9/8/04

• Introduction to the Course
  

9/10/04

• Establishing Protocols
• How to work most effectively as part of a team
• Communication
• Establish rules (i.e: the division of labor)
• Set clear deadlines and goals
• Establish personal relationships
• Give one another a hand
• Establish a system of checks and balances
• Understand the limitations
• Respect one another
• Reevaluate ourselves and the group
• Celebrate successes
• Agreed upon rules
• Be specific in the assignments
• Respect one another
• Meet the deadlines
• Original Work
• Attend the team meetings prepared
• Have a good attitude (take up "slack" if necessary)
• Be prepared (Anticipate failure and have a back-up plan)
• Have fun!!!

9/13/04

• Task: Learn how to make a web site and use the libraries
• Use the databases (Proquest and Web of Science)

9/17/04

• Team Four discusses our Definition of an "A"
• Professional presentation
• Apply our own interests to solve the problems
• Identify the problem areas
• Find funding
• Use a variety of reliable resources
• Create and effective web site that is clear, professional, and covers everything that we have researched in an interesting way
• Get enough perspective and information about San Cristobal
• Be organized
  

9/20/04

• Topics to consider with each "task"
• Design World biopreserve
• Consider the Ecuadorian government
• Complete record of the present system
• Establish organizations with specific tasks
• Environmental impact statements for future projects
• Fiscal limitations
• Regulate human impact
• Limit the presence of tourists
• Define what it is about the ecosystem that warrants being called "biopreserve"
• Define ecological dependencies of biosphere
• Ecosystem network
• Population levels
• Plants and animals in it
• How to monitor it
• Human interference
• Maintenance
• Natural elements/environmental (global warming, weather, minerals)
• Verify criteria for healthy ecosystem
• Boundaries
• Costs
• Who monitors?
• Who funds?
  
• Village design
• Location
• Transportation (trails?)
• Freshwater resources
• Economy/industry (What do people do for a living when they move to the Islands?)
• Size of the village
• Sub communities- government
• Medical and social services
• Tourist attractions
• Pets and domestic animals
• City limits and boundaries
• Sanitation and waste disposal
• Food resources?  Imports?
• Immigration problems?  Fishermen?
• Cost?  
• Maintenance?
  

9/22/04
9/27/04

• Reactive vs. proactive
• Look at the news
• No tourists can go to the Islands because the park rangers are on strike
• Park Rangers 
• Want protection of the ecosystem
• Is this appointment (policy) economically motivated?  or is it political?
  
• Fishermen
• Want higher limits to the take because need to make a living
• Commercial vs. subsistence fishing
• Park Director: politics
  

9/29/04

• What qualifications do a park director need?
• Who is the Ecuadorian government trying to appease?
• What are relative contributions to Ecuador?
  

10/1/04 (Team meeting)

• Look at Darwin Foundation web site
• Look up specific towns and names  of conservation places and companies
• Know the progress report
• Get research done by November 1 ultimately and October 22 for the team
• Meet with our smaller group by the 8th
• 29th- have the web site done
• Read current news
• September, 22: used tear gas
• Victor Canon- the new director (have had 8 directors in the past 2 years)
• Why do park directors keep leaving?

10/4/04

• International Biopreserves
• Why would it be a good idea to design an international biopreserve?
• more resources
• Broader ownership: respect responsibility
• Broader perspectives: greater vision
• Greater prestige, greater cachet
• Standards of a global level
• Greater checks and balances
• Better link between research and management
• Ecology doesn't respect international boundaries
• Concerns
• Unequal contribution
• Unequal power
• Conflict of opinion
• Chaotic interaction
• Inability to enforce will
• How do you determine appropriate distribution of costs
• Why not?
• Inefficiency
• Sovereignty
• Maintaining Cultural Imperative

10/6/04

• Discuss the progress report
• Areas of research
• Tourism and natives
• Economy
• Research and development
• Flora and fauna
• Environment and ecosystem
• Green energy sources
• Sensors
  
• Policies (international law between Ecuador and Galapagos)
• Team web site
• Future
• Get together in smaller groups that are more related to bring information together
• Discover what we are missing in our research
• Each of us has developed long-term research goals

10/8/04

• Environmental Sensing of Ecosystems
• What do we want to sense?
• Atmospheric chemistry
• Dissolved oxygen
• chemicals
• Nitrate levels
  
• Remote sensing- satellites
• How deep is the water around the Galapagos?

