This is a realistic sustainable town, located in an island. People live in a rural-modern way, working in the farm, and mines as the old way, but living in a modern town with all electric devices and comfort. This is the balanced mix of technology and rural living, respecting and taking care of the natural environment.



Number references (not al are represented in the images):

[0] Land Bridges transportation system



[1] Town

[1.1] Town hall

[1.2] Potable water deposit



[2] Waste managed area

[2.1] Manual separation building

[2.4] Recycling plant

[2.3] Water cleaners

[2.4] Compost digester

[2.5] Biogas digestor



[3] Hydroelectric Dam

[3.1] Arch-gravity dam

[3.2] Water for turbine pipe

[3.3] Pumped water pipe

[3.4] Over capacity spillway

[3.5] Door spillway

[3.6] Second reservoir spillway pipe



[4] Farmland

[4.1] Farmland center, tools and products storage.

[4.2] Crops

[4.3] Non cultivated crops

[4.4] Orchard

[4.5] Land for population growth



[5] Mine

[5.1] Mine entrance

[5.2] Non mineral Dump

[5.3] Gold cyanide leached tank

[5.4] Gold cyanide leached tanks water cleaners



[6]Quarry

[6.1] Levels of work

[6.2] Stone crafting zone



[7] Lumberjack

[7.1] Lumberjack hut and wood processes

[7.2] Cut trees (tree stumps)

[7.3] Actual tree repopulation zone



[8] Animal Farm

[8.1, a,b,c,d] 4 Cattle rotating pasture zones

[8.2] Barn

[8.3] Pigsty and hen house



[9] Darrieus vertical wind turbines



[10] Geothermic plant

According to data from internet and local farmers of my town, a single human could be auto sustainable with 300m2 of vegetable production (300.000m2 in total), divided in wheat and “root plants” (as potatoes and carrots). Leaving ¼ of the total terrain without plants, rotating from the other ¾ parts every year. This helps the terrain to no over produce plants, nor reducing the fertility of the soil.

Crops are located in a plain valley between two mountain range, in order to protect them from high speed winds.

For animal production, I choose free moving for cows, in a total surface of 200.000m2. Divided in 4 zones thus grass could regrow.

Drinking 1l of milk per person dairy, 8 female cows are needed, that produce and average of 5000L per year each cow.

Cows and Sheep are fed with grass by pasture, and straw from wheat exceeds.

Pigs and Chickens are fed with solid organic urban waste, like fruit shells and bad conditions food.

Total pigs: 7-8

Total cows: 7-8

Total sheep: 6-7

Total chickens: 20-30

Total Rabbit: 20-30

There are some land for orchard.

Only about ½ of total food production terrain is used. The other is for be able to supply possibly future population grow (something very important to consider when planning a city)



Water is pumped from the upper reservoir, purified and stored in a high altitude water deposit in the east of the town.

Non-potable water from the reservoir also goes to other parts as the farmland, the quarry and the mine. (also little pipes with potable water from the town deposit could supply water need in those zones).

A good source of food to implement in the island could be fishing, as the live surrounded by the sea.

Food and water isn't sold. Every one in the town have a part of the total food, respectively age. No one could suffer hunger.

Due the distance from the town to the production and work zones, paths was made, but later most of them were replaced by land bridges, with two direction rail ways for human transport and food, goods, tools, and other materials.

There was a little port, used years ago for transport of heavy materials and goods in the same island by sea, but now Land Bridges transportation system offers better service, so port was destroyed by the time.

Average power my the island in a normal day: 40kw

Maximum peak of power in a day: 120kw

Minimum peak of power in a day: 5kw

Total energy consumption per year=350.000kwh

(For people new in this, a washing machine power is about 1,5kw, so in the clothes washing program takes one hour, the energy consumed by this single washing machine is: 1,5kwh)



Electric energy.

Grind circuit:

Grind circuit is fully underground. Is more expensive than aerial ones, but this keeps the beauty of the island, reducing the visual impact.



