11/13 Aldo: Stormwater Management Notes
Please read through the notes. Hopefully this will give you guys some idea or maybe help you get a better picture of the storm water management system. I personally got confused at first, when I thought of storm water management. I really thought it really involved some type of pumps and/or heavy machinery. This is not the case. A good storm water management design involves a schematic placement of dips, certain landscaping, and combination of permeable and non-permeable building materials.
In places like south and Central America, due to their lack of regulation and political emphasis on the environmental stewardship, storm water management is last on everybody’s list. But at the same time, you hear of road, highways, and even people’s houses getting swept away by rivers and torrential flash floods. Then there is also the problem of standing water. Due to the lack of education in some of these rural countries, the standing water is used for potable purposes. The things that we saw on the news happening in New Orleans after Katrina, happen a lot in these developing countries on a yearly basis. I lived in South America for four years, and have seen and heard of some pretty crazing stories.
Iris and I had spoken a few weeks ago, before everybody was on board, and we had decided on the Costanera highway in Costa Rica because it seemed to be an easy source of information. This was because UF had conducted a study already. Because Iris goes to UF, she is currently working on getting the information from the study, so we can get a better handle on what is on that highway.
The information that we really need from that study is:
We need to figure out where the highway begins and where it ends. (Are we going to use these same starting/ending points?)
What is between these two points? Are there any “eco-resorts” or office buildings?? If so, we will probably have to include some guidelines for them in our study.
What type of landscaping, terrain, and ecological presence are in this location?
Where does the water come from? ie: what are the major impacts causing flood/water damage?
OK guys. If anybody has any comments, please feel free to jump in and say anything. I think this Thursday, may be a good idea for a conference call with everybody on the line. Does that sound good with you all?? I think 9 pm is a good time, unless no body can make it.
Aldo
posted by Iris Patten @ 8:23 AM
3 Comments:
Aldo: Stormwater Management Notes
I forgot to mention. An important element of a good sustainable storm water management is creating a source of potable water.
I read this article, and I thought it might help give us an idea of the necessity of potable water on an international scope.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061112/ap_on_he_me/world_development
On the domestic level, places like Arizona and Nevada, always have sanctions and droughts, so a good storm water management system that reuses water for potable and non-potable purposes can make a real difference even for a developed country.
Aldo.
Tony: 11/13 Comments
Hi Aldo & Everyone Else,
I read through your notes, Aldo, and I want to thank you for all the time and effort you've obviously already put into some basic research. Reading about retention basins I suddenly had this image in my mind of Lake Ella in Tallahassee, as it has all the best amenities: fountain in the middle, nice sidewalk going 'round, gazebos, the whole shebang.
I think, though, that it's a bit facile to attribute all the problems to a lack of "green" development. The rural to urban shift is, as you pointed out, historic and totally unprecedented. It's hundreds of millions of people fundamentally changing the way they live. It's no wonder, then, that the states currently undergoing this transition have been unable to cope in a "sustainable" way.
I also really like the point about how stormwater management and potable water are linked - the article you sent is only one of many that have been discussing this huge problem. To your list of ways to hold stormwater - detention, retention, and infiltration - I'd like to add rainwater cisterns. Instead of relying on huge plots of land - hardly in great supply in the urbanizing areas of the Global South - why not think about a more distributed system, where individual households or blocks catch rainwater for washing and (possibly after some low-tech, low-energy sanitation) drinking and cooking. I'm not too familiar with the situations in Costa Rica or Bolivia, but in Nairobi, Kenya and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (two countries I've done a fair amount of research on) the urbanization has been so rapid and anarchic that preservation of open space has been near the bottom of the list for the poor farmers-turned-city-dwellers that are the proximate causes of it.
I apologize if I've been rambling, but my specialization in urban planning is issues that are facing the so-called "developing world" and international equity and environmental conservation are two subjects very close to my heart.
- Tony
Topic: Rescoping of project
So I talked with Tina (the Landscape Architect teacher at UF) and she made several suggestions
* Location: Instead of trying to figure out a specific location to implement the idea, why don't we approach developing solutions from a functional aspect. For instance, if we have categories of where to use the stormwater system (i.e. roads, buildings, residential). Then we chose 3 random locations within Costa Rica that we can use as an example of application. Again the product should be low tech, and easy/low maintenance.
* Audience. She thinks that our project is a great idea if we approach it as a project that the Ministry of Water (that's not the real name) has put out for RFP. In fact, in reality they really are looking for solutions to manage stormwater and convert it to potable water. Costa Rica receives A LOT of water every year so the system that we develop has to be able to manage that much water.
* Physical systems. I am going to email around, or try to figure out how to post it on here, images that Neal (the Landscape Architect from UF) has put together. They are systems for Gainesville but they will most likely need to be tweaked because there is a significant difference in the amount of rainfall in Gainesville vs. Costa Rica.
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