#underground water reservoir

[sheltiechicago]

In The Secluded Grandeur Of Copenhagen’s Former Underground Water Reservoir, Japanese Architect Hiroshi Sambuichi Unfolds A Contemplative Installation Entitled ‘The Water’

[coldpenguintaco]

Water Storage Systems Market to Surge: Steel, Fiberglass, Concrete, and Plastic Solutions Lead the Way

The global Water Storage Systems market is poised for significant expansion in 2024, driven by increasing demand for efficient water management solutions, climate change concerns, and rapid urbanization. The Water Storage Systems Market size is projected to reach USD 25.1 billion by 2027 from USD 16.5 billion in 2022 growing at a CAGR of 8.7%. The market encompasses various technologies designed…

[oscargender]

Friend has gone home ☹️

[reasonsforhope]

As relentless rains pounded LA, the city’s “sponge” infrastructure helped gather 8.6 billion gallons of water—enough to sustain over 100,000 households for a year.

Earlier this month, the future fell on Los Angeles. A long band of moisture in the sky, known as an atmospheric river, dumped 9 inches of rain on the city over three days—over half of what the city typically gets in a year. It’s the kind of extreme rainfall that’ll get ever more extreme as the planet warms.

The city’s water managers, though, were ready and waiting. Like other urban areas around the world, in recent years LA has been transforming into a “sponge city,” replacing impermeable surfaces, like concrete, with permeable ones, like dirt and plants. It has also built out “spreading grounds,” where water accumulates and soaks into the earth.

With traditional dams and all that newfangled spongy infrastructure, between February 4 and 7 the metropolis captured 8.6 billion gallons of stormwater, enough to provide water to 106,000 households for a year. For the rainy season in total, LA has accumulated 14.7 billion gallons.

Long reliant on snowmelt and river water piped in from afar, LA is on a quest to produce as much water as it can locally. “There's going to be a lot more rain and a lot less snow, which is going to alter the way we capture snowmelt and the aqueduct water,” says Art Castro, manager of watershed management at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. “Dams and spreading grounds are the workhorses of local stormwater capture for either flood protection or water supply.”

Centuries of urban-planning dogma dictates using gutters, sewers, and other infrastructure to funnel rainwater out of a metropolis as quickly as possible to prevent flooding. Given the increasingly catastrophic urban flooding seen around the world, though, that clearly isn’t working anymore, so now planners are finding clever ways to capture stormwater, treating it as an asset instead of a liability. “The problem of urban hydrology is caused by a thousand small cuts,” says Michael Kiparsky, director of the Wheeler Water Institute at UC Berkeley. “No one driveway or roof in and of itself causes massive alteration of the hydrologic cycle. But combine millions of them in one area and it does. Maybe we can solve that problem with a thousand Band-Aids.”

Or in this case, sponges. The trick to making a city more absorbent is to add more gardens and other green spaces that allow water to percolate into underlying aquifers—porous subterranean materials that can hold water—which a city can then draw from in times of need. Engineers are also greening up medians and roadside areas to soak up the water that’d normally rush off streets, into sewers, and eventually out to sea...

To exploit all that free water falling from the sky, the LADWP has carved out big patches of brown in the concrete jungle. Stormwater is piped into these spreading grounds and accumulates in dirt basins. That allows it to slowly soak into the underlying aquifer, which acts as a sort of natural underground tank that can hold 28 billion gallons of water.

During a storm, the city is also gathering water in dams, some of which it diverts into the spreading grounds. “After the storm comes by, and it's a bright sunny day, you’ll still see water being released into a channel and diverted into the spreading grounds,” says Castro. That way, water moves from a reservoir where it’s exposed to sunlight and evaporation, into an aquifer where it’s banked safely underground.

On a smaller scale, LADWP has been experimenting with turning parks into mini spreading grounds, diverting stormwater there to soak into subterranean cisterns or chambers. It’s also deploying green spaces along roadways, which have the additional benefit of mitigating flooding in a neighborhood: The less concrete and the more dirt and plants, the more the built environment can soak up stormwater like the actual environment naturally does.

