The Poetry of Survival: Why the White-throated Kingfisher is the Pulse of our Wetlands. 🕊️💎
In the serene oxbow lakes of Purbasthali, the White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) is a master of precision. Captured here in a moment of sheer “water poetry,” the bird explodes from the surface of Chupichar, every droplet telling a story of a successful hunt and a functional ecosystem.
🌿 Conservation Insight: The Generalist Auditor = This species is a “Keystone Auditor.” Unlike more specialized hunters, this kingfisher is a high-impact generalist. Its presence and hunting success—secured with a firm grip on its prey—demonstrates that the underlying food chain of the deltaic plains is still intact.
⚠️ The Pressing Threats:
Pesticide Bioaccumulation: As they hunt near agricultural fringes, these birds are highly susceptible to chemical runoff that accumulates in their fish prey.
Habitat Fragmentation: The conversion of seasonal wetlands into permanent agricultural land destroys the “buffer zones” these birds need for nesting.
Water Quality Decline: Pollution in Purbasthali’s lakes reduces visibility, making every high-energy dive a gamble for survival.
🤝 The Effort: Community-Led Stewardship Conservationists and local boatmen in Purbasthali are shifting toward Sustainable Eco-Tourism. By protecting nesting trees and advocating for organic farming near the water’s edge, we ensure the kingfisher remains a permanent fixture of our blue corridors.
🔗 Visual data is a catalyst for environmental policy. Read my full “Wetland Sentinels” report and view the 4K gallery on my blog here: 👉 Wildlife Photography For Conservation
The Turquoise Guardian: Why the White-throated Kingfisher is the Pulse of our Wetlands. 🕊️🦀
In the serene oxbow lakes of Purbasthali, the White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) is a master of versatility. Unlike its more specialized cousins, this kingfisher is a high-impact generalist, preying on everything from fish and frogs to crabs and large insects. This adaptability makes it a “Keystone Auditor” for the biodiversity of the deltaic plains.
🌿 Conservation Insight: The Generalist’s Dilemma Because these birds thrive in varied habitats, they are often overlooked in conservation priority lists. However, their position at the top of the minor food chain means they are the first to feel the impact of ecosystem collapse. A kingfisher with a successful catch is a sign of a functional, living wetland.
⚠️ The Pressing Threats:
Pesticide Bioaccumulation: As they hunt in agricultural fringes, they are highly susceptible to chemical runoff that accumulates in their prey.
Habitat Encroachment: The conversion of seasonal wetlands into permanent agricultural land or housing destroys the “buffer zones” these birds need for nesting and hunting.
Water Quality Decline: Pollution in Purbasthali’s oxbow lakes reduces the visibility of prey, making every hunt a high-energy struggle.
🤝 The Effort: Community-Led Wetland Stewardship Conservationists and local boatmen in Purbasthali are shifting toward Sustainable Eco-Tourism. By protecting nesting trees and advocating for organic farming near the water’s edge, we are ensuring that the kingfisher remains a permanent fixture of our blue corridors.
🔗 Visual data is a catalyst for environmental policy. Read my full “Wetland Sentinels” report and view the 4K gallery on my blog here: 👉
Honored to collaborate on the Edible Forest & Compost Hub at Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus Querétaro — an initiative led by Professor Margarita Pérez to foster circularity and sustainability within our campus. TEC Campus Querétaro
Under the guidance of Laura Sotelo from the Sustainability Program, and through the joint efforts of Architecture, Sustainable Development Engineering, PrepaTec, Campus Operations, and SEIAG, this project stands as a model of interdisciplinary design and environmental commitment.
Special thanks to Viviana Barquero, Ph.D., and Daniel Savedra for their support, and to our students Hugo Piña, Renata Frías, and Brenda Escárcega, as well as Professor Emilio Clarke Crespo and Tomás Mariscal, whose design and planting strategies brought this living system to life.
This initiative demonstrates how collaboration and design can turn academic ideas into regenerative spaces that inspire environmental education and a culture of sustainability.
