Planning Aquaculture Facilities

Planning Aquaculture Facilities

Introduction

Planning of aquaculture facilities, of whatever type, is a complicated process that requires much knowledge to achieve a good result. It is, for example, more difficult than planning a typical industrial production plant, such as for manufacturing metal parts. Aquaculture facilities involve living individuals. The production result depends, for instance, on the suitability of the tanks, water flow conditions and whether water quality meets the requirements of the individuals, whether fish or shellfish. Planning faults will reduce the performance of the individuals, which can be manifest as reduced growth or more frequent disease problems, for example.

The requirements for planning will vary according to the type of facility. The planning of a farm with one or a few excavated ponds is fairly simple. A rather more complex situation occurs when planning a land-based fish farm for indoor juvenile production. The planning will be even more complex if the farm is to include water re-use technology in addition to flow-through technology. Such complex planning tasks involve several fields of competence: for instance, sanitary, electrical, building and architectural. These are all technological, but because the production involves living organisms it is also necessary to have biological knowledge, for example of the optimal environmental growth condition for the fish. Since so many subjects are involved, planning is not simple to perform and a number of specialists will normally be involved, at least when planning larger farms.

A number of theories and methods have been introduced to optimize the planning process, especially for planning buildings and industrial facilities. Despite the biological aspects involved in the planning of aquaculture facilities, some of these basic theories and methods can be employed in addition to the important matters regarding aquaculture.