Cloud Computing Comes to the Watershed

Server farms now feed our appetite for mobile computing and access to anything everywhere. Apple's billion dollar farm in Maiden, North Carolina is a testimony to their bet on cloud computing. While the big name high tech titans battle in the clouds with our data, researchers are wondering how to tap cloud computing to help manage our watersheds.

Right in my own backyard, a passionate group of researchers vindicated by a recent large NSF grant are working to create the underlying technology to be able to "wire up" the world's rivers. A new, always on digital nervous system that matches low-cost "off-the-shelf" sensors and components with the power of cloud computing may be on the horizon.

This could transform the management of our watersheds forever. Bold Stuff. I like it. Clemson has branded/registered their effort as "Intelligent River". The first wired watershed will be the Savannah basin which forms the border between South Carolina and Georgia. It will be reportedly the largest basin-scale network in the United States.

A couple cool key technology components:

Motestack (The Digital Heart). This is a groundbreaking battery-operated computer the size of an apple. It is not a sensor. It allows an "unprecedented number of sensors to be deployed across a large area and operate as a highly efficient network. The MoteStack is inserted into a buoy system anchored to the river floor." The MoteStack can then process sensor data and transmit it over a cell phone signal to the cloud. 

MoteStack being inserted into a Buoy. (Credit Clemson University)

The NORAD Room. Not only will information will be displayed on an interactive website where folks can view multiple data sources and locations, but right now Clemson is building a room in which I visualize something akin to NORAD.    

Dimly lit with cigar chewing water managers, this room will present to all the flood of data. Projectors will beam super realistic images of the river and numerical data. This system will actually also supposedly simulate the river with AVATAR level of detail and realism. 

I thought this was a bit of technical bravo speak, until I researched who was helping with this. It is the same guy who worked in Hollywood and created the waves in the movie Titanic.

While I like all the technological wonder, I do wonder how strong the handshake between this technology and the real world decision makers will be.

Learn more about this neat project here at their website.

The Hidden National Mall Revealed and What's Coming Next

For a single static green lawn in the middle of Washington DC., the history of the National Mall is an ever evolving molasses of constant planning. Writing about the Lincoln Memorial pool first made me realize this mall was always both highly constructed and freshly reconstructed.

Would you believe there was a canal that flowed through the center of the present day National Mall near the Capital? By 1860, however, the canal was a canal in name only, but a sewer in use. Eventually filled in by the 1880s, all that remains today of the canal is a lock house near Seventeenth Street and Constitution Avenue N.W. near the Washington Monument.

Would you believe that as late as 1935 there was a power plant in the center of the mall? And the ultimate mall reconstruction event was the fact was that one mile of the mall between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial was water and estuary before it was filled in. 

Last week, the Trust for the National Mall completed a grand competition to upgrade the mall once again. After reviewing some 58 different proposals, they selected three winning proposals, one each for a different area of the National Mall.

Some common elements between all three winning proposals include making the area more pedestrian friendly, more sustainable, and basically overall hiding the infrastructure. The three proposals include the following:

1. Union Square

My favorite highlight is a new central pool that is two-inches deep and, like a transformer, can be drained quickly to allow for plaza events. Union Square will be a closed watershed where storm water collection on the site feeds two cisterns for irrigation and retention. A living machine will clean the water.

2. Washington Monument

This upgrade hides all the tour buses with new landscape features and more importantly creates a new amphitheater.

3. Constitution Gardens

This design actually incorporates gardens back into landscape. A new reflection pool in the lake can be used for different activities. The lake water will be drawn from Lincoln Memorial pool and from the roofs of the building across Constitution Avenue. 

So what is the next step?  This is the step when reality awkwardly creeps in and words such  as "phasing" enters the dialogue. Cost estimates will be done for the winning designs. The goal of the Trust is to raise money for at least one project by 2014 and have a ribbon cutting by 2016.

This workhorse of a park deserves to the best park in the world. And just like the best parts of America, the National Mall should always be in a state of flux between planning, construction, and reconstruction.  

Better..Stronger...Faster: World's Largest Urban Whitewater Park in Columbus Georgia

"Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better...stronger...faster." - Intro into The Six-Million Dollar Man TV Show.

The first dam blew up almost some four stories high dynamiting a decade's worth of planning with a rush of reality.  Believe it or not, Columbus, Georgia will have this year the longest urban whitewater park in the world.

We can rebuild.

Over 2 miles of the Chattahoochee river is currently being rebuilt by removing two small dams and enhancing the river for whitewater kayakers. This $23 million project in the heart of downtown Columbus, Georgia is expected to draw some 60,000 to 100,000 participants a year. The total economic impact on an annual basis is estimated to be between $7 and $11 million.

I didn't really realize how much these in-stream and pumped water water parks have exploded worldwide in the last ten years. Two southern examples include:

• United Whitewater National Center in Charlotte NC. The facility opened in 2006 at a cost $38 million to build and amazingly costs $6.8 million per year to operate what some say is the world's largest artificial whitewater river. 

• Ocoee Whitewater Center near Ducktown, TN. The river was rebuilt for the canoe slalom venue for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. 

We have the technology.

There are now niche firms around the world like S20, McLaughlin Whitewater Design Group, and Engineering Paddling Designs that specialize in this market.  Their professional infrastructure is expanding with conferences dedicated to just this topic.  Some examples of this expanding expertise include:

Physical Models
While not completely an innovation, I am always glad to still see physical models still being built.  This model was used to recreate the work at Columbus, GA. 

