Category: Students

Posts written by students

Huge energy potential in open ocean wind farms in the North Atlantic

Quite honestly, before finding this article I didn’t know wind turbines could be installed anywhere that wasn’t onshore. It turns out that if wind farms are installed on the open ocean, even more energy can be generated than from onshore wind farms.

This is the case due to the heat in the atmosphere that pours out into the North Atlantic ocean, during the winter especially. The drag that would normally affect the turbine on land has less of an effect when over water. However, the one drawback is that this efficiency is a seasonal occurrence, only happening during the winter.

Either way, this is a new frontier for wind turbines and a definite step forward for renewable energy.

Money barriers block building of barriers that block storm surges

It has been 5 years since hurricane Sandy ravaged homes on New York City coastlines, and all signs of damage have almost disappeared. While the city is back on track – there are no signs of any preventive measures being installed, which is particularly nerve-wracking given the recent increase of hurricane activity.

The biggest barrier is the cost, which according to, Malcolm J. Bowman the founder and current chairperson of the said “the cost of building a barrier in the ocean near Sandy Hook in New Jersey would be at least $25 billion.”

The second biggest barrier is the sheer difficulty of building a coastal barrier around the city. However, that issue might be solved by “the Big U, which would involve berms and walls along the edges of Manhattan from the Battery up to Midtown.” Yet construction does not begin until 2020, which means three years of potential Sandy Level hurricane damage to strike again.

 

Human Migration Due to Climate Shift

By Caroline Zuba

At our the last class, we spoke extensively about the key roles that water plays in our lives, and the roles it plays in maintaining an urban environment. We also discussed to some degree the catastrophic events that water causes, including combined sewage overflow in the modern day.

Missing from the conversation were recent studies discussing how water played a huge effect at the beginning of mankind. Naturally, most people are familiar with the rise of civilization, and the need for new communities to build around rivers or other bodies of water to facilitate trade and commerce, as well as allow irrigation (see: the Nile, China’s Yellow River in the North and Yangzi to the South). Yet, recent evidence as described in the article has determined that our first ancestors may have migrated out of Africa in search of wet climates. The climate had shifted to a hot spell, and the climate of the entirety of North Africa became hot and dry. Paleoclimate research indicates that the region shifted from the Green Sahara into a stretch of land hotter than it is today, and as a result, humans sought the wet – meaning, they followed the water. I found this to be an interesting discovery for anthropologists and historians alike, as well as modern scientists.

This image has been added to this post as an example of the vast fluxes in climate in the continent of Africa.

Fuel from Sewage

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161102134504.htm

As a society we have become hyper aware of the implications of pollution. One if not the most common mode of population is through gas emissions from cars. Our constant search for alternatives have lead to hybrid cars and electric ones, but this is not attainable for everyone. These alternatives are costly, but we can expect another alternative: sewage.

Scientist have projected that wastewater treatment plants will be able to turn sewage into biocrude oil.  This would be an amazing alternative because the U.S. treats approximately 34 billion gallons of sewage everyday. According to the article this would produce up to 30 million barrels of oil per year. Not only would this help with discarding waste and creating more eco friendly fuel, this fuel would give local governments signifcant cost savings. These savings would come from eliminating the need for sewage residuals processing, transport and disposal.

Overall, this fuel would cut costs and emissions of harmful gasses. This process is said to start up in 2018 in Vancouver. Hopefully if this shows reduction of pollution once in place the rest of the world will adopt it.

 

Machine Crushes Beer Bottles Into Sand to Save New Zealand Beaches

Sand being a well-used substance in almost all fields of research and development is, obviously, in high demand. However, that demand is taking a high toll on our limited, natural supply, as sand is being harvested from the Earth’s increasingly shrinking beaches. This invention aims to undo the damage that we have done while, at the same time, still supply us with this much-needed resource. The machine works by taking in beer bottles and processing them so that they are disintegrated back into the sand from which the glass was formed. Amazingly, this machine is able to yield about 200 grams of sand from one beer bottle. We talk a lot about sustainability and its importance, but there are often many roadblocks any project must face before becoming a reality. However, when the science, technology, and drive all come together amazing things can happen. This invention by a New Zealand brewery company is the perfect example.

Black Water in Niagara Falls

Imagine going on a vacation to Niagara Falls expecting to see beautiful clear water flowing over beautiful scenery and instead seeing water that reminds you of the color of your coffee. Gross, am I right? Turns out this isn’t the first time that this has happened in Niagara Falls. In fact, this is the second in a span of two months and quite frankly, visitors find it unacceptable. According to the Niagara Falls Water Board, “excess sewage was discharged on Wednesday when its wastewater treatment plant’s processing capacity was exceeded during a rainfall. (The Associated Press)” The color and bad condition of the water unfortunately has violated the state’s water quality standards and the high penalty for water quality violations is $37,500 per violation. That’s a lot of money to be paying with such a common recent occurrence. Unfortunately, the water board believes that there is no way to control the color of the overflow when it rains. ” It said the overflow was “a direct result of outdated infrastructure and system design limitations. (The Associated Press)” Outdated equipment must be changed and a solution must be found before the violations start racking up.

