Civil Engineering English

Appropriate Technology in
Engineering Context

Dr. Heru Sutomo

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What is appropriate technology?
 Any object, process, ideas or practice that
enhances human fulfillment through satisfaction of
human needs
 Appropriate: compatible with local, cultural and
economic conditions, utilizes locally available
materials and energy resources, with tools and
processes maintained and operationally by the local
population
 Appropriate: consistent with the cultural, social,
economic and political institutions of society
 Should be self-sustaining, cause little cultural
disruption ensure the relevance to the welfare

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 What is appropriate technology?

 Appropriate technology has been used to cover a wide

range of both technologies and lifestyles including
sustainable living, alternative fuels, and ethical
technology transfers.
 A technology is considered appropriate if it solves a
social problem without many adverse negative effects.
 Every new technology has consequences for society. A
technology is appropriate when its intended positive
consequences outweigh its unintended negative
consequences

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Appropriate technology and engineering
 Technology: market pressure vs. real need
 Technology: purchase vs. development
 Automation vs. labour intensive
 Strategy on technology options?
 Measurement of “improved”, better or “wealthier”
 Sustainability vs. capacity/ performance.
 Cultural, environental suitability
 Understanding of local material, knowledge,
resources

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 How do we evaluate appropriateness?

 There are three ways of evaluating appropriateness:

technical, cultural, and economic.
 Technical--considering the technical knowledge and
background of the people who will be using this
technology.
 Cultural—the relationship of the technology to the
critical social systems in the society including family
systems, religious beliefs, division of labor in a society,
and levels of education and training.
 Economic--a technology's effect on income levels and
income distribution in a society and income disparity
between different socio-economic groups.

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 Factors for the assessment of an appropriate
technology

 What is the need?

 Is there an adequate business environment in place for this
technology?
 What is the best technical option for the transfer? (Some
issues include the requirements for operating the technology,
repair facilities for the technology, scope of the technology)
 What are the possible unintended negative effects of the
technology?
 What are the broader cultural, political and/or social effects of
the technology?
Everts, S. (1998). Gender and technology. Empowering women,
engendering development. New York: Zed Books, p 34.
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How can this be done?
 Clearly identify the problems
 Common definition of the nature and purpose of
appropriate technology
 Meeting basic needs requirement
 Technological assessment
 Transfer of technologies
 Information and adaption

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Examples of appropriate technologies
 Renewable Energy
 Smart Growth
 Green Buildings
 Solar cooking

Please click on the topic above to read more

about each of these appropriate technologies

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 Example of Appropriate Technology:
Renewable Energy

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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Renewable Energy
 Renewable energy industries produce energy using
resources such as sunlight, wind, water current,
and organic waste
 Renewable sources of energy are diffuse (spread
thin) and intermittent. One example of the
diffuseness feature is that a 1000-megawatt solar
farm might occupy about 5000 acres of land, while
a nuclear power station with the same generating
capacity only requires around 150 acres.

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Examples of Renewable Energy--Biomass
 Many developing countries depend on wood and
agricultural waste for energy.
 Almost half of India's and nearly 90 percent of total
energy consumption in several small countries in
Africa is provided by wood.
 Sweden has increased its use of biomass
dramatically in the last ten years and presently uses
fast-growing willow trees and other organics to
supply 20 percent of its total energy supply.

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 450

China
400

Examples of Renewable
Canada
350 Brazil

Energy--Hydropower
300

Billion Kilowatthours
United States

250

200

Modern large hydropower 150

Russia

Norway

plants are very expensive 100

India
Japan
to build; however, 50
Sweden
France

hydropower is not 0

distributed equally around Top Hydroelectric Generating Countries. Source: Energy

Information Administration, US Department of Energy.
the world.
In the US, about 10 percent of the total electricity is
generated from hydropower. It has dropped since the 1940s
when 40 percent of the electricity in the US was hydropower.

Disruption of the environment is the major reason why there

are fewer hydropower plants being built today.
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Examples of Renewable Energy--Geothermal
Energy
 The Philippines has the highest percentage of
power generated from geothermal sources; 22
percent of its electricity is generated with
geothermal steam.
 The percentage of geothermal is high (at least 10-
20 percent of the total) in four other countries:
Costa Rica, El Salvador, Kenya, and Nicaragua.
 Central America, parts of Southeast Asia, and the
western United States have the greatest potential
for major reliance on geothermal energy. Promising
sites also exist in parts of southern Europe and
East Africa.