Wave Shaper
This patented physical device from the McLaughlin Whitewater Design Group focuses and shapes flowing water to create different size waves with different flows.

 

Rapidblocs
Rapidblocs "allow for the creation of any shape, at any angle, at any point within the channel system. A feature as simple as a standing wave can be made larger, made glassier, moved up, moved down, moved left or moved right. This system truly gives the course operator a fully adjustable course that can be tuned, remodeled or updated." Pretty neat stuff.

I guess we will see how this expertise evolves. 150 years ago the Chattahoochee river was enhanced with two dams for industry. Today, the river is being enhanced for whitewater kayakers. Both times it was to make the river and community better…stronger…faster.

How will the river be enhanced in another 150 years?

Goodbye Blueberries. Hello Loquats : USDA Updates its Hardiness Map

Zone 7 Nursery

Here is a picture of one my favorite nurseries.  What is wrong with this picture, besides being way too grainy?

Ok, I'll give you a hint. The name of the business is no longer as relevant.

Last month the USDA updated their plant hardiness map in which Zone 7 Nursery refers to. This is the map that homeowners, landscapers, and nursery owners use to judge what plants will prosper in what regions. Basically, it uses annual minimum temperatures as a proxy in determining whether plants can survive a frozen cellular assault.

1990 USDA Map (Click to enlarge)

For the 1990 USDA map, the US was divided into 11 zones. While it was better than the 1964 map it replaced, there was still just one problem with this map.  It was weak.

This map used annual minimum temperatures that were averaged over 1974–1986. So, basically, the map relied on only 12 years of data. According to researchers there was actually little documentation on the mapping protocols used in the development of this 1990 map. Even worst, the map was hand drawn. It was an analog cassette still being used in the age of iPods and streaming music.

Finally, after a couple of false attempts in the last ten years, a new plant hardiness map was released by the USDA a month ago. Now this one is compatible with the digital age. It actually uses 30 years of weather data gathered from 1976 to 2005.  Scientists used more sophisticated methods for mapping zones between weather stations that greatly improved the accuracy and detail of the map. Now, it's GIS friendly. You can actually enter your zip code on the USDA website and see exactly what zone you are living in.

2012 USDA Map (Click to enlarge)

This new map shows in most locations roughly a one 5-degree Fahrenheit half-zone warmer than the previous map throughout the US.  While there were some news stories that jumped to climate change conclusions, I think most of this change is probably due to the fact that this map uses a 30-year period compared to 12-year period in the previous map.

Differences between the new map and the 1990 map were modest in some regions as shown in the following map.

This brings me back to the Zone 7 Nursery picture.  Can you guess what zone I used to live in? I used to be in Zone 7. Now I live amazingly comfortably in Zone 8a. Unfortunate for my local nursery, zones are not set in stone. A quick search on plants and their zones found that I should give up growing blueberries and instead grow a loquat tree.  I wonder how loquat tastes? Ask me in about five years.

Save Water, Drink Beer : The next untapped nexus.

Photo by Robert Osborne

When I saw this sign in downtown Clemson, I thought this should be a chorus to a country song. I could almost hear the five-string banjo swelling to hit the hook of the chorus. Well, apparently I missed my calling.

“It ain’t rained in four months

One cigarette spark’ll burn the whole town up

That ole well is plum dry

City put a limit on the water you can buy

We don’t mind cause round her

We save water, and drink beer

Ice cold, genuine, raise ’em up, drip ’em dry

Hollar and Swaller ya’ll support your local wildlife

Do your part around here

Just save water, and drink beer”

- “Save Water, Drink Beer” from Chris Young

If I can't write a country song maybe I could drown my sorrows down by the river and really see how much water it takes to make beer.

In the last five years, most modern breweries have made dramatic decreases in how much water it takes to make beer during the brewing process.  In 2007 ABInBev (one of the biggest beverage companies with 25% of global market share) on average reported that it took 5.03 gallons of water to make 1 gallon of beer.  In 2010, they reduced this water use metric to 4.04.  Remarkably, the best brewery in their global fleet was located in Cartersville, Georgia.  It achieved an annual water use metric of 3.04. This Bud is for you!

So how much water is used for an individual brewery?  OK, let's pick a brewery with the most buzz. A month ago Sierra Nevada announced they would spend 107.5 million dollars to build their first brewery on the east coast. Where? They picked 90 acres 12 miles south of Asheville, NC along the French Broad River for a new state of the art brewery. Sierra Nevada plans an initial production goal to roll out 300,000 barrels — or 9.3 million gallons — of beer per year. Assuming they could meet a 3.5 water use metric, they would generate wastewater flow of about 89,000 gallons of water a day.

Most breweries have a goal of reaching a 3.5 water use metric (ABInBev in 2012, SABMiller and New Belgium in 2015). This point appears to be the point of diminishing returns in the squeezing of water from the production of beer.  However, beer production is only one part of its water footprint and unfortunately the small part. Over 90% of a beer's water footprint actually relates to the cultivation of raw crops. Basically, the water used to grow the barley and hops represents the bulk of water in your beer.

So, the next frontier for brewing companies may be to work with their grain suppliers in reducing water use. This may represent the next untapped water nexus – Water Beer Grain Nexus. You read it hear first.

It takes a lot of water to make your favorite beer.  Another reason to sip and not gulp.