Jarvis Island
Terraform Project

The Jarvis Island Terraform Project is, perhaps, presumptive and a bit too grandiose for the real project that we propose. However, on a small scale, we believe it is not only possible, but within practical means to transform a small part of the island from a desert climate to one more like its northern and southern tropical neighbors. The key to this is, of course, water.

Water Budget Analysis for Jarvis Island

Month	Janurary	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December	TOTAL
LHV	102.58	88.4582	78.0125	81.558	87.4156	100.996	107.957	106.934	104.115	101.314	97.3291	102.37
Evaporation Rate	3.55	3.06	2.70	2.82	3.02	3.49	3.73	3.70	3.60	3.50	3.36	3.54
gallons/acre/day	3789.63	3267.93	2882.03	3013.01	3229.41	3731.11	3988.27	3950.48	3846.34	3742.86	3595.65	3781.87
inches/month	4.19	3.61	3.18	3.33	3.57	4.12	4.41	4.36	4.25	4.14	3.97	4.18	47.31
Precipitation Rate	3.26E-05	3.05E-05	4.60E-05	4.55E-05	2.49E-05	2.15E-05	1.68E-05	5.91E-06	5.12E-06	4.68E-06	9.33E-06	2.74E-05
kg/m2/d	2.82	2.64	3.97	3.93	2.15	1.86	1.45	0.51	0.44	0.40	0.81	2.37
gallons/acre/day	3010.87	2816.92	4248.46	4202.29	2299.71	1985.70	1551.61	545.84	472.87	432.24	861.70	2530.61
inches/month	3.33	3.11	4.69	4.64	2.54	2.19	1.71	0.60	0.52	0.48	0.95	2.80	27.58
Delta (inches)	(0.86)	(0.50)	1.51	1.31	(1.03)	(1.93)	(2.69)	(3.76)	(3.73)	(3.66)	(3.02)	(1.38)	(19.73)
Delta (gal/acre/day)	(778.76)	(451.01)	1366.44	1189.27	(929.70)	(1745.42)	(2436.66)	(3404.65)	(3373.47)	(3310.63)	(2733.95)	(1251.27)	(1757.52)

Date From US Weather Service - National Met. Center - NCEP Reanalysis Project

By examaning the above water analysis for Jarvis Island, one can readily see that its climatological evaporations rate exceeds its climatological precipitation rate in all but two months of the year. Obviously, this is why Jarvis island has a desert climate! This scant rainfall and whithering sun and heat, combined with near constant six to eight knot easterly winds, means that only scarce vegetation of low lying grasses and small shrubs can subsist. The soil itself, however, is fairly rich in organics and phosphates (it was, after all, mined for guano for many years) and is capable of sustaining a variety of larger and more advanced plants. This was demonstrated during the period of panala'au or colonization just prior to World War Two. The Hawaiian colonists were able to grow a variety of plants as long as they had adequate fresh water to work with.

And that's the big problem. As the water analaysis shows, Jarvis Island evaporates, on average, about 1750 gallons of water per acre per day more that it receives in the form of rain. Where to get that much extra water? Jarvis Island is, well, an island! It's surrounded by water! Unfortunately, it's all saline. Is there a affordable way to convert salt water to fresh water in adequate quantities. Actually, we believe there is.

The El Paso Solar Energy Association has developed an inexpensive, very easy to amintain (no moving parts) solar desalination and water purifiaction system. Information on this system can be found at their web-site which describes their Solar Water Purification Project. The system currently takes up slightly less than two square meters and produces a little over three gallons of fresh water per day. We believe, that with some added efficiencies this can be increased to about four gallons per day or about two gallons per day per square meter of footprint. Each of the devices costs approximately $200 to build. If bought in the quantities we propose the cost would be even less. In order to produce approximately 4,000 gallons of fresh water per day, a solar still farm of about 2000 square meters, or about 1000 small stills is required. Though this sound like quite a few, it is less than half an acre footprint and cost less than $20,000 to produce. Below is a picture of the solar still and a cut out of it's construction.



