Innovative Wetlands #HogsAbroad in Belgium

The boat tour in Brugge.

On Tuesday, May 22, we had a lecture titled, “Algae and Plant-Based Wastewater Treatment.” I had been intrigued about this lecture ever since I had flipped through the tentative schedule that was given to us during our first pre-departure meeting. Though I wouldn’t be dealing with wastewater directly, my honors project is actually centered around phytoremediation, which is the use of plants to uptake nutrients. I plan to use this process to remove nitrogen from a lake that is naturally high in nitrogen. (The source of nitrogen is actually unknown). Dr. Rousseau was really cool and his lecture was very interesting. He first started off the lecture by talking about ecological engineering and how it can be used to design an ecosystem that has value to both humans and the environment. That seriously is my life goal. I love people, but we have not been amazing in our ways and have been especially thoughtless in our environmental impacts. I want to change that. I want to make it where we are living in harmony with nature. Cheesy? Yes. But true.

I also thought it was really interesting that he lectured on constructing wetlands and using them to filter wastewater. But one concern I had was that these construction projects have to be really thought-out. Like REALLY. I guess that is the case with everything we do, but the whole purpose of these wetlands is to take advantage of nature’s way of cleaning up water. So I feel that in order to do it correctly and with a much smaller impact than the current wastewater treatment methods, people really need to put in the time and effort to plan the wetlands out. The environment has to take priority over money and profits. Maybe I sound very much like an innocent, starry-eyed college student with no experience out in the real world, but it HAS to be done at some point. Or we won’t have a healthy planet left.

My most favorite part of the lecture was the “Innovative Wetlands” section. Dr. Rousseau showed us pictures of houseboats which were completely closed cycles (no inputs or outputs) and he also showed us green walls. I had never thought or heard about green walls and I thought it was a really clever way to take advantage of vertical space. Like what if we built all of our buildings with green walls? That would be amazing. Ideas like those make me happy that even though humans are really destructive sometimes (ok, well most of the time), we still have our creativity and our problem-solving skills. If we really set our minds to it as a species, we wouldn’t have ANY environmental problems. A bit optimistic, but I truly believe that. So overall, this lecture made me happy.

Now, onto the cultural differences. I felt so accomplished when I came to this conclusion (and I hope I’m not wrong because that would make me feel bad), but I think it’s customary for Belgians to blow their noses really hard. It almost sounds like the honking of a goose. I mean, we are all taught to make the least noise as possible when coughing, because it is the polite thing to do in the US, so I thought that was really interesting. Like I have known people who would go out into the hallway to blow their noses because they didn’t like people hearing them. So, it was a bit strange to all of us when we hear people blowing their noses really loudly. Also, they carry around handkerchiefs too, which they use to blow their noses. That’s just adorable. All in all, this program in Belgium has been a great educational AND cultural experience. Srusti signing off!!

--
Chemistry major Srusti Maddala spent the May intersession 2018 in Belgium with our U of A Faculty-Led: Sustainability in the Euro Food System.

Read more from Srusti at https://sites.uark.edu/smaddala/blog/

Don't miss your opportunity to study or intern abroad! Start your search at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/