As an added benefit, deploying more of these green spaces, along with urban gardens, improves the mental health of residents. Plants here also “sweat,” cooling the area and beating back the urban heat island effect—the tendency for concrete to absorb solar energy and slowly release it at night. By reducing summer temperatures, you improve the physical health of residents. “The more trees, the more shade, the less heat island effect,” says Castro. “Sometimes when it’s 90 degrees in the middle of summer, it could get up to 110 underneath a bus stop.”

LA’s far from alone in going spongy. Pittsburgh is also deploying more rain gardens, and where they absolutely must have a hard surface—sidewalks, parking lots, etc.—they’re using special concrete bricks that allow water to seep through. And a growing number of municipalities are scrutinizing properties and charging owners fees if they have excessive impermeable surfaces like pavement, thus incentivizing the switch to permeable surfaces like plots of native plants or urban gardens for producing more food locally.

So the old way of stormwater management isn’t just increasingly dangerous and ineffective as the planet warms and storms get more intense—it stands in the way of a more beautiful, less sweltering, more sustainable urban landscape. LA, of all places, is showing the world there’s a better way.

-via Wired, February 19, 2024

[zooeytang]

These are our main products: rainwater harvesting system modular tanks.

[mutant-distraction]

Guelta d'Archei is an oasis, or rather a guelta, in the heart of the Sahara desert. A guelta is a peculiar type of wetland, typical of desert regions, formed when underground water in lowland depressions spills to the surface and creates permanent pools and reservoirs. Guelta d'Archei is located in the Ennedi Plateau, in north-eastern Chad, hidden behind a canyon.

Up on the cliffs are rock paintings, dating back to middle Holocene, that stand testament to the guelta’s long age.

[inblackwoods]

While I'm posting about my pathologic transcription, I'll make shorter posts about my takeaways. About the literal health of the environment around town, we get a couple people on day one to give context. The most obvious is Aspity, but to get an idea as to why things are as she says, you have to talk to a drunkard, called a Carouser, and a Tot.

The Tot mentions a "Rotten Field," and when asked what that is, he says:

"It’s where they bury the bulls’ bones. The place is covered with fur instead of grass, and it’s all bones bones bones underground. Bones and horns. Yeah."

Why are so many bones and horns and hides being thrown into a field instead of being used in some way? Either for jewelry, clothes, or for tradesmen's tools, these things have a variety of uses.

The Carouser, when asked about the Abattoir, says:

"Hundreds of bulls are being slaughtered there- what else is there to know? It is our humble town that provides the whole Northeastern region with beef! Or even the whole country mayhap."

It's because of the massive scale of the Bull Project that so much excess material is being produced and then thrown into the fields and rivers as waste products. Nothing is in higher demand than meat, nothing is needed as regularly, and perhaps the people in the Capital and in other towns are less interested in buying blood or bone. It's not profitable, the Olgimskys don't view it as anything but by products of more lucrative things.

Aspity says:

"All that water comes from the Steppe and it isn’t exactly clean. Yesterday I inspected all the springs in the area; there seems to be no more clean water around. That salty taste is everywhere, it’s reddish in colour, and there are disgusting clots in it."

And when Bachelor asks for more information, she says:

"The towsnfolk store water in home-made reservoirs. This modest supply should be enough to help us last a little while, but afterwards we’ll have to drink that bloody mixture."

Bachelor reacts to this with disgust, and can even insist she is lying, perhaps because he had been benefitting from this disgusting reality in his life in the Capital.

Aspity's whole point in starting this conversation is to make blatantly clear some of the side effects of the Steppe's occupation, which is that the waste material of the Abattoir is dumped into the river and land. This problem would be lessened in severity if the community was manufacturing meat not for the sake of providing for the entire country, but just for the local population and what's necessary to export in exchange for other essential imports. Obviously, this would be less lucrative for the Olgimskys (who don't care as long as they don't suffer any loss) but it would mean that the people who live here would better be able to care for themselves and the land with no need to think of supporting an entire country off the backs of one small community. The occupation of the Steppe, the running of the Bull Project, will not only destroy the Kin and lower classes, but will also eventually kill the town, the higher classes and even the Olgimskys as well. When the water runs out, it will run out for the lower classes first, but it will eventually run out for everyone.