Architecture: Hugo Piña, Renata Frías, Brenda Escárcega
IDS: Emilio Clarke Crespo, Tomás Mariscal Múnera
SEIAG: Danna Paola Castro García, Sebastián Sánchez Mendoza
PrepaTEC: Margarita Pérez González
Campus Operations: Laura Paola Sotelo Guerreo, Alejandra Gutiérrez Ortiz, Fernando Espinosa Martínez, José Alberto Girón Tapia, Adrián Basaldúa De Santiago
This Street Tech Drops City Temps Fast! #ResearchAwards #ScienceAwards #ScienceFather #Scifax.
Discover how nature-based cool pavement technologies cut urban heat in extreme climates — fast. This 40s Shorts breaks down permeable pavements, vegetated pavers, water-retentive surfaces, reflective coatings, and PCMs with before/after impact visuals for architecture students and urban planners. See real-world gains (10–16°F surface drops), eco and social benefits, and design tips for hot cities like Phoenix. Perfect for design critiques, studio research, and sustainable infrastructure briefs. Like and share if this helps your project—and visit architectureengineers.com🌐 to nominate your profile✅.
🌱 Road Salt and Bioretention: What Every Green Infrastructure Expert Needs to Know
🌿🌧️ This study explores how 🚗 road salt impacts plant health in bioretention systems in Toronto. Researchers measured salt levels in soil and plant tissues at 19 sites and found winter salt caused significant damage, especially in low-tolerance species like Hemerocallis. Despite no seasonal salt buildup, legacy salt caused lasting harm. ⚠️ Species differed in how much sodium/chloride they absorbed. The study highlights the need to select 🧬 salt-tolerant plants for long-term 🌱 green infrastructure success.
Let’s plant mangroves everywhere! These climate superheroes protect coastlines, reduce flooding, absorb carbon, and help us adapt to rising seas. 🌊🌱
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GIF shows a tree-like plant with roots sticking out above water—yes, it looks like a mangrove, especially a species like the red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) which has aerial “prop roots” that extend above the water
Transforming an eroded lot into a water-catching micro-park is possible. Through low-impact design, we turned neglect into ecological, social, and urban value. Small spaces, big results.
Green infrastructure starts at home. Through rain gardens, vegetated gutters, swales, and retention ponds, we turn runoff into a resource: we recharge soils, water plants, and prevent flooding. On a residential scale, every drop counts.
The best technology already exists: it’s called nature. Nature-Based Solutions integrate design with ecology - from resilient urban parks and green roofs to integrated water systems and community spaces. All designed to inhabit the climate, reconnect with the environment, and regenerate the city from within.
Showcasing nature-based solutions in Cobh, Ireland
Totally forgot to share this project from last year, but looking back on it i’m really quite proud of it. Working in partnership with Glasgow-based arts organisation, WAVEparticle, we made this short documentary for Cork County Council’s Urban design team on using a rain garden (a nature-based solution) to weave nature back into the town with the aim of reducing flood risks, enhancing water quality, fostering biodiversity, and improving the built environment.
Haste Ye Back! That’s what we said in June 2023 to Blue Tech Forum and they did it!
Blue Tech Forum, a Global Industry event that brings together leading water technology companies, visionary entrepreneurs, resourceful investors, and esteemed researchers from top institutions came back to Edinburgh this month (June 2024), along with others from across the Globe. This year’s Event was themed on Innovation in Action & our Innovation leads, Deryck Irving & David Millar have reflected on their time this year attending BlueTech Forum at the Assembly Room in Edinburgh. Find out what they enjoyed about the 2024 BlueTech Forum and their take-aways from the 2 day event.
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David reflects on his second year attending BlueTech, noting that again this year the 2 days were filled with fantastic networking opportunities, social events, tours, as well as engaging speakers, panels and workshop sections.
In my experience, many of the industry focused conferences miss the mark in terms of the value they add to participants, tending to end up in naval gazing instead of demonstrating true transformational progress. I’m delighted that hasn’t been my experience with the BlueTech Forum, which is a must attend for anyone working in the water space.
The audience at this event is international, with delegates coming from all corners of the world and from a variety of sectors, including water companies, industrial consumers, technology companies, regulators, governments, local authorities, start-ups, scale-ups, investors and academics. In addition to breadth of experience, insights and challenges we also had large corporates in attendance including Apple, Coca Cola, Xylem, Yokogawa, Microsoft, Unilever to namedrop a few.
