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Climate Risk Management for Manitoba:

Biomass + Phosphorus + Carbon Harvesting Case Study

April 4th, 2023

ManSEA Annual Conference – Morden, MB

Hank Venema, PhD, P.Eng. CEO and Senior Engineer

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Our Team�Analytics and design for climate resilience and water security

Jeetpal Singh

Full-stack Developer

Matt Sebesteny

Geospatial Analytics

Patrick Lee

Engineering Software

Andrew Murray, E.I.T.

Hydraulics

Andrew Tefs, E.I.T.

Hydrology

Scott Pokorny, E.I.T.

Water Resources

Hank Venema, Ph.D P.Eng

CEO and Senior Engineer

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Climate Risk ManagementA New Field of Enterprise Risk Management�

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Climate Risk ManagementA New Field of Enterprise Risk Management�

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Greenhouse

Gasses

Resilience

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Climate Risk ManagementA New Field of Enterprise Risk Management�

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Greenhouse

Gas

Mitigation

Increasing

Resilience

“Nature-Based Solutions”

“Natural Infrastructure”

Greenhouse

Gas

Mitigation

Increasing

Resilience

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What We Do is Data Driven�Analytics and design for climate risk management

LiDAR

Satellite Imagery

Global Climate Models

Analytics and Design with High Performance Compute

Engineered Water Security

Via Natural Infrastructure

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Data, Analytics and Design �for the Full Ecosystem Package – stack it up

LiDAR

Remote Sensing

Global Climate Models

Analytics and Design with High Performance Compute

Engineered Water Security

Regenerative Agriculture

Ecological BioEnergy

Phosphorus interception and

Re-Use

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Why Phosphorus? �Planetary Boundaries

P Planetary boundary requires policy focus and management innovation

Global ban on CFC production (reliant on technical innovation)

Reliant on GHG market instruments, ie for renewable energy

Reliant on MEAs; ie Convention on Biodiversity

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RM of Rosser Case Study

Case Study:

The Rural Municipality of Rosser and Grant’s Lake

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LiDAR for Natural Infrastructure �Systems Design

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DitchFinder Application

  • Originally conceived as a ditch harvesting program based on “linear natural infrastructure” concept and Manitoba project precedents.

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Rosser Ditch Network Analysis� (using 1m LiDAR)

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LiDAR for high-res hydrographic analysis

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Upstream catchment areas delineated at sub-acre scale

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We map the flow transitions for estimating phosphorus export

Sheet to Shallow Concentrated Flow

Channelized Flow

With hydro-conditioning (culverts)

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Introducing

A 1m LiDAR-based Canadian nutrient mobility model

1200 g TP m2/year

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for P load analysis

3.4 t/year Phosphorus

Free resource for interception and re-use

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Harvesting Cattail (Typha) as a Phosphorus, Biomass and Carbon Net Zero Crop

End Use = Space Heating

End Use = BioChar

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Treatment Process

Cost ($/kg P)

Stormwater Retrofit

$ 1,700

Tertiary Treatment (Membrane Filtration)

$ 45,000

Quaternary Treatment (Reverse Osmosis)

$ 100,000

Agricultural Management Practices

$ 4 - $270

2021 Rosser Biomass Harvest

$ 541

2021 Rosser Biomass Harvest

(net of energy benefit)

Harvest cost / kg: $ 541

Value of 2857 kg biomass as energy.@0.035% P:-$ 1214.90

= -$ 673

Fully loaded harvest cost= $40/bale

Heat content value = $80/bale

Profitable Method of Phosphorus Phyto-extraction cheap, local, “premium” renewable energy

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Proposal (Jan 2022): re-develop Grant’s Lake as Natural Infrastructure

  • Grant’s Lake would be a key feature of Sturgeon Watershed Master Plan (Redboine Watershed District)

  • Combines Flood protection + Drought Protection + Biomass Production (water quality)

  • Analogous to Pelly’s Lake (award-winning NI project also developed by Redboine Watershed District)

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Grant’s Lake Hydraulics��Spring Flood

Sturgeon Creek Outflow

(to Winnipeg)