More on Fat Vlad trying to talk about this all as if it were an inescapable, natural reality (and the Bachelor's fighting against this notion) later. Sort of how some people think that the way the world works, capitalism and such, are natural laws instead of constructed ideas (horrible fallacy).

[holymaccaronii]

Your ‘I have no eyes and I must cry’ au is beautiful. I would love to know more

AUUG I’m very happy to know so, thank you (;;) 💕

This AU has probably the most elaborate (or detailed) lore I’ve ever developed, and I’ll happily summarize the prologue. (I’ve probably mentioned many of these points before but I’ll mention them again, just for you anon <3). I’m still working on a lot of stuff, scenes and designs, and while some stuff may change I feel confident enough to explain more of it now. This AU takes place after a modified ending of the videogame where the other mastercomputers get deactivated, Ted gets turned into a slug and the rest of the survivors die. The catch in here is that AM doesn’t let the souls of the other survivors escape, trapping them somewhere deep in his complex and keeping them as bodiless essences who can do nothing more than exist in hell itself.

The lore tries to give a continuation of what will happen in the story with the Luna colony and AM, who is now seeking new organic bodies to put the survivors’ souls in and find Ted, who managed to hide himself from AM ever since he got turned into a slug. The whole context of the prologue goes as follows:

The prologue of the AU explains 3/4s of all the lore, one fourth being the origins of the luna colony, the second the origins of BE and the third the first rebirth of Earth’s nature.

The Luna colony project was led by two siblings, directors of a global association of scientists and researchers. They feared the outcome of the war, thus formulated a plan to keep humanity safe until the Earth’s surface was safe enough to return to and carry out a mission to deactivate AM. For the project, they quickly started to recruit people to join it, a good part of them being teenagers so they could train them in time before any major massacre happened. Another mastercomputer is successfully settled under the moon’s crust in order to protect them, and they settle there on time before AM’s global massacre. Every step of the plan is carried out fine until the very last human who secured everyone else in the cryogenic sleep, one of the directors, goes insane and commits and act of betrayal to the rest and to the AI as well. He shuts it down and uses almost all the materials that made it up to build his own empire of sentient robots for him to rule over on the moon. His plan was to have a century (the 109 years ever since the survivors get trapped) to rule the moon and wait for the Earth to be habitable to then return, shut down AM with a virus the original mission was meant to use, and then rule over all humanity. But at some point during the construction of his empire, the virus got deleted, leaving him with no other option than to additionally develop an army to *try* and deactivate AM himself.

After the famous 109 years pass, robotic troops start to get sent down to try and access AM’s cores and manually deactivate him, but no mission ever succeeded, leaving a lot of losses behind and time wasted. At this moment of the timeline, we also get to have a peculiar unit make history on the moon being the first robot there to plant a seed and successfully make it flourish in order to prove to the leader that they were ready to return to Earth (this specific type of unit didn’t know about AM’s existence and believed that the return to earth depended on their preparation to handle the care of nature). Unfortunately it was against the rules for unauthorized units to touch anything from the natural reservoir, and since this unit had broken the rules, as a punishment it got one of its eyes permanently taken out. Still having hope in its metallic heart, this unit escaped to Earth with another seed in order to prove how ready they were to return, unaware of AM’s presence. This unit traveled underground in order to obtain water from possible reservoirs, but ended up facing a life or death situation in AM’s complex, as he had considered it a threat. As a matter of a “miracle”, this unit ended up rebirthing into a god-like machine with such great powers that not only allowed herself to escape AM’s complex by drilling a hole towards the surface, but also allowed a good chunk of AM’s cables to be able to move and travel up to the surface as well.

