Soilution

Soil degradation is the main cause for many global problems, such as low soil productivity, food and water scarcity, floods, droughts, desertification, poverty and a key driver of climate disruption.

However, soil's and ecosystem's health can be easily restored and preserved with a combination of several low-cost and low-tech solutions in the fields of decentralized water treatment, rainwater harvesting and regenerative agriculture with garden clusters and related production practices.

These systems require many trained people and, in return, offer economic opportunities and attractive lifestyles with varied occupations. 

Our holistic approach consists of a technical manual, an online educational platform and a customized consulting service to educate, guide and empower local rural communities through the transition to sustainable eco-villages. These practices lead to food security, water availability and many products, which are key to creating resilient rural communities.

The world population is expected to reach 9.8 billion people by 2050. To achieve global food security, food production through agriculture must increase by 70% between 2005 and 2050. Additionally, about 854 million people worldwide currently face food and water insecurity, and some 3.7 billion people worldwide suffer from nutrient deficiencies, such as Fe and Zn. In addition, agriculture is the main source of income and livelihood for 70 to 80% of the currently hungry people in developing countries.

Demand for new agricultural land due to population pressure, dietary change and demand for biofuels is expected to increase by approximately 50% by 2050. However, 5 to 6 million hectares of arable land are irreversibly lost every year and there are already some 18.1 million square kilometers of degraded land worldwide. In addition, 50% of all agricultural land in the world is moderately to severely degraded, directly affecting 1.5 billion people worldwide. 

The main drivers of soil degradation are related to traditional agricultural practices, such as monoculture techniques, tillage and the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. These practices degrade the soil and contaminate groundwater and surface water.

Our holistic approach consists of 3 elements. First, a technical manual covering research on low-tech and affordable techniques in the fields of rainwater harvesting, regenerative agriculture and decentralized waste and water treatment. 

Second, an online educational platform that summarizes and teaches about these techniques in an interactive and understandable way that can be easily accessed and adapted by farmers, rural communities and students. The platform would also offer a database of succesful projects and proven solutions and would allow communities to connect with each other and share their projects and experiences. 

Finally, a customized consulting services would be offered to guide communities in the proper implementation of these practices. The consulting services would include background research to tailor and select solutions based on local conditions, materials and culture. Solutions would be carefully designed to be energy efficient, restore soil, recharge groundwater and ensure nutrient reuse.

In addition, workshops and seminars would be offered to sensitize and educate communities to ensure community participation and long-term project sustainability.

This project aims to empower vulnerable communities, especially affected by soil degradation, to build and protect soil ecosystems that will ensure food and water security, while providing jobs and economic opportunities.

Our first project as consulting services focuses on the city of Carolina in El Salvador, which currently suffers from extreme poverty, land degradation, inadequate land use and both droughts and floods.

WHO 2017 reports that in El Salvador, drinking water and hygienic sanitation policies were not implemented in either urban or rural areas. The widespread lack of regulations on drinking water, sanitation, waste management and land management lead to a catastrophic situation affecting the country's health and environment.

Rural areas are even more disadvantaged in terms of access to a safe source of drinking water. The intensive use of their soils causes serious erosion problems, leading to low crop yields and disasters. Protecting these rural areas is essential to the success of the country's entire population.

The town of Carolina, located in the department of San Miguel, suffers from poverty, soil erosion and landslides, droughts and a shortage of drinking water, which directly affects some 9,031 inhabitants living in precarious conditions in the area. 

Our solution aims to help these rural populations regain control over their land and their way of life, making them self-sufficient while contributing to the economy, their communities and the ecosystem. 

To achieve this, it is necessary to plan projects together with the community to incorporate their needs and opinions and to ensure their approval of the projects. 

It is also important that they are fully involved in the implementation of the technologies, including theory, construction and maintenance. This is essential for them to be self-sufficient, but also so that they can share what they have learned with other surrounding villages to create a greater impact.