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 Examples of Renewable Energy--Wind

Experts in the field of alternative energy feel wind energy is the most
auspicious (favorable) of the renewables. Windmills mechanically turn
turbines without an intermediate stage of heating water.

In the early 1980s, more than 8000 wind

machines were installed in California.
One of the largest wind farms is
presently found in the rolling, windswept
hills of the Altamont Pass, east of San
Francisco.

Attempts to reap economies of scale by

building larger windmills capable of
generating more than one megawatt of
power have been suppressed by
Click on graph to see an enlarged view technical problems. Capital costs have
remained prohibitive.
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 Examples of Renewable Energy—The Ocean

 Three methods for extracting energy from the sea have been reviewed
seriously: wave power, ocean thermal energy conversion, and tidal
power.
 Wave Power aims to harness the motion of the waves using a
variety of devices.
 Ocean thermal energy conversion seeks to exploit the temperature
differences between the warm surface layer and the colder deep
waters of the world's oceans.
 Tidal power is similar to hydroelectric power in the sense it is
severely restricted by geography. It requires long, tapering bays
that drive the tide into a large bore as it moves along the channel.
The incoming tide can then be trapped behind a barrier of some
sort and ultimately used to drive turbines on its way out again.

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Examples of Renewable Energy--
Photovoltaic Cells A conference room covered in
photovoltaic cells at the Bewag power
plant in Berlin. © Wolfgang Hoffmann
http://www.wnrmag.com/st
ories/2003/feb03/energy.ht
m

 Semi-conductors have the unique property of being able

to turn sunlight directly into electric current. This
application is surfacing in a variety of items such as
solar-powered calculators, refrigerators, and satellites.
 According to some energy forecasters, solar cells
installed on rooftops may allow for a much greater
decentralization of electricity than other technologies.

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Examples of Renewable Energy--Thermal Solar
Power
Solar thermal power
technologies and solar
ponds are projected to
have competitive
generating costs by the
end of the century. The
capital cost for expensive
items like polished
mirrors to track the path
http://www.sandiego.edu/weather/images/N
of the sun is presently /solar_thermal_power_plant.jpg

exorbitant.
Click on diagram to see enlarged picture

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 Solar Two

Example: Solar Two—the solar energy was collected

through a field of individually guided mirrors, called
heliostats. The sunlight heats salt to 1,050 degrees
Fahrenheit, which turns the salt into a liquid (or molten
salt). The liquid and hot salt was then piped away, stored,
and used to power a steam turbine.

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 Example of Appropriate Technology:
Smart Growth

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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
 Smart Growth

 Smart growth is development that accommodates the

needs of a community without sacrificing the environment.
 Smart growth aims to balance development and
environmental protection by creating new developments
that are:
 centered more in the towns and cities
 include alternative transit options (trains, bike paths, and safe
walkways)
 have mixed use development.
 Mixed use development moves away from the post-WWII
ideal of single-home-only suburbs to a model that
includes housing, commercial, and retail space in the
same development.

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 Types of Smart Growth

 Smart growth means that less land can accommodate new

development: this development is sometimes called
compact development. There are three common
techniques to achieve compact development: infill
development, brownfields redevelopment, and cluster
development.

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Infill development
Infill development is
development that
attempts to add
additional housing or
business facilities
inside an existing
development. This
way, a city can fill up
unused space in a
particular area. An example of a recent mixed use development is the
Paseo Colorado complex in Pasadena, California. The new
complex was built in center of town and includes a two-
level shopping center with four stories of apartments above
the shopping areas.
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Cluster development
Cluster development allows for similar dwellings as
does “regular” developments; however, the
individual lot sizes are reduced and room is left
for open spaces in the development

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Brownfields redevelopment

Brownfields redevelopment is development that targets the

empty factories inside the city and develops them into
new living and/or retail space. One of these former
DelMonte canneries, Plant 51, is the site of a brownfield
development to convert the cannery into lofts.
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 Example of Appropriate Technology:
Green Buildings

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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
 Green Buildings

 Buildings are a major source of air pollution in the US.

According to the US Department of Energy
 Buildings emit
 52 percent of all sulfur dioxide
 19 percent of all nitrous oxide
 38 percent of carbon dioxide
 5 percent of particulate emissions
 Considering the number of homes and businesses in the
US—over 76 million residential and 5 million commercial
buildings at last count—this problem is considerable.