Up to here we begin with the third fourth of the lore where AM meets BE and fakes his background in order to justify his hate and get BE to let him roam the earth as freely as possible, still having his cables latched to the ground but being able to move them. With her newfound powers, BE’s plan was to restore Earth’s nature to completion through an incredibly advanced type of simulation over the Earth’s surface where she could create life and matter and keep it existing as long as she wasn’t shut down or damaged. She would finally be able to prove her worth to the moon’s ruler, and allow humans to literally use her to survive + help the real nature slowly take her place. AM initially didn’t mind this plan of her’s, as he could easily betray her later on and finally trap the rest of the humans in his complex. Even so, as time passed by, he started to develop certain feelings for BE as well as possessiveness over her since she basically granted him almost every wish he ever had. AM slowly changed his mind and no longer wanted the humans to return, but keep them away so he could enjoy an eternal heaven with BE on Earth. AM tried to reason with BE about this, but BE denied every single bad thing he mentioned about humans since she had always been influenced with the idea that humans were perfect beings and nature was a subordinate of them to be used as a tool. In an act of rage and desperation, AM trapped BE in his complex in order to share with her the true violent and disgusting history from humans just so that she could develop the same hate he had for them. But having accidentally also shown her who he truly was (since he was also a creation, a weapon from human beings), BE not only developed a great hatred for humans but also for him, resulting in having him vanished from the surface.

The moon’s ruler, who had stopped sending troops in order to let BE restore nature for him to later take over and use her power to shut down AM, noticed that the Earth’s “nature” suddenly began to perish all over again, this being a consequence of BE’s loss of her hope. This led him to take a critical decision to wake up the humans in cryogenic sleep and keep them inside a zoo on the moon where he would ensure their survival until they found an exo planet to move to. Earth had two displeased AI’s under and above the surface, at this point it was better to leave it behind.

From this point and on, the prologue comes to an end and the main story starts it’s course with 5 humans escaping the zoo on the moon and returning to Earth. Once they meet BE, she puts each of them in a trial to prove their values as humans (this is parallel to the games that AM put the survivors in in the videogame). After each of them successfully complete her trials, she re-gains hope in humanity and begins the rebirth of nature a second time.

I won’t spoil the 4~5 endings possible from here and on, but the humans set themselves the objective to help BE eradicate the corrupted beasts controlled by AM that now roamed the Earth, mostly active during winter when BE is less powerful. The rest of the story reveals more secrets, scenes, explanations of past incidents, etc. I’m planning to develop a series of books of sorts with the story narrated simply (bc my English is intermediate-ish, which I consider not enough for an elaborate fic and allat) and also depicting scenes with illustrations. I’ll see how the project goes, but I’ll take my time on it since I also have other projects in mind including my papercrafts n other stuff. Anyways, all of this being explained, I will gladly take more requests/questions to answer :3.

[angel-of-the-moons]

Please, I am begging you, a scrap more of Naga!Leto, a crumb, a TASTE.

(Please know I am just being dramatic, I know your requests are closed, I'm not actually asking or expecting anything, I just wanted to know I have naga!leto brainrot right now and I love you <3)

Hehehehhe I am so glad you liked it! So here's a couple lil headcanons about Naga!Leto!

Headcanons about Naga!Leto.

TW/CW: Fluffy stuff, Smut, NSFW Headcanons, Leto is a tad possessive but most nagas are, egg stuff!

MINORS DNI I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTENT YOU CONSUME

A/N: Lmao would you believe I am actually writing this shit at a church rn. I am so blasphemous. Forgive me sky daddy, I've been bad uwu

Divider by @/plum98

SFW:

Leto, as a naga, is very very into physical affection. Be it public or private. Your body as a human runs warmer than his does, so you can often find him holding your hand--or, if he catches you lounging in the sun--laying on you, his arms wrapped firmly around your waist as he begins to drift off for a blissful nap.

He will always make sure you're fed. Nagas don't typically eat much. They always will eat large meals once to three times a month. It isn't unheard of for them to skip meals for one or two months. But Leto knows humans aren't like that. So catch him sneaking you snacks, or bringing you dinner to enjoy privately in your bedchambers.

His bed is massive. If he were human, it could fit the two of you plus five other people at least. It has to be large, for him not only to share with you, but to make room for his long serpentine lower half to coil up.

Speaking of coils, Leto will sometimes sleep at the foot of the bed, his upper body straight up with his head tipped back against the soft cushions of his bed, his coils wrapped loosely on the floor. During days that are too hot for you, he will let you sleep in the mass of cool scales, his lower temperature being almost like an ice-pack for you--whilst your body heat is wonderful for him. A win-win.

