Principles of Aquaponics: The Circular Food Production System

3 Credits

In the last few years, aquaponics has attracted a lot of attention around the globe, especially in the context of urban farming. This course addresses the question: how does an aquaponics system work and what knowledge is needed to successfully run an aquaponic system? The different parts of this course will give the students an understanding of important topics in the field of aquaponics and develop a broad knowledge base: from water chemistry, fish and plant physiology, to engineering and microbiology and show them how to plan and design such a sustainable production system. Aquaponics is a technique that combines aquaculture (fish farming) and hydroponics (soil-less plant cultivation) in a circulatory system with the aim of recycling nutrients from fish farming wastewater. Also, aquaponics can serve as a learning model for inter-and transdisciplinary thinking and acting.