Sturgeon Creek

East Inflow

Sturgeon Creek

West Inflow

Grant’s Lake

Sturgeon Control Structure

(closed during flood)

Grant’s Lake Control

(open for filling)

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Sturgeon Creek Outflow

(to Winnipeg)

Sturgeon Creek

East Inflow

Sturgeon Creek

West Inflow

Grant’s Lake

Sturgeon Control Structure

(open)

Grant’s Lake Control

(closed to retain water)

Grant’s Lake Hydraulics��Summer

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Sturgeon Creek Outflow

(to Winnipeg)

Sturgeon Creek

East Inflow

Sturgeon Creek

West Inflow

Grant’s Lake

Sturgeon Control Structure

(open)

Grant’s Lake Hydraulics��Fall

Grant’s Lake Control

(open for fall dewatering, or earlier for drought mitigation)

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Grant’s Lake Spin-Off Projects

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Grant’s Lake Spin-off #1 – horticulture

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Grant’s Lake Spin-off #2 – climate technology

Biochar =

Designer organic fertilizer + carbon sequestration

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CarbonLock: “Typha is the best-performing biochar feedstock”

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Spin-off #3 – satellite imaging

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Securitized Water Quality (P) Credits �via low cost lab sampling and remote sensing

Satellite

Imaging for

Monitoring,

Validation,

Logistics

  • Lab Result: ($40/sample) Typha = 0.164% phosphorus by mass
  • Satellite Imaging: proves Typha/Phosphorus removed via harvesting from the Lake Winnipeg Basin
  • = Bullet-proof audit trail for WQT credits - vastly more secure non-point P credit than conventional BMPs

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”Greening” CentrePort

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Shown here is the RM of Rosser (brown), the building inventory picked up by the Microsoft AI Building Database (pink) and the ‘core’ Rosser buildings (orange)��The total building area is 47.9 Ha and the core area is 10.28 Ha

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Grant’s Lake

CentrePort

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The core building area was semi-arbitrarily selected, to include the area of highest tax-base as well as the main economic hub of the RM. many of the largest buildings in the RM are also in this area��Applying a 1.14 GJ/m2 * 74.79% efficiency figure onto the core area of 10.28 Ha gave an approximate demand of 74,261 GJ per year��

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CentrePort:

~75,000 GJ/year

~$500k / year

heating costs

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This ditch productivity estimation method originally was done for the RM of Rosser��The area for the RM of Rosser, plus major watersheds running within it amount to about 6,168 hectares��Some of this area, namely the northwest and extreme southeast areas fall outside of the WMR

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Grant’s Lake

CentrePort

Rosser

Sturgeon

Watershed

Rosser linear wetland energy supply =~ 135,000 GJ/year

~2x CentrePort demand

Rosser + upstream watershes

= ~ 350,000 GJ/year

~4.5x CentrePort Demand

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A new agro-climate technology�Workflow Summary

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Data and Algorithms

Public 1m LiDAR-derived DEMs

Public 30m AAFC Annual Crop Inventory for phosphorus loading coefficients

Open source AWS code

3.4 t/year Total Phosphorus Load

Site Prospecting and

Hydraulic Design

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�Precision Natural Infrastructure

Satellite Imagery

Conventional Harvesting Equipment

Harvest Site

phosphorus-dense,

energy-dense,

carbon-dense

high-tensile strength

ecological feedstock

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Feedstock to Proven End-Uses

phosphorus-dense,

energy-dense,

carbon-dense

high-tensile strength

ecological feedstock

Horticulture, packaging

District Energy

Organic fertilizer,

Carbon sequestration

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Q. How Big is the Resource Base ?

A. Big

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…estimating just the ditch resource

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A close-up of the entire drains network. Pictured is the Sturgeon Drain and PTH 221, just west of the town of Rosser.

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provincial “linear wetlands” resource

~142,000 km

~200 PJ

~ $1b/year free energy resource

Exploiting this resource:

  • removes phosphorus
  • reduces GHGs
  • Improves water management

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Let’s brainstorm and execute

Analytics and design for climate resilience and water security

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