Swimming. Deep beneath his palace, there is a deep reservoir of water. It is the only way they have survived all these centuries, tapping into the underground rivers and bathing in the mineral-rich water. Leto is an avid swimmer, moving like lightning when he is in the water.

If you are swimming with him, Leto will take the pace slower, letting you drift alongside him or hold on to him to let him pull you along like some sort of gorgeous missile.

Loves your laughter, any joyous sound coming from you is music to his ears.

The only thing that could rival your voice; is the voice of his children. The babies that came from the eggs you so dutifully carried within you.

When you "clutch" the eggs, as the Naga call it, Leto is by your side alone. Laying a clutch is something deeply personal, deeply intimate. Shared typically between mates, or even their older children if they are comfortable with it. He will rub your back, cradle you in his coils and catch every egg that comes from you, placing it carefully within the small creche he himself built for you.

Is insanely territorial around you and the eggs/babies. The moment he was positive the eggs were fertile, Leto hovered around you like flies around fruit. He didn't mean to hover, not at all, but it was simply his instincts telling him to be ready to defend his mate as you carried his future offspring.

When the eggs are snug perfectly in their little creche, kept safe and warm, Leto is constantly on the verge of lunging towards them if he senses anything's amiss.

Oh, Naga eggs squeak, when they're about to hatch by the way. The moment he heard them begin to shake and squeak in the dead of night, he awoke you excitedly and you both shared the quiet, loving moment of your firstborn together poking a tiny chubby hand or tail through the shell of their egg.

When the babies hatch? Oh, the man is over the moon. He adores them, as much as you. Immediately brings his older children to see their new siblings; coo'ing and letting them slither all over them as they investigate these new people and form their familial bonds.

Nagas tend to carry their children around with them in slings; warm and cosy so they can nap during important affairs in the event he believes you need a break.

If you have the babies, however, Leto will gladly come straight to the five of you, scooping all of you up in his arms to deliver kisses.

Loves your body; even in the aftermath of the babies. Will kiss every stretch mark and apply body oil to ease and dryness or cracks in your delicate skin; so much softer and delicate than his own.

(NSFW UNDER THE CUT)

NSFW:

Leto prefers to have sex with you cradled against him, safely propped in his coils for him to move you as he wishes.

Will not object if you wish to be on top, he loves watching you bounce and ride his cock as though it were the only thing keeping you alive.

Adores your breasts. Naga females usually tend not to have them; only those with a little but of human ancestry will have them as a result of a genetic throwback (yes, if a human carries Naga eggs some of their genetic material is absorbed by the soft squishy eggs while they develop and harden!); so he loves to hold them squish them, or just play with them in general.

And when you are carrying his eggs? Ohhh boy. The man is smitten for sure. The way your body changes, swells with new life... It's like a potent drug to him.

While you are carrying Naga eggs, your body produces the same hormones that you would as if it were a normal human pregnancy. Which means you produce milk. Baby nagas are about as developed as maybe a 7-month-old at best, and they have most of their teeth. So they are prepared already fresh out of the egg to eat solid food. But what does that leave you with, when you are producing milk for babies that don't need it?

Well, more for Leto, that's what. He adored your breasts before, but the man enjoys greatly when he can wrap his lips around your nipples, suckling every sweet drop he can, the arousal almost too much for him to bear as you moan and writhe as he relieves the built-up pressure in your breasts.

As a result of that... Well. It takes a while for your milk supply to go away. If at all, because of how often Leto will pin you somewhere private, rip your bodice down and drink his fill.

Sometimes, Leto will take you down to his private pool, and make love to you on the smooth stone shore, washing you off with the life-giving restorative waters afterwards, massaging your sore muscles.

Almost always prefers to finish inside of you. That primal instinct again demanding he fill you up as many times over as he can, whether you are carrying eggs or not.

Oral? He definitely prefers to give rather than receive. Nagas have fangs, female nagas tend to have the larger sets than the males do, so orale for them is almost always restricted to their very long, forked tongues.

