North America13
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CWC’s new Great Lakes Column
The Columbia Water Center is leading intellectual inquiry into the assessment, prediction and solution of the growing scarcity of fresh water. Although the CWC is looking at water issues across the globe, up until now, little attention at the Center has been focused on the Great Lakes. Some past student projects have explored in-depth…
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A Cistern in NYC – Yes!
A cistern is not what you would expect to find in a NYC house; however, a brownstone in our backyard has its own rainwater collection cistern. The brownstone, billed as the “Greenest House in NYC” and the first residential property in Manhattan to receive the coveted LEED certification, was recently highlighted in Good Housekeeping Magazine.…
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Water Sensors – Saving Water in Irrigation
One of the largest uses of fresh water withdrawals in the United States is for irrigation. The USGS estimates that 60% of the worlds fresh water withdrawals is for irrigation purposes, which calculates to 137,000 million gallons per day used for irrigation purposes. Some of this water is for irrigation of crops, while other of…
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Green Infrastructure
Since May is American Wetlands Month, I want to highlight the use of constructed wetlands, or green infrastructure, as a way to manage or restore natural hydrologies to an ecosystem. The technologies mentioned below are not necessarily new or revolutionary. However, with the recent government emphasis on infrastructure and green projects, I think the scale…
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May is American Wetlands Month
To celebrate, take time to visit a wetland in your area and enjoy the birds and diverse plant life that populate these important ecosystems. In New York, we have Clove Lakes Park in Staten Island. You can also search the US National Wildlife Refuge System using your zipcode. For the daily dose of education, wetlands…
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NYS agencies phasing out bottled water
On March 10th Ju Young posted an extremely informative entry on bottled water, “Do you still drink bottled water?” The message to cut down on bottled water is still big in advertising, environmental groups, the media, politics, and just about everywhere else. It’s also an ongoing topic of discussion in the Water Center offices. In…
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Tampa Bay Water has Bleak Outlook
Tampa Bay is probably most known in the water community for having one of the largest desalinization plants in the nation, and is looked upon by many as the model to see if desal is a feasible alternative for the future. So far, the plant has been full of issues, such as costing $40 million…
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What is the future of the Everglades?
At the beginning of April, Florida Governor Charlie Crist announced a dramatic change to the proposed plan to buy and restore a significant section of the Florida Everglades. Originially, the plan was to purchase 180,000 acres of the Everglades that is currently farmed by the United States Sugar Corporation for $1.34 billion. This was actually…
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Intelligent Infrastructure
As part of the Obama administrations’ new American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, $80 billion dollars have been dedicated to investment in infrastructure. Rather than regurgitating traditional infrastructure that is based on an outdated conception of human-environment interactions, this influx of capital for infrastructure has the potential to be leveraged for innovation instead. Building Infrastructure that…