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/10/05/us/ap-us-niagara-falls-black-water.html

NYC Water

When you google “Why does NYC have…”, one of the top 5 results is about its water.  New York City has basically given itself a reputation of having amazing tasting and clean water.  However, as this Thrillist article discusses, New York doesn’t even make the top 10 list of water quality in the United States. (Note: The data being used is from 2009).  As the video mentioned, New York’s bagels and other baked goods’ popularity is commonly attributed to New York’s water quality, but is more about craft.  Furthermore, as the article mentions, our baked goods are probably hurt more than they are helped by the water quality.  Its incredibly interesting that despite seemingly being untrue, New York has a reputation for having great water and its bagels and pizza are great because of its water.

As the article discusses, when New York had to rethink its water supply in the 1940s and 50s, it was actually this fabricated reputation for having great water that prevented New York’s water from being sourced from the Hudson. Since people thought the Hudson was a disgusting body of water, they did not want to get their water from there, despite the water source being 70 miles upstream. So instead of sourcing water from the river, the watershed that is currently used to give New York City its water was made.  It is incredibly ironic that it was this reputation that prevented the Hudson River from being New York’s water supply, despite this reputation for having some of the best water in the country being largely untrue.

 

How NYC Gets Its Water

With gravity and many other complex systems, water from the Catskill/Delaware watershed is brought down to NYC to supply 9.5 million people. Protecting the tributaries is just as important as protecting the water source itself. All along the pathway to NYC, the water needs to be protected from pollution and sometimes leaks. The content of the water needs to be evaluated constantly to ensure what is coming out of our taps. This is not an easy task with climate change drastically shifts the water’s availability as well as the quality as it passes through forests that have also been altered from climate change. The water passes through ultraviolet lights to cleanse it from micro-organisms.  So much energy and time is needed to bring NYC it famous water. The entire process encompasses so much from the Urban Water Systems class. From watersheds to the water cycle, the power of runoff and gravity in tributaries, and the major effects of climate change, this article brings up the background of the big issues in order to protect our water.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/03/24/nyregion/how-nyc-gets-its-water-new-york-101.html

Water Sustainability

Water is essential for the existence of all life on Earth. It is crucial to preserve water through projects like watersheds, and sewer treatment plants to control flooding and water contamination. New York City’s DEP has one of the most complex wastewater systems in the world. Our water system delivers one billion gallons  of drinking water to nine million New Yorkers every single day. The Mayor’s Office of Sustainability is working along with the DEP to install ad repair hundreds of new water fountains and bottle refiners in areas throughout New York, This will prevent unnecessary excess consumption of plastic bottles when refiners are available to the public. The use of plastic bottles add to pollution by increasing waste in our landfills when they are not recycled. In the 1970s alone, New York spent $1.7 billion water protection. Additionally, as an alternative method to capture storm water runoff, a Green Infrastructure program has been adopted. These “green areas” capture stormwater before it can enter the sewage system and cause flooding, and lead to unfiltered water because of the overflow.

urban-green-infrastructure_jpeg.jpg

https://twitter.com/SabrinaMHC2001/status/917516455889002501

Portland reduces CSO

I shared a graph of Portland, Oregon’s CSO between the years 1990 and 2011. Between those years, it has been reduced from 6 billion gallons to about .3 billion gallons a year, because of work on the CSO control program, a set of cornerstone projects designed to remove millions of gallons of stormwater from the combined sewer system before construction started on large tunnel and other control facilities.

They constructed a pipeline that diverts Tanner Creek and smaller west hills streams from the combined sewer system to remove about 165-million gallons of stormwater annually from combined sewers, a tactic called stream diversion. About 3,000 stormwater sumps and sedimentation manholes in combined sewer areas throughout north, east and southeast Portland collect residential street runoff, trap sediment and pollutants, and allow water to soak into the ground. Residents in combined sewer areas disconnected roof drains from combined sewers removing more than 1.2-billion gallons of stormwater per year from the combined sewer system. Environmental Services eliminated combined sewers in key neighborhoods by installing new pipes to separate stormwater from sewage.

Seeing a successful project should give us hope that New York can accomplish this too. However, it took Portland almost 20 years to complete, so I think we should get a move on.

https://twitter.com/GabiCohen6/status/917050559865204737