10/19/04

• Met with our mentor: David Okra and he showed us his slides from his trip to the Galapagos
• His comments:
• Felt humid
• The Islands themselves are dry at a low elevation
• High elevations are wetter
• Trails: erode the volcano
• Lots of pompous grass
• Took a panga (rubber raft) from the big boat to the Islands
• It is good, does not damage the shoreline
• Strict with the rules (he got yelled at a lot)
• Islands were very pristine
• Salt crystals on the rocks
• There were no rules for swimming.
  
• My questions as a result of meeting with him
• How old are the boobies when they get pushed out of their nests?
• What are the types of boats that are used?
• Can you grow plants in volcanic ash?
• Is pompous grass native?
• How do the animals travel? In groups?  Singularly?

10/25/04

• Minimizing the Impact
• Unobtrusive activity
• Don't make too many waves
• Minimize the pollution
• Sustainable
• Self-sufficiency
• Recycling Strategies
• Water
• Co-generation
• Issues
• Population
• Alternative Energy Sources
• Solar
• Tidal generation
• Wind
• Geothermal
• Hydrogen Fuel Cells
• Biodiesel

10/27/04

• Questions for Anna on her trip to Ecuador
• Is there anything in the works that we don't know about yet?
• What is a feasible size for the idea community on the Islands?
• Out of what materials are the houses currently made?
• What is the general layout of the towns?
• How high are the tides?
• How wet is the Brown Zone?  How wet are the other zones?
• What is the division of labor?  Are there engineers?  Scientists?
• How realistic would it be for the Galapagos to be internationally controlled?

11/1/04

• Fishing
• Commercial
• How regulate it?
• Educate
• Monetary incentives
  
• Subsistence
• Issues
• How are the regulations circumvented?
• Choices
• No regulations
• "Tweak" the current regulations
• Design completely new regulations

11/3/04 (Research phase is over)

• Vision
• Regulation of fishing
• Codependency (Ecuador vs. the international Community)
• Green village is part of the biopreserve
• Village
• For natives?
• For tourists?
• Temporary housing for scientists?
• Self- sufficient
• Rebuild from existing structures?
• Build from scratch?
• On the water?
• Locations
• San Cristobal
• Water from the freshwater lake (El Junco)
• Fertile soil (Volcanic ash- the Island is the oldest)
• Already populated (5,000 people)
• Airport
• No endemic species to the Island in the Brown Zone (proposed zone for the village)
• Movement of the people may be a problem
• Hood, Floreana
• Small
• No fresh water
• Santa Cruz, Santiago
• Largest population on Santa Cruz
• Tourism
• Santiago is the largest uninhabited island, has goats
• Marchena, Pinta, Darwin, Tower, Wolf
• No water
• Uninhabited
• Isolated
• Small
• Geothermal energy
• Rocky
• Isabela, Fernandina
• Already populated- don't want to move the people who are already there
• Geothermal energy
• Agriculture
• No solution will make everyone happy!!!

11/5/04

• Proposal: Floating green village
  
• The Galapagos area: 2 million acres
• Worth $1 billion?  Yes
• $500 an acre and $28 per square foot
• Model: Floating airport in Tokyo, Japan (built in 1999)
• Methods/Design
• Desalinate water: www.oceanarks.org
• Pipe water from the lake
• Wave energy, strong currents
• Soil it, plant trees
• Deep water location
• Stationary
• Multiple platforms?
  
