THE USE OF VETIVER TO RAISE THE BANKS OF THE UFENTE RIVER: A NATURAL, EFFICIENT AND LOW COST SOLUTION
B.Castorina, Latium Vetiver
ORGANIZATION OF THE PRESENTATION
ORGANIZATION OF THE PRESENTATION
3. Discussion of the the importance of overcoming resistance to solutions with Vetiver:
PROJECT BACKGROUND
The Ufente River is located within the Agro Pontino Reclamation:
Here is a map with the regions of Italy
In red the area where the intervention is planned
Here is a map with the regions of Italy
In red the area where the intervention is planned
The engineering choice made at the time of creating the Agro Pontino Reclamation:
However, in a stretch of the Ufente River, embankments have been lowered by more than a meter creating a high risk of flooding in nearby lands, causing economic and social damage
August 1991
On the left, the collapse of the bank of the Ufente River
On the right, detail of the fracture
The problem of the lowering of the banks of the Ufente river due to subsidence movements has a long and troubled history:
In 2021, Latium Vetiver presented a Project that was accepted and included in the River Contracts in 2022 and is awaiting funding, including:
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The Project involves:
The Project exploits the principle that the new Vetiver shoots always emerge at ground level, creating a continuum with the lower layers
The Ready-to-use Vetiver Hedge is produced in the Latium Vetiver Nursery, as follows:
The individual plants are placed in a plastic frame lined with a natural material filled with soil and Vetiver leaves.
After 3 months, the plants are removed from the frame along with the lining holding the soil, the leaves and the plants.
At this point, the roots of the plants have intertwined, forming a single element.
Since the roots have been restricted, when they are released from the frame, they rapidly expand stretching downward into the soil of the ground (the Rapid Rooting System).
Ready-to-use Hedge produced in the Latium Vetiver nursery
In the first phase of the Project:
In the second phase after 6 months:
The roots of the hedges of the first layer will continue to stretch downwards while the new shoots will emerge 60 cm higher, as Vetiver always grows back to ground level.
The roots of the new hedges will cross the layer of soil previously laid, forming a continuum between the two layers.
In the third phase after 6 more months: new layer added in the same way as the second.
In just 18 months the embankments will be raised by 90 cm.
In addition to raising the banks,
the Ready-to-use Vetiver Hedge simultaneously performs the functions of consolidation and total protection:
the roots perform the function of the brackets in reinforced concrete beams, making the embankment a continuous beam which, resting on the more solid parts of the bottom, prevents the embankment from lowering where the bottom is weaker,
while the leaves form a protective filtering barrier.
The Project also provides for collaboration with the University (including a study grant and a doctorate) as the intervention requires high-precision equipment to verify:
DISCUSSION
Vetiver for environmental remediation was little known in Italy until the final years of the last century.
A great deal of awareness-raising work needed to be done by firms like Latium Vetiver, operating since that time.
There has been strong resistence by engineers to the use of Vetiver for slope consolidation, particularly in emergency situtations.
This was the case of a Project for the town of Monterotondo, near Rome, in 2006:
An environmental engineering intervention collapsed, shifting downward and dragging with it part of the road below a settlement of public housing.
Monterotondo The environmental engineering intervention that caused the collapse of the road in front of public housing
Latium Vetiver was consulted along with a local engineering firm, which was against the use of Vetiver, maintaining that a technology based on plants was not safe to use in an emergency situation.
Latium Vetiver convinced the township and the engineering consultants, by inventing a mixed system, which it called Integrated Environmental Architecture, comprised of traditional engineering practices and the use of Vetiver Technology.
For a Project in 2012, Latium Vetiver utilized a new element, the Vetiver Hedge Simulator, within its system of Integrated Environmental Architecture, which I myself created as an Architect.
The Project was to consolidate a slope following a landslide on private property owned by an engineer in Morlupo, a town near Rome.
For the Vetiver Hedge Simulator (VHS), elements constructed off-site simulated the effects of the hedge grown on site from the moment they were put in place.
To construct the VHS, sheets of welded mesh are cut forming open squares and the long Vetiver leaves are woven into the open spaces to simulate the effects of the hedge as a filtering barrier. (For a detailed description of the construction of the VHS, see the paper submitted for this Conference.)
Integrated Environmental Architecture
Vetiver Hedge Simulator with individual Vetiver plants behind it, on a slope after two months (Morlupo)
Integrated Environmental Architecture
Vetiver Hedge Simulator with individual Vetiver plants behind it, on a slope after six months (Morlupo)
Below are schematic drawings showing the Vetiver Hedge Simulator (VHS), which can be used by placing behind it the individual Vetiver plants at a distance of 20 cm apart,
or in alternative the ready-to-use Vetiver hedge with the Rapid Rooting System (RRS).
The irrigation system is also indicated, since it is necessary for the first months in order to accelerate the development of the plants.
Vertical view
Horizontal view
Frontal view
A week after the work was completed, a cloudburst caused a ‘water bomb’ at the site, but no damage was done.
About 10 days later, there was a second ‘water bomb’, which confirmed that the system was working.
The intervention in Morlupo with our Vetiver Hedge Simulator
These experiences were followed by a series of projects using also the Ready-to-use Vetiver Hedge.
It gave us the idea to present a Project with the Ready-to-use Vetiver Hedge to solve the problem of raising the banks of the Ufente River, which is the subject of this presentation.
In this case too, the construction companies which participated and some of the environmentalists present opposed the use of Vetiver, pointing out that it is not a native plant.
My reply:
- Since the lands of the Agro Pontino Reclamation were constructed and are not natural areas, nothing is indigenous to them.
- Vetiver was not being used as an ornamental plant, but for its efficiency and uniqueness in solving that specific environmental problem.
- My ‘Rule of Three’ for the Use of Non-native Plants:
1) That they be useful for the intended purpose. In this specific case, Vetiver was indispensable.
2) That they not be invasive. And the Monto quality we grow is sterile.
3) That they can be eliminated without resorting to polluting systems. And to eliminate Vetiver, manual (or at most mechanical) systems are sufficient. Furthermore, the uprooted Vetiver can be separated, obtaining a multiplication of the original plants.
In 2021, the initiative of the Lazio Region to activate the River Contracts was an opportunity to present the Project for raising the embankments.
The Consortium was convinced of the plan presented by Latium Vetiver to resolve the problem implementing the Rapid Rooting System and the Ready-to-use Vetiver Hedge.
CONCLUSIONS
Objectives of this Presentation were:
3. To suggest ways of overcoming resistances to the use of Vetiver by explaining Vetiver Technology and using the ‘Rule-of-Three’ for Non-native Plants
4. To make the uses of Vetiver known to students in related fields: for example, via courses like the one I taught on Vetiver for Soil Reclamation in the Department of Agricultural and Agro-Industrial Economics at the University of Cassino.
5. To encourage collaboration with Universities and Research Centers:
6. To explore innovative uses of Vetiver: the production of green methane or biomass, the direct removal of CO2 from the atmosphere, etc.
The Fundamental Mission: to make all these possibilities for Vetiver use known in a convincing way
- in the private and public sectors,
-to young people studying to become the experts of the future
who are generally open to innovation,
who have no interests of their own to defend,
who are interested in tackling the problems caused by climate change with passion and commitment
VETIVER THANKS
YOU!
Latium Vetiver di Benito Castorina
Via Savuto, 38. Aprilia (LT) - Italy