East Deccan dry evergreen forests

I decided that the evergreen dry forests in East Deccan Plateau to be my research site. I am trying to set up a system which will solve the ecological problems in a microenvironment, as is shown in the final work.

The East Deccan dry evergreen forests are an ecoregion of southeastern India. The ecoregion includes the coastal region behind the Coromandel Coast on the Bay of Bengal, between the Eastern Ghats and the sea. It covers eastern Tamil Nadu state and southeastern Andhra Pradesh state.
Setting
The East Deccan dry evergreen forests cover lie in the rain shadow of the Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats, which block the rain-bearing summer southwest monsoon. Rainfall averages 800 mm/year, and mostly falls during the highly variable northeast monsoon between October and December.
The ecoregion covers an area of 25,500 square kilometers (9,800 square miles), extending from Ramanathapuram District of Tamil Nadu to Nellore District of Andhra Pradesh. Much of the ecoregion is densely settled, and has been substantially altered by human activity, including agriculture, grazing, and forestry, over the centuries. The ecoregion is home to the metropolis of Chennai (Madras), and a number of other cities, including Pondicherry, Thanjavur, Kanchipuram and Nellore. It is estimated that 95% of the original forest cover has been cleared, and the species composition of the remaining forests have been altered by intensive human use.
Unlike most of the world's tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, whose trees tend to lose their leaves during the dry season to conserve moisture, the East Deccan dry evergreen forests retain their leaves year round. Only two other ecoregions exhibit a similar pattern, the Sri Lanka dry-zone dry evergreen forests and the Southeastern Indochina dry evergreen forests.
Flora
The original vegetation of the ecoregion consisted of forests with an understory of evergreen trees and an emergent canopy of taller deciduous trees, including Sal (Shorea robusta), Albizia amara and Chloroxylon spp. Intensive human use of the forests over the centuries has mostly eliminated the deciduous canopy species, and the ecoregion's remaining forests are now characterized by areas of leathery-leaved evergreen forest, with a relatively low (10-meter) closed canopy. Predominant species are Manilkara hexandra, Mimusops elengi, ebony (Diospyros ebenum), Strychnine tree (Strychnos nux-vomica), Eugenia spp., Drypetes sepiaria, and Flacourtia indica. A few small enclaves of deciduous Sal forest exist, but are under intensive human pressure.
Only five percent of the ecoregion remains in forest, which is found in isolated pockets. Most of the ecoregion's forests have been degraded into tropical dry evergreen scrublands, characterized by thorny species such as Ziziphus glabarrima, Dicrostachys cinerea, Randia dumetorum, and Carissa spinarum.
Protected areas
Less than one percent of the ecoregion lies in reserves or protected areas. The Marakanam Reserve Forest, a sacred grove near Marakkanam, northwest of Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu, preserves a section of evergreen closed canopy forest. Several other temple groves in the surrounding area, including Puthupet, Pillaichavadi, Mudaliarchavadi, and Kottakarai, preserve small enclaves of forest. The Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary protects a 17.26 km². enclave of dry evergreen forest, as well as tidal wetlands and mangroves. Other preserves in the region include Vettangudi Bird Sanctuary (30 km²) in Sivaganga District of Tamil Nadu, and Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary (160 km²) on Pulicat Lake in Nellore District of Andhra Pradesh.


MOISTURE-TRIGGERED RESPONSIVE SYSTEM




Cited from Wikipedia

Butterfly Effect Object

After careful consideration, I decided to focus on moisture as my topic. The core idea of "the butterfly effect" here means significant results can occur when tiny changes accumulate together bit by bit. Moisture collected from transpiration is cooled down consistently and when the amount of water thus transformed accumulates to a certain extent, the living conditions of forest may change accordingly.

Time-Based Model

After reference to some cases, I managed to use my own way to conduct dialogues with the environment. The forms of diaglogues include not only visible forms but also some hard-to-sense properties such as humidity, electromagnetic property, PH indexes and photosynthesis, etc.


The main components of the system is the digital cable which can transmit the information. Moreover it is very strong that can be hung on the tree to endure the gravity.



The system sustains itself in the swamp, at the same time helping humans explore deeper secrets of the swamps which are normally out of reach.




The system is self-fuelled to sustain the entire operation, thus mininumizing its impact on the environment.

Electromagnetic spectrum (Extract from wikipedia)

The electromagnetic (EM) spectrum is the range of all possible electromagnetic radiation frequencies.[1] The "electromagnetic spectrum" (usually just spectrum) of an object is the characteristic distribution of electromagnetic radiation from that particular object.
The electromagnetic spectrum extends from below the frequencies used for modern radio (at the long-wavelength end) through gamma radiation (at the short-wavelength end), covering wavelengths from thousands of kilometres down to a fraction the size of an atom. It is thought that the short wavelength limit is in the vicinity of the Planck length, and the long wavelength limit is the size of the universe itself (see physical cosmology), although in principle the spectrum is infinite and continuous.

Christian Kerrigan (Extract from AVATAR)

3 PICNIC DRAWINGS

The recording model of curved surfaces is adopted in the "three picnic drawings". It records traces of changes of the environment and human activities during these picnics. Moreover, the traces it takes down into the record correspond perfectly with the environment.



This picture displays how textures evolute while at the same time expresses the idea that when humans become involved in some particular activities, the environment itself changes accordingly.



This picture reveals the essence of swamps, which is that it conceals truth. Here I try to use narrative language to depict the crises hidden in this environment.



The elements shown repetitively in this picture are the root, the log and of course, as well as the third party constantly involving in such activities, human-beings, thus forming dialogues among human, log(artificial objects) and nature.

TIME-BASED OBJECT

This object was originally designed to record a piece of music, yet I realized that this type of model is a perfect method to record the changes and incidents taken place in a certain period of time.



Music is an art of time as well as the rhythm. This model is trying to record a piece of music by the way of space. The height of the curve's nodes stand for the "do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti" respectively.

"AGILE" DRAWINGS

The "agile" drawing of the cliff: There are two main issues about the cliff. One is how to "live" on the steep cliff, while the other is how to utilize the wind power through the cliff. In the drawing i create a system hung on the cliff which can use the wind power to send the aircrafs to different parts of the cliff along the cables.


The "agile" drawing of the swamp: What makes me the most interested is how things like the leech can walk on the swamp. So i make the creepy machine based on the analysis of the construction of the leech. It walks by the way of constringing its parenchyma and then releasing it backward to use the counterforce from the mud to pull it foreward.


The "agile" drawing of the forest: In this drawing i create a water assembling machine which collect the vapour from the baranches enwrapped by the plastic bag.

NINE LEADING IDEAS

1. My core idea of the research is to find an artificial environment resolution to technology which is based on the interspecific relationship in an ecosystem.
2. Technologies based on natural elements, or imitating natural processes, are no guarantee of health, sustainability, or even biodiversity. It's a way of design according to botanical principles.
3. The project will try to establish a large-scale, responsive building environment, which responds to strictly derived, pre-determined dynamic user parameters and pattern.
4. The idea of re-distribution of space and programs is based on a series of behaviours: From Replacing, Fissuring, Extending to Combining, Sharing and Transforming.
5. Focussing on interaction and interspecific relations among items. e.g. Butterfly Effect.
6. Performing the task of creating a space of illusion by forming another real perfect space.
7. Juxtaposition between the facility and environment
8. Moving machines introducing the dimension of time
9. Non-Linear,Diagrammatic, Parametricand and topological design
9. design