Greater Sustainability and Food Security Through Building Integrated Aquaculture

Although aquaculture provides an ever-increasing proportion of total fisheries production, development largely occurs in areas remote to domestic U.S. consumers.  Traditional culture strategies generally exploit the different economic and environmental conditions of the producer’s country. When combined with the transport of cultured fish products amongst global markets, the financial and environmental costs of aquaculture are high.  As such, the development of alternative aquaculture systems positioned locally within a community and having little or no impact on the natural and human environment could prove an important step towards responsibly meeting the growing demand for fish protein.  Moving beyond the historically popular single-species models of aquaculture to the use of multi-species and multi-trophic food production systems that capitalize on waste streams and diversify production could make aquaculture more desirable ecologically, economically, and socially.  Building integrated aquaculture facilities that promote the use of alternative energy systems and green building design can help meet local demands for fish protein while also reducing the environmental footprint of aquaculture.  The integration of aquaculture into the built environment could assist in mitigating the energy use in traditional fish production facilities. Existing facilities waste a significant amount of energy by not taking advantage of the inherent synergies between aquaculture systems and building heating, cooling, and ventilation systems.  Coupling these design elements can improve water temperature stability, while also creating a more suitable temperature and humidity climate for workers.  The present study uses parametric energy modeling and building simulation tools to analyze several case studies of integrated systems.  Unique issues arising from the integration of aquaculture production and building systems that impact sustainability of both are identified and discussed. In doing so, the feasibility of using novel technologies and systems-thinking to fuse the biotic and built environments is discussed in terms of increasing production efficiencies, reducing environmental costs, and creating aesthetically and socially accepted models for locally-based aquaculture.  In conclusion, we propose design criteria and performance goals that insure building integrated aquaculture remains a more sustainable alternative to the industrial-scale production and transport of aquatic species from remote locations.