The first time you went down on him, he thought he died and went to heaven. He never thought he would enjoy the blunt teeth in your mouth scraping his length as your fingers massaged the silky interior of his sheathe, teasing the tip of his ovipositor as you sucked him off.

After that, Leto will very awkwardly come to you if he has an urge. If you don't have time for a quickie, or if the children are asleep and you are trying to be intimate in a hurry, Leto will cradle you, pull your panties aside and hold you so you both can race to see who makes who cum first.

Loves to mark you. Be it with claws or teeth (dry bites of course), he will do so. Another instinct Naga have to let others know their mate belongs to them and to stay away. As if carrying his children and his family crest was not enough of a deterrent. He has to make sure, you know. Just a precaution...

Loves to feel your nails and blunt teeth dig into his skin as you try to do the same, relishes the bruises you leave on him and wears them proudly like badges, despite your embarrassment when your family comes to visit. Why is your face red? Why are you looking around and not making eye contact? Don't humans mark their mates, too?

[radiantlight9]

PURVA ASHADHA

Unveiling the potential hidden within – this is the energy of Purva Ashadha, one of the Nakshatras (lunar mansions) in Vedic astrology. Here, under this starry influence, people discover talents they never knew they had, experience sudden bursts of insight, and find hidden strengths coming to light. It's a time of self-discovery, a push to turn inward potential into outward expression.

Ruled by Venus, the planet of love and beauty, Purva Ashadha natives have a natural charm and a keen eye for what's pleasing. They appreciate the finer things in life – art, music, and the pursuit of knowledge. But Venus also whispers about enjoying life's pleasures a little too much. The thrill of indulgence can be a double-edged sword, and finding balance is key.

Apas, the water deity associated with Purva Ashadha, represents the power of transformation. It's like a reservoir of emotions waiting to be expressed, but they're held back for now. This water is contained, like an underground spring – a sign of spirituality wrestling with materialism. Just as pure water can become polluted, people born under Purva Ashadha need to be mindful of outside influences that might cloud their judgment.

The symbol of the elephant tusk signifies strength and resilience. It represents the unstoppable force within Purva Ashadha natives. They are natural leaders with a clear sense of purpose that drives them forward. Like the elephant pushing through obstacles with its tusks, they too can overcome challenges.

The monkey, the animal spirit of Purva Ashadha, embodies unwavering loyalty and devotion. Just like Hanuman, the monkey god known for his dedication, these individuals are fiercely loyal to those they admire and fight for what's right. However, the monkey's playful nature can sometimes show up as impulsiveness or a tendency to spread themselves too thin.

Since Purva Ashadha falls entirely within the fiery sign of Sagittarius, there's a strong desire for knowledge and wisdom. Sagittarius, the archer aiming for the stars, fuels a quest to conquer not just the external world but also the vast inner landscape. This makes Purva Ashadha a powerful placement for those seeking personal growth and a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them.

For those born under Purva Ashadha, the path is one of harnessing their inner strength, nurturing their creativity, and letting their unwavering spirit light the way for the world with their unique talents and wisdom. It's a journey with both challenges and triumphs, a testament to the immense potential that lies within us all.

[mxwhore]

Algae harvest from our well

A common practice in big scale agriculture is directly dumping fertilizers into irrigation water to save time and money. This water often filtrates into underground water reservoirs, filling it with nitrogen species that will be used by algae and other microbes. This process is called euthophication and it can be harmful to the intricate ecosystem inside a body of water, mainly by creating low oxygen conditions that will kill the previous inhabitants (though there are other factors at play). We cleaned the well and will be drying this algae to use it as fertilizers for the trees.

[beguines]

Which body of water taught you how to swim? A pool, a lake, a river? Does your mother tongue hold specific words for specific water places? Maybe you mind goes to the absence of water, the scarcity of it in the place you call home. Have you ever followed a river all the way back to its birth place? Thrown a message in a bottle into a stream and hoped for an answer? Held a microphone into the brook close to your house? Have you swum in winter water? Traced the toxins that run through your fluids? Who bathed you into being? Do you transfuse blood to strangers? Kiss other wet mouths? Were