Environmental research

Energy is commonly regarded as a key driver of development. Absence of stable and reliable sources of energy results in inability to sustain basic functions of different institutions. Plus, reliance on outdated and obsolete source of energy leads to its inefficient use and unnecessary emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere. In its turn, the greenhouse emissions play the major role in climate change on the planet - a problem all global community is highly concerned with nowadays. Unfortunately, many people in Uzbekistan are not aware of the greenhouse emissions` dangerous implications and how and why energy should be used sustainably. The majority of the country`s population is still using inefficient and outdated energy equipment, which emits huge amounts of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere. The citizens are also not aware of the extent, to which the climate change, will affect their lives. To showcase to what extent our normal well-being depend on availability of reliable energy and how the GHGs emissions may adversely affect our lives, it is necessary to demonstrate how simply switch from outdated and old-fashioned gas and electric equipment to new energy-efficient ones can improve our everyday activities. It is very important to educate people and to show them that new technologies can well be user friendly, cost effective and improve everyday operations of institutions, households and etc by certain modifications of the energy systems on ground levels. One of the best ways to promote this is to demonstrate new energy efficient equipment`s practicability and effectiveness on an example of a social object which is frequently visited by people. Such demonstration should vividly depict how energy efficiency can result in cost effectiveness and provide an opportunity for an institute where the technology is tested to fulfill its functions in the best possible manner. It should serve as a visual object for all people, who may be interested in improve their energy consumption of production processes. In addition, the social object will carry out a great educational part - it will help to form the environmentally conscious state of mind. For this particular purpose the botanic greenhouse of the Samarkand State University can serve as a perfect social object. The greenhouse has enormous scientific and educational importance. However, due to its obsolete energy infrastructure it can not properly fulfill its main function - to educate people on the importance of biodiversity and its components and serve as a base for scientific research for many botanists of Uzbekistan. In fact, the idea of the project started from a visit to the greenhouse and discussions of how the greenhouse could deliver its functions more effectively and embrace more people if only it would have been energy efficient and had a reliable and thought through energy infrastructure. The greenhouse was built in 1969. It has a unique collection of various plants collected from major botanic gardens of the former Soviet Union. This collection was one of the best among the greenhouse collections of Central Asian Universities during the Soviet period. For this reason, the Samarkand State University greenhouse has been and keeps being a good research base for many students and scientists. The other principal objective of the greenhouse has always been to broaden the knowledge of Uzbekistan citizens of the importance of the biodiversity, plants and its role in sustaining ecosystem which gives life and important ecological functions to human population. Although the greenhouse has always been open to everybody: schoolchildren, students, guests this function has been poorly exploited. Right now many students of the Biology Faculty continue to conduct their research work and regular class assignments at the greenhouse. However, the greenhouse and plants, growing there, are having hard times. Due to the fact that the its heating system does not work and insulation of the green house has not been renovated from the time of its first construction, the temperature inside the greenhouse is not stable - it fells down to 0 in winter and rises to + 35 in summer. The unstable temperature affects the plants severely - they simply die. The collection used to have about 500 tropical plant species, right now the number decreased to 250 species. The number of species in the collection has fallen twice and keeps decreasing. According to the botanists, the normal temperature for the tropical plants should be on average + 20 (no less than + 15 and no more than + 25 ). To keep the temperature inside the greenhouse stable, to conduct proper scientific researches by students and scientists, to admit visitors and educate them on biodiversity functions, the greenhouse needs a proper energy system. Because of the unstable energy supply and inability to keep more or less constant collection of plants, educational function of the green house has almost been lost and needs to be restored. Half of the greenhouse plants do not have identification cards. Out of 250 species, only about 100 have kept their identification and description. The greenhouse neither has a comprehensive catalogue of its collection. The excursions that take place now are not conducted in the easy-to understand manner and more scientifically inclined. This makes the excursions not very interesting for wide audience and they do not bear solid educational aspect. The overa

Uzbekistan