Indeed, supporting farmers with good living hygiene and good control of their land would improve the overall economy of the country: better production, protection of water bodies and resilience to natural disasters. 

The Carolina village project would serve in the long term as an example for other rural villages in El Salvador, in other Latin American countries and around the world, so it has the potential to affect rural villages around the world. In addition, this also indirectly affects the urban population by ensuring food production and decreasing urbanization.

Through the use of the technical manual, the online learning platform and the consulting services, rural communities will be stronger and more resilient as they learn to adapt techniques that ensure food and water security while restoring and preserving ecosystems.

The correct application of specific regenerative agricultural practices can increase biodiversity and yields, which means that a wider range of products is possible, which can be further processed, generating an additional source of income and employment.

In the long term, these rural communities would become attractive tourist attractions, combining the advantages of the urban and the rural.

The RUVIVAL publication series developed by the Institute of wastewater management and water protection from Hamburg university of Technology presents research on the use of sustainable water management and regenerative agriculture practices in rural communities to manage issues regarding soil erosion, water, and crop management.

The webpage RUVIVAL is an open access e-learning resource developed by the institute in collaboration with the Hamburg Open Online University, focused on educating about degraded areas restoration and creating new livable spaces. 

As of now, both focus on the theory of these practices, but are missing practical knowledge on how to implement them.

The purpose of our project is to further develop the RUVIVAL publication series into a technical manual, by providing a compilation of technical data and practical information of proven solutions and successful projects.  

Additionally, we will offer consulting services in which we design and guide projects to transform communities into ecotowns.

Many other solutions or approaches related to climate change, biodiversity loss, and food or water scarcity usually focus only on one particular problem or cause of the problem. However, these solutions fail to consider the relationships and synergies between the rest of these factors.   

What sets us apart is our integral and holistic approach. It is an essential aspect of our solution to consider the ecosystem as a whole in order to implement the above solutions, taking into account local criteria. 

Therefore, a background research is performed, to analyze the best individual solutions that are economically feasible. Local raw materials should be prioritized to have a positive economic and sustainable impact.

As for our consulting services, we want to reach out to communities to educate them and actively involve them in the implementation of the solutions. 
We believe in leading by example. Once the rural community implements these practices, they will be able to observe the results firsthand. Surrounding communities will notice and be encouraged to consider transitioning to our proposed holistic approach.

Our project work started already for Carolina’s village case in El Salvador. However, it is still in the planning phase. It is expected that in one year 9,031 inhabitants will be benefited, which are part of the rural community. If this work proves successful, over the next 5 years, we expect a regional and national impact supported by sharing knowledge through workshops. We estimate that our solution could directly impact the rural population, which represents around 30% of the population. In addition to that we expect to impact indirectly urban population as solutions are aiming to clean water bodies and solve soil erosion that concern the whole country. 

First, the goal is to educate rural population about these practices. This goal could be measured with the amount of participants in workshops and seminars.

As our main target is to improve life standards in rural communities, we would measure our progress by the rate of population having access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Food security can also measured through the evolution of crop yield and nutrition's indicators.

The increase in farmers' incomes would also be proof of a great economic success. The success of the economic aspect is very important in this project, because it is mostly the first motivation for farmers to practice regenerative agriculture. Proving on a small to large scale that regenerative agriculture pays better than intensive agriculture would have a positive impact on most of the indicators measuring the progress of our project.   

Improving life standards also means improving the environment which includes land and water bodies. Those aspects would be monitored to track the evolution of their properties. For the soil, the amount of moisture, humus, water absorption's rate. For water bodies, it would be the control of chemicals and pollutants but also reporting the bio ecosystem's evolution. Depending on the climate of the area, restoration of the surrounding ecosystem can impact the amount of drought or flooding per year. This indicator would be evidence of great success in the fight against global warming.

We are a team of five students from Hamburg University of Technology working in collaboration with the Institute of Wastewater Management and Water Protection and under guidance of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralf Otterpohl and Lukas Huhn, a scientific employee from the Institute.