Wind Turbines:

5 VAWT Darrieus type troposkein shape of 22 meters height and 10m max radius. There are situated on the top of a mountain range in order to maximize the wind capitation.

Why vertical axis wind turbines instead of horizontal axis wind turbines?.

Well, these turbines are located next to the cattle zone, and vertical axis wind turbines produce much less noise, that noise could disturb animals living and also their health and productivity.

Due the wind conditions, the total power extracted from Darrieus are:

P= ½ wind speed^3*air density*Darrieus area*0,35*5=80kw

Total energy per year= P*5000=400.000kwh



Double height reservoir.

Arch-Gravity dam. Main function of double height reservoirs, for pumping water when energy production exceeds the energy needed in a moment of the day. As you can check in some energy pages, energy produced during the day must be exactly the same that is being consumed in a determinate moment (that follows a daily consumed curve), or electric device will suffer or even broke. So a very efficient way to store electric energy is to pump some water from the lower lake to the upper one, storing energy as potential energy than later could be transformed again in electric energy due water turbines in the same dam. When there is no wind, water could be turbinate from the upper reservoir in order to produce the electricity needed.

This solves completely the over/not enough producing energy problem and the energy storage.

P=gravity*flow*height*water*density=9,81*2*9*1000=180kw

Total new water availably energy per year = water catchment area of the reservoir/2*P=864.000kwh

Peak pumping power: (maximum excess of wind production)=75kw

Total energy capted and stored by pumping system=All average non used wind energy= 400.000kwh-350.000kwh=50.000kwh. plus all the water you want to take from the down reservoir during the year.

Energy storage capability in the upper reservoir:

Energy estored=(water over the pipe of the turbine in the upper reservoir) *½

Energy estored=144.000m³*1/2*180/(3600s/h)=3.600kwh

As you can see, the double reservoir system is the perfect energy system for a realistic self-sustainable city. You will always be able to produce exactly the energy you need in a moment (wind or water), and you can store the energy used in 4 days in the upper reservoir.

Not enough? Remember the Wind turbines: they are operating every 4 days per week. (5000h per year (1 year have 8760 hours)) =D



Why no solar energy? Solar energy depends on the sun (xD), and in this case solar in not as good as wind, which have higher efficiency and hours per year.



Thermic energy.

Geothermic/roof watering:

In winter, geothermic factory star pumping water through pipes into the ground. Ground temperature will heat the cold water, that could be used to produce electricity in some cases, but main function is to heat houses.

In summer, cold water from the reservoir is pumped to the town for water sprinklers over the roofs. This could sound crazy, but is a very efficiency and cheap technique to refrigerate roofed houses. More even if they are partially cover by earth.

Wood:

Woodcutters cut down zones of the huge area of forest in phases.

1. Build paths and lumberjack cabin.
   
2. Tree cutting and wood processing.
   
3. Tree repopulation and goes to other grown trees forest area.
   

This is a flexible process, variable as more wood is needed. But they only can cut down 1/10 of the total forest in a single year (see whole map), in order to leave trees grow 10 years.



Mining:

Underground mine extract gold and iron from the mountain. There are no coal layers.

The mine entrance is located in the opposite side of the mountain where the river is. In order to maintain the water curse clean from mining waste.

Gold lixiviates (leached tank) with cyanide (don’t panic, this is real) which is highly toxic, so several process of water cleaning must solve the water contamination after release it to the sea.

If those tanks collapse (we hope that this never happens, but in real life have been several cases), all the contaminated water will flow to the sea and never to the farmland, due the inclination of the land in the mining zone.



Quarry:

Quarry is located in the west part of the island, extracting stone that is cut by stone crafters with electric and phneumatic tools in the same quarry.

Quarry had got most production when land bridges were build.



Tools and useful items:

They are made in the recycling factory, where old or broken tools and materials are remade in new ones.



Gravel and others:

Gravel and other rocks needed for building and drainage are taken from the non-mineral dump.

Waste management is made in several steps.

