Honorable Mention

Summary

PeñaBlanca is a town of livestock activities where the breeding of goats is the main source of income in the area. In this context, a study was carried out on the current problem of forage shortage for goats in the PeñaBlanca area, IV Region, Chile. This study was the beginning of the project Artificial Transhumance. We sought to address the opportunity to use an existing natural resource to counteract the impact of drought on small livestock producers. Artificial Transhumance captures mist that will be used for the irrigation of fodder, considering that the strongest impact for these producers is the death of livestock due to lack of fodder.

This design is based on the economy of livestock breeders, who base their lives on raising animals. A low-cost structure and project were created by adapting to the daily process of these breeders.

It seeks to impact the economy of a community in the north of Chile, that is cutting off due to climate changes. Villages and the cultural inheritance of this precious process of raising livestock are disappearing. That is why we focused on rescuing existing resources in that area, to insert an innovative system that positively influences their economy and lifestyle.

Design Process

By studying the climatic behavior of the area, we discovered that we could take advantage of thE fog, as when it is captured it becomes water, and that at the same time it could irrigate a specific area for forage plantations.

We carried out a deep investigation, where we concluded that there are about 350 goats in that area that require food to be able to produce milk. These goats eat 1.5kg of food daily. 1.5 Kg of forage comes out of 5 square meters daily. Each square meter needs 0.8 liters of water daily and can be eaten for a maximum of 3 days before it deteriorates due to the passage of animals.

Therefore, we created various stations, where the breeder has a zone planning calendar, in which each area will have the necessary food for the 350 goats for 3 days. After this, it will have to go to the next one and thus follow the plan. Secondly, we studied the amount of water needed by each station, to calculate the square meters of mesh to capture the exact amount of water. We concluded that each square meter of mesh captures approximately 6 liters per day, and each fog catcher has 350 square meters of mesh. Finally, results showed that 120 fog catchers were needed for the entire project. With this information, we designed the structure, which would enable water to be distributed on the ground, reaching the final form, of Artificial Transhumance.