This project is a collaboration and under guidance from the Institute of wastewater management and water protection (AWW) of Hamburg university of Technology, which has years of experience in research, conceptualization, promotion, and implementation of sustainable water management and regenerative agriculture practices to solve issues regarding soil erosion, water, and crop management.

The RUVIVAL publications series and RUVIVAL webpage provide an extensive list of literature and background information on these topics, providing a solid backbone for the further research for the development of the technical manual and online e-learning platform.

During the last year we have learned about different methods regarding regenerative agriculture, rainwater harvesting and other techniques to restore rural degraded areas during lectures provided by the institute. During this lectures, we have done an extended research on the topics and worked on a project where we design an ecotown, doing previous research about the location of the ecotown, to plan and design accordingly the local criteria.

Additionally, two members from our team are working on their Master's Thesis in the institute, doing research about decentralized water treatment for rural communities and the use of Johnson-Su Bioreactor to build compost to feed and promote fertile and productive soils. 

Also, the team lead comes from El Salvador, country for our first projects as consulting services, and thus, has great understanding about the culture. She has also worked as a volunteer with the organization "Techo", in which trainings and workshops were organized for rural communities. 

We believe and promote inclusion, regardless of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, ancestry, or national or ethnic origin. We promote a sense of belonging within our members, and consider that self-motivation is the single most relevant aspect required for people to join our team.

Our diverse and multicultural team consists of members coming from El Salvador, Mexico, France and India, who are currently living in Germany. Therefore we have experience in working in a multicultural environment and are able to adapt to new cultural situations, which would be a key when working on projects from different parts of the world. Our goal is to keep expanding and benefit from the diverse backgrounds that all of us possess. 

During our projects as consulting services, we plan to involve the communities in which we are working and encourage them to become part of our team to work with us for a long-term. This way, we also pretend to include in our team people that don't come from an academic background like we do, and thus, that can enrich all of us with better understanding of the practices and believes found in rural areas. 

Our main purpose to participate in the MIT Solve Challenge is to build a network that we can lean on once we start with the stage of implementation and start working on projects with the communities.

One of our purpose is to serve as a connector between communities, governments, NGOs and other financing institutions. In order to achieve this, we need to work on building a network and connect with people from different sectors.

Also, we are interested in reaching other like-minded and self-motivated individuals that are interested in regenerative agriculture and protection of ecosystems. They may be interested in joining our team and we can learn about alternative and innovative new ideas that could also be incorporated in the manual.

Through the participation in this challenge, we seek to find mentorship, advice, and feedback to keep improving our idea, especially regarding a profitable and sustainable business model.

We seek advice and guidance to further develop  our business model. Since we come from an Engineering background, we have not much experience in the execution of a proper business model, and thus would like some feedback to know how to make our project profitable and sustainable for all stakeholders.

Even though the costs to implement the solutions would not come from us, but rather from our customers, we also aim to help them get the best economic options.

Also, for the further development of the online platform, we need support in the area of web development and design, since the current RUVIVAL platform was done with funding from the Hamburg Open Online University, and the funding has finalized.

First of all, we would like to partner with the MIT faculty in order to increase our reputation and attract both, possible customers and investors. Specially if we want to work directly with governments and NGOs, we need to have the back-up from international institutions.

Furthermore, we would like to partner with other Solve members working in similar fields. Since our solution consists of a compilation of many different solutions, we are seeking to learn and work with other projects internationally to keep expanding our database of projects and solutions.

Healthy living soils are a key aspect in order to sequestrate carbon. By having year round vegetation cover, plants capture the atmospheric carbon and store it in the roots in the soil. 

Our project aims to work specially in rural areas where there has been severe land degradation and soil erosion, that has lead to low soil productivity and even desertification. With a combination of methods such as rainwater harvesting, regenerative agriculture, use of terra preta sanitation systems, holistic grazing and building organic living soils with the Johnson-Su compost bioreactor, degraded areas can be restored, allowing higher plants yields, that are essential for carbon absorption.