It truly was a meeting of providers and large-scale consumers, all with the same challenges and all trying to accelerate innovation forward.
One take away for me was a presentation from Professor Kong Jian Yu from China whose business specialises in blue green infrastructure design and implementation. He gave numerous examples of projects in China that are transforming the landscape and protecting land and people for the changing weather – really inspirational to see.
Another take away for me was the ever-increasing challenge around hard to treat compounds such as PFAS and pharmaceuticals. These compounds are going to receive increasing scrutiny, and water companies will have to find and implement testing and treatment solutions for these at scale. Luckily, there are several pioneering start-ups offering solutions in this space and a number of them were presenting at this forum.
Finally, I had the pleasure of being a ‘Expert Conversations Starter’ on one of the many focused discussion tables during day 2. I was supporting a table Chair with 3 x 60 minute sessions on the topic of Fit for Purpose Water. This topic is about how water is used and the quality that is needed for those different uses. As an example, in the UK we flush our toilets with high quality drinking water that has been expensive to treat – this is extremely wasteful. During these sessions, we heard perspectives from around the world and discussed various options for recycling water in households and within industry. Consideration was given to the drivers and barriers to recycling of water, and the various regulatory climates that impact this. My takeaway from a Scottish perspective is how do we motivate and incentivise the public to care about their water usage? Domestic usage is the biggest consumer of water in Scotland, and therefore provides the largest opportunity to recycle water and reduce usage. However, a common public perception is we have an abundant supply of water in Scotland, so why should people be inconvenienced to reduce their usage if there is no real driver to do so? We don’t meter domestic supply in Scotland, it’s a standard charge on our council tax based on house size. So, if I want recycle water in my home, for example using shower or rainwater to flush toilets, I have to fund this myself, possibly costing thousands of pounds, with no return. I will not receive any reduction in my water bill for this investment, but I will feel like a good citizen for using water more efficiently. Just feeling better about water usage isn’t a big enough lever to make a real difference, we need better incentives, policy change and financial support to implement the widely available solutions to this challenge. Further discussion and debate to be had on that topic for sure.
Next up is Deryck Irving, who attended the second day of Blue Tech Forum 2024:
Picking up the baton from David, I was also hugely inspired by Professor Kong Jian Yu and his call for us all to commit to creating (recreating) a ‘Sponge Planet’ where nature-based solutions are at the heart of urban form and rural and coastal land use. I was only able to attend the second day of the conference and was leading one the topic discussions – focused on nature-based solutions. My three sessions were well attended and participants came from all the sectors that David has already outlined.
What was fascinating was the remarkable degree of agreement on priorities, challenges and opportunities.
There was a universal recognition that we need to think and work more holistically, looking at whole systems, but that to achieve this, we must build multi-partner, multi-perspective approaches which focus on connections and opportunities (not barriers and constraints). Alongside this approach, we need to change mindsets and behaviours in relation to water. Doing so will require data and modelling to build credibility and the use of more inclusive language and ways of working to build trust and engagement.
Two suggestions that have stuck with me from the discussions are:
Our key message must be that Water is Climate, Biodiversity, Wellbeing, Social Justice etc. (we experience these challenges through water and will find solutions through water too) and secondly, that we need to create a catalyst to make the necessary change happen. This must be systems based – how about creating a Task Force for Scotland, starting by recruiting the biggest corporate users of water?
Are we up for this challenge?
What are your thoughts? Did you attend Blue Tech Forum 2024, if so, what was your takeaway?
To reach out to David or Deryck for further discussion please do get in touch with them via our dedicated programme email address, hydronation[@]stir.ac.uk
📸 Thanks to BlueTech Research for the photos included in this blog as taken at Blue Tech Forum
IIT Roorkee in association with Department of Science and Technology, Government of India is organising Capacity and Public Policy for Climate and Disaster Resilience: Integrating Nature Based Solutions on 27 November 2023.
Nature-based Solutions leverage nature and the power of healthy ecosystems to protect people, optimise infrastructure and safeguard a stable and biodiverse future.
