all kinds of creatures, from microbes to humans
3. They sequester carbon and other greenhouse gases
4. They provide wave mitigation and erosion control
5. They beautify a waterscape
BioHavens are planted with sod, garden plants or wetland plants and launched onto a water body.
There the plants are allowed to grow naturally, and, as they develop, their roots grow through the matrix and into the water below. Over time, a natural eco-system evolves. The model for this is Nature herself - BioHavens "bio-mimic" Nature. We are part of a new branch of science, Biomimicry, or Biomimetics.
BioHavens, and the plants that grow through them, provide surface area for microbes to thrive. Microbes remove pollutants of all kinds, from the nutrients caused by fertilizer run-off and organic waste, to pharmaceuticals such as estrogen, to heavy metals, such as copper and zinc.
BioHavens are a concentrated floating wetland - the huge surface area of fibers provides many times more surface area than an equivalent stretch of bare wetland. Surface area is the key factor for microbial activity to take place, and microbes (bacteria) are the key to removing contaminants from the water. Plants and their roots are also important, but more for the extra surface area the roots provide than for any nutrient uptake the plants themselves account for.
BioHavens were invented eight years ago, have been successfully trialed for five years and have been on the market since July 2005. They represent a natural, convenient and cost-effective solution for some of the most intractable and expensive problems on the planet:
L olishing wastewater and storm water of nutrients and heavy metals to return it safely to the watershed.
· Sequestering carbon dioxide and methane from effluent ponds to reduce global warming
· Wave mitigation and protection of levees in the event of severe storms
· Extraction of salt
· Mining nutrient loads from any waterway and reducing algal blooms
· Restoring wetlands without the need for new land
· Restoring habitat for endangered species such as the trumpeter swan.
They can be made in any shape and size and offer some fun uses to balance the more serious side:
· Creating walkways, piers, docks, jetties
· Supporting recreational uses, such as picnic tables, floating stages, gazebos?.
· Floating vegetable gardens which never need watering!
· Restoring a natural look and balance to any waterway of any size
· New land mass for human habitation.
Not only are they natural, aesthetic and functional, they are cost-effective, "green" and virtually maintenance free.
FII is in the process of licensing this technology around the world to suitably qualified partners. To learn more about BioHaven floating islands, call us at our toll-free number 866-798-7086