1. Urban solid and liquid waste (food, sewers…), plus animal and crops waste goes through pipes or Lnad Bridge transportation to the waste management zone. Solid waste must try to be separate at home as much as possible. But there is a manual separation (plastic, paper, glass…) building, for general solid waste.
   
2. After solid manual separation, non-organic waste go to recycling plant, organic solid goes to aerobic/anaerobic digestion to produce Compost and Biogas (CH4) respectively. Compost is used to fertilize plants, and biogas for industrial use in the recycling plant.
   
3. Liquid waste goes to dual water cleaning and remaining organics solids separation and filtration (that goes to the digestions systems). After cleaning, that clean non-potable water goes to the sea.
   
4. Manual-Industrial recycle of non-organic solid waste provides new materials from recycled ones. As paper, glass bottles, steel tools etc.
   

As the town is not pavement, water from the rain can be easily filtered in to the ground, so streets sewers systems are not needed. Also, the entire urban zone has been built over a natural drainage of gravel and earth, so water evacuates very quick inside the earth to the sea.

Biogas(CH4) produced by the anaerobic digesters goes to the recycling plant, to heat the furnaces of the blacksmiths and glass blower.

Is the city polluting by burning the Biogas (CH4)?

Well, no. Biogas comes totally from woods, plants (branches, non-edible corps parts…) and animal waste (excrements), so the CO2 produced goes back again to the air, so the plants can take them. This is a close circle of CO2. Releasing CH4 without burning to CO2 is much more harmful for the environment than simple CO2.

Houses are partially covered by earth, (yep, as hobbiton) this helps a LOT for temperature stability of the houses and is very cheap.

Due the low sunlight capability (because they are a bit underground) many rooms have a little window in the roof in order to use electricity for light as less as possible . This also helps to rooms ventilation: opening doors and windows in different altitudes makes natural air currents.

Houses and shops are together. There is a main building in a little mountain, the town hall. That has all the logistic, sanitary, laws, etc.

There:

• Food is stored and sold to the people of the town dairy
  
• Energy production is controlled.
  
• Future decisions are taken.
  
• Laws and solve social problems and issues.
  
• It’s also a Land Bridge Transportation station.
  

All the people work together in many ways. Most of them have many works that depends on seasons and people needs (for example a problem,harvest season or a new building).

The main occupations of the habitants are:

Farmers: 3-10

Cattle: 2-4

Energy administration: 1-2

Mining: 0-12

Quarry: 0-12

Woodcutter: 2-10

Administrative and laws (buy-sell house, marriages…): 1-3

Construction: 0-20

Waste management and recycling materials: 4-12

Materials, goods, waste and tools distribution: 1-4

Shop and storage: 2-5

Teacher: 1-3

Health service: 3-5

Politics: 12 (but not full-time work, just sometimes when is needed)

Maintenance and repair: 2-10

There are no schools, due the little amount of children of different ages from a population on 100 people. Instead of that, children learn together in a big house where the teacher lives, all at the same time, but not learning the same things.

Health service consists on a little room in the town hall where important issues and illness have treatment (like a broken bone).

There are no social ranges or scales.

It’s true that a there is a council of 12 persons (more than 10% of the population), than take decisions for all the rest and the future of the town. Council is reelected every 4 years, but each time they only modify 2-4 members.

Corruption? Impossible, decisions are taking by many people, 12 from 100, so the other 82 will know perfectly what that does 12 do.

For example, if one day the carrots harvest is 100kg, the farmers will notice if only 90kg are stored… =D

An isolated society with low number of people has two main problems.

In this case, there are 10-30 families, and no more. So generation by generation of children will have the same illness or physical problems from the parents, accentuating more and more as blood mixes with close members of the family.

The second one is the health service. This population is unable to produce all the medicines and the systems to heal all the possible illness they could suffer, because pharmaceutic industry needs a lot of work, research and many chemicals. That is impossible to find all those together in the island.

Rebuild the sea port could be a really good idea in order to move a person who couldn’t be heal in the island or to take provisions (as medicines) from the rest of the world, or even to migrate people from and to the island. But, then the city wouldn’t be totally auto sustainable. ; )