A- Base is 2X4 and plywood/osb
B- Insulate 4 sides and bottom w/polyisocianate
C- Waterproof membrane - 1st coat silicone
D- Fiberglass screen
E- Imbed screen into silicone
F- 2nd coat of silicone
G- 3rd coat of silicone
H- Side walls and trough(right) same steps w/white silicone and install fill/overflow and outlet tubing.

Getting water to the stills is also a fairly easy proposition. As mentioned, Jarvis Island enjoys near constant six to eight knot easterly winds. There are commercial windmills available today that can operate quite efficiently at these windspeeds. The Oasis 3® windmill, for instance, by WINDTech pumps in winds as low as 1 m/s (2 MPH), is capable of producing 363.400 Liters (96,000 gallons) a day and pumps water from as deep as 381 meters (1250) feet. A real plus since the water needs to be drawn from sea level over a distance ov several hundredfeet to the proposed still site. This is a top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art windmill and is priced accordingly (approximately $20,000 tp $25,000). Less efficient but adequate models could no doubt be found.

The saline water to be purified must be drawn to the still site through something. We beleive PVC pipe is the most economical and lowest maintenance answer. The fact that the plastic pipe is available in black and white also adds to the efficiency of the desalination operation. Water can be pumped to the stills in black PVC pipe, thus increasing its temperature before it even reaches the stills. Addtional efficiency can be achieved by drawing the water through a PVC pipe contained in a larger PVC pipe through which the very warm saline waste is flushed back to the sea. This heat exchange not only increases efficiency, it reduces local heat pollution substantially in the coral reef surrounding Jarvis Island. Although this is a more expensive initial proposition, the added efficiency and environmental benefits are substantial. The amount of PVC pipe required would be approximately 1000 feet of 2 inch diamter PVC white and 500 feet of four inch PVC black. Cost would be approximately $3,000. There would be other costs as well, for instance electronic valves and timers to periodically flush the stills of hot, concentrated saline and pump in fresh saline for desalination. This would necessitate solar cells to provide the requisite electricity to switch the valves and run the timing mechanism. These are farily minor cost though and the entire project (sans transportation and labor costs) would be considerably less than $50,000.



Above is the proposed site for the still farm and windmill as well as the logical location of "Jarvis Pond" at the lowest elevation on the island. From the water budget analysis it can be deduced that, once established the proposed still farm can sustain a pond of two to three acres. This, of course, will vary from month to month and during the late February to early May time period, Jarvis Pond could expand considerably. In fact, once larger vegetation was established, the tend would be towards further growth as the shade and wind break would lower the evaporation rate and encourage further expansion of the pond.

So it can be done. the next logical question would be "Why?" The glib answer would be "because we can" and this might actually have merit as this demonstrates a technology that could be used on other uninhabited islands that could be made habitable in the nations of Kiribati and Vanuatu. However, even on Jarvis Island there are practical benefits given its status as a natural wildlife refuge and bird sanctuary.

Prior to 1983 and their eradication, feral cats had practically eliminated the red-footed booby from Jarvis Island. A recent study has shown that the use of artificial nesting platforms was successful in providing red-footed boobies with useful alternatives to ground roosting (Red-footed Booby Use of Artificial Nesting Platforms, Mark J. Rauzon and Diane Drigot, 1999). The planting of trees that are acceptable to local and itinerant bird populations as well as climatologically adapted to the "Jarvis Pond microclimate" would actually increase the value of Jarvis Island as a wildlife refuge. One particularly good choice would be the kiawe tree. This deciduous, thorny tree grows up to 20 m tall. It overshadows other vegetation but also desiccates an area by using all available water. Deep root systems tap ground-water. There is no known disseminator of the seeds but kiawe has been planted in arid areas for shade and reforestation. The plant is found in arid regions on all islands between sea level and 700 m. In dry areas dense populations are found over subterranean water courses.

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