• Questions to consider?
• How would it impact the ecosystem?
• Block sunlight
• Would you remove all of the people from the Galapagos to the floating village?
• How long could the floating village last?
• What is the weather like around the Islands
• How deal with the tourists?
• Who would have control over the floating village?
• Transportation to and from the floating village?
• Evacuation design?
• How will the local people feel?
• What do we want our village to do?
• Could we have a bridge from the floating village to the Galapagos?
• Biopreserve
• Build off of the current preservation strategy
• Enforcement
• Funding
• Which countries have an invested interest in the Galapagos?
• Spain, Italy, Britain, France, Scotland, Germany
• Distribution of funds?
• Debt?

11/8/04

• Purpose: discussed where we are going to go and how we are going to organize
• Made a list of emails for the three groups
• m2008-tor-sensors@mit.edu
• m2008-tor-preserve@mit.edu
• m2008-tor-village@mit.edu
• Organization
• Three teams to research, discuss, and answer the three assigned questions (at least one representative from each of the smaller teams from the first quarter
• Two separate groups to work on the web site and the presentation (at least one representative from each of the three groups)
• Concerns
• Coordination with information on the web site and the presentation
• People working on the sensors and on the village coordinate and put the sensors in the same place as the village or at least have them related to the village
• Web site
  
• Must be user friendly
• The front page must be like a map to explain navigation through the web site
• UTF's advice
• Answer the questions!  Make sure that all points in the question are understood and addressed.
• Look at presentations and web sites from previous years.
• Everyone must contribute an equal amount, not a select few doing all of it.  The process will go much smoother and everyone will have an input.
• Have the majority of the work done BEFORE Thanksgiving.
• Would be helpful if they played the "devil's advocate"
• Where we are going
• Discussions with Kip about the issues
• Group presentations of ideas- they need to be defended with evidence and then discussed as a whole to determine if they are feasible or not.  This way we can try to avoid overlooking the "simple" ideas.

11/9/04

• The "village" group got together to discuss general ideas of the questions so we know in what direction to move
• Questions
  
• Where to put the ecovillage?
• Retrofit current cities or build the ecovillage from scratch?
• Floating or on land
• Decisions
• Retrofit the two major cities: Puerto Baquerizo Moreno and Puerto Ayora
• AND floating island
• Questions
• Who will the floating island be for?  Tourists or Natives?
• I think the floating island should be for natives because then a cap can be put on the number of people living on the Galapagos Islands and the impact that the natives have on the Islands can be reduced
• If tourists are allowed on the floating island, it will become too touristy and will become an attraction in and of itself and will take away from the Galapagos
• Another possibility is to all SOME tourists on it, but that it is mostly for natives and is very ecofriendly
• Will the floating island effectively lessen the pressure on the Galapagos Islands?
  
• Why retrofit vs. build from scratch
• Don't want a deserted city
• Don't want to destroy more of the National Park
• Put what you have to good use
  
• Issues
• Floating island
  
• Trash disposal?
• What monitor?
• What plants and animals on the floating island?
• How big should the floating island be?
• Keep island from getting non indigenous species
• How to make it desirable for the residents?
• How to stimulate a natural ecosystem
• Jobs of the natives?
  
• Retrofitting
• New energy?
• New appliances?
• New way to dispose waste?
• New water
• Funding
• Lots of companies give $ for anything that is ecofriendly

11/11/04 (smaller village meeting)

• Questions/Decisions need to make
• New town?
• Place for growing population to move
• Population doubles every 11 years
• 2014: 40,000 residents
• Fertility rate 2.55
• seashepard.com
• Stop immigration?
• Limit on number of kids people can have?
• Galapagos is a better place with fewer people
  
• Nantucket: only grows from immigration
• Needs to be a permanent solution
• Make people move and offer them something they can't refuse
  
• If we didn't build a new town, what would happen?
• Population pressure
• Overcrowd and go into areas that should be preserved
• Overcrowd and not go into those restricted and they will move on their own
• Priority?  
• Conserve the animals and plants on the islands?
• Make people happy?
• Ideal, yes
• Realistic, can make SOME people happy
• More important to preserve the islands because if don't preserve them, won't be there in 100 years (most people don't think long-term)
  
• Refitted town?
• Fix what's there?
• Rip down completely and rebuild?
  