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 Techniques used in Green Construction

 Designing energy
efficient buildings.
Energy efficiency is
the most important
factor in green
construction.
The Solectrogen House is an off-grid PV-powered
residence in Nicasio, CA. It was designed to use
active and passive solar energy, serve as a live-in
laboratory for energy conservation and alternative
energy products, and be a comfortable, traditionally
attractive home with all the conveniences of modern
living. Source:
http://www.nrel.gov/data/pix/Jpegs/04479.jpg
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 Techniques used in Green
Construction
 Reducing material use in construction. Smaller is better
for the environment; using less materials is always
preferable from an environmental point of view.
 However, the trend today is for houses to get larger and
larger.
 Using low-impact materials during construction.
 Many construction and building materials contain toxins. Many
types of carpeting, for example, emit gases as they age.
 Research has found, particularly in houses that are tightly sealed,
that their exposures to dangerous chemicals and pesticides is
much higher inside the house rather than outside the house.

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 Example of Appropriate Technology:
Solar Cooking

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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Solar Cooking: An Underutilized Technology
that is Ready Now
 Appropriate for
underdeveloped
countries
 Especially in rural
equatorial regions

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Underutilized Technology:
Shiny Stuff for Solar Cookers

 Shiny materials are relatively new to the world

 Aluminum foil
 Metallized plastic film
 But now they are cheap and plentiful
 Est. $100 an acre
 Consequence: an underutilized solution waiting
for cultural acceptance

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The Cookit: A Simple but Effective Solar
Cooker

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Benefits of Solar Cooking
 Consumes no fuels,
replaces wood
 No loss of trees &
habitat
 Trees sequester
carbon
 No loss of soil and
watershed
 Wood is often in short
supply now

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More Benefits of Solar Cooking
 Eliminates work
 No daily search for
firewood
 No risks to women and
children
 Frees time for other
activities
 No need to stir food
 Helps to liberate women

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Two Billion People rely on Wood for daily
cooking fuel

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More Benefits of Solar Cooking

 Reduces costs
 No fuel to purchase (many poor families spend 25% of
their income on fuel)
 No fuel storage required
 No fuel transportation required
 Provides business opportunities
 Making solar cookers
 Preparing foods: bakeries, restaurants
 Food processing: rice, honey etc.
 Dying fabrics
 Sterilizing instruments for doctors & vets

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More Benefits of Solar Cooking
 Generates no air
pollution
 Generates no
greenhouse gases
 Produces no smoke
 Eliminates fire dangers

Leslie baking cakes in S. California

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Cooking Smoke: An Unrecognized Source of
Disease and Death
 Cooking smoke kills over 1.6
million people each year,
mostly women & children,
according to a recent report
 Acute lower respiratory
infection
 Chronic bronchitis
 Lung cancer
 Asthma, TB etc. A quadruple tragedy: cooking smo
malnutrition, child orphaned by AID
unused sun rays

Source: Smoke – the Killer in the Kitchen, H. Warwick & A. Doig, ITDG
http://www.itdg.org/?id=smoke_index
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More Benefits of Solar Cooking

 Can sterilize water – 65

deg. C
 Can pasteurize milk
 Can cook high-protein
legumes that require
many hours to cook

WAPI – Water Purification Indicator

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More Benefits of Solar Cooking
 Cooks foods slowly and
thoroughly
 Preserves nutrients
 Foods will not burn
 Pots are easy to clean; less
clean water is needed
 Use for canning vegetables
 Use for dried fruit
 Kill insects in dry grains

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More Benefits of Solar Cooking
 Solar cooking
frees up valuable
space inside the
home for other
uses
 Moving cooking
outside reduces
heat buildup in
home

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Issues Limiting the Use of
Solar Cooking

 Requires clear sky; on cloudy days some other

fuel must be used
 Appropriate for many regions such as India, China,
and Saharan Africa
 Lifestyle adjustments are required
 Change in timing of meals and work
 Hot food storage
 Cooking outside
 Home design
 Possible changes in taste of food

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 Insolation

January

April

Graphs show total solar

power input in kWh/m2/day

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Assignment 1
 Trans Jakarta BRT buses run on CNG.
 Problems in refilling
 Loss of operating time
 Require more no of fleets
 What is the goal?
 Who are the main target?
 What are the risks?
 Discuss the technological options available!

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Assignment 2: Culture and development
 Cultures affect on development
 Some ethnic groups excel in shaping economy
 Example: miracles of Japan, Taiwan, Korea ….
Later India
 Cultures play major role of economic fates of
nation-state, peoples and individuals
 Cultural perspectives, belief systems influence
leaders, civil servants view policy problems and
determine best solution
 Observe in national context as well as local ones

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