• Floating town?
• Who will live there?
• How will we make island attractive?
• How much damage will we do to the environment if we make a floating island?
• Can we own property?
• Rent property?
• How to control the population?
• What is on the island?
• What is the size of the island?
• Water supply?
• Waste disposal?
• How grow food?
• Type of energy?
• Type of technology?
• What island we are going to put it off of?
• Connecting to the mainland?
• How will the motor work to keep the floating island still? (solar energy?)
• Materials used?
• What laws do we want?
• No more immigration?
• How are we going to enforce the laws?
• Professions of the people
• Fishers
• Farmers
• What do with "little" villages that we are moving people from?
• Possible to rebuild ghost towns into natural habitat?
• What kind of technology and energy is being currently used in the villages?

11/12/04

• Anna is back from her trip to Ecuador
• She has many maps of vegetation and whatnot
• Sensus books
• Decision: 
• Completely rebuild three cities to be "green" (Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, Puerto Villamil, Puerto Ayora) over a period of time
• Move people from smaller villages into the three larger villages and rehabitat those villages to avoid "ghost" towns (maybe, the people in the smaller villages are in the agricultural area and would need to be transported there to farm)
• Combine the three airports into one floating airport with a docking site for boats and a hotel 
• Enforce the cap on migration
• What do with cement structures?
• Need primary sources
• Choose "sub-topics" in which to specialize
• Energy
• Waste
• Water
• Government
• Policy
• Building materials
• Recycling
• Technology
• "Relations"
• Beauty
• Economy
• Evacuation plan
• "Society"
• Farming
• Transportation
  
• My topics: home design and tourist attractions
  

11/15/04

• Goals for Pre-Thanksgiving
• Outline of Website (https://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2008/teams/lastortugas/alpha
• 3 outlined proposals due Friday (minimum 1,000 words)
• Report to leaders of the smaller groups and the leaders will each spend 15 minutes on Friday to say the plan, have handouts
  
• Goals over Thanksgiving
• Website up
• Content is the most important thing!
• Need to make all the groups aware of what each of the other groups are doing
  

• Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
  Today		Groups Report		Proposals
  			No School	No School
  Final Content	Website up!	Due at 5 p.m.

11/17/04

• Each person in the group summarized their areas of research
  

11/18/04 (meeting outside of class)

• Discussed co-housing idea
• Discussed why we chose to rebuild the city despite the fact that the current houses do not seem to be HURTING the environment now
• Make sure the process of rebuilding and demolition is ecofriendly, not just the buildings being built and processes being imposed
• Where are we reprocessing the material?

11/19/04

• Group presentations
• Questions for Sensor group:
  
• Acceptable limits for things being measured?
• If have a GPS on the boats, will someone be watching a screen at all times?
• Operation space?
• What are you going to be monitoring?
• Budget?
• How many trees in the Galapagos?
• Maintenance for the sensors?
• How long will the sensors last?
• How incorporate into the village?
• Training?
• Questions for Biopreserve group
• Enforcement?
• Definition of biopreserve?
• Preservation strategy?
• Anna, Lissa, and I stayed to answer the questions that came up during the presentation.

11/21/04

• Made more lists of questions that need to be answered (more of the details to the larger picture ideas
• Discovered that the airport on Baltra is owned by the Ecuador air force

11/22/04

• Group presentations to the Iguana UTF's
• We were asked more questions that need to be answered

11/24/04

• Organizational meeting before Thanksgiving

11/29/04

• Regroup after Thanksgiving
• Redistribute the tasks that have yet to be completed
• First dress rehearsal
  
• Meet afterwards to work on maps, proposals, and anything else that needs to be completed
  

11/30/04

• Meet at night to work on proposals, the website, and graphs
  

12/1/04

• Finish and edit the website
• Finish the proposals
• Work on presentations
• Dress rehearsal at night

12/2/04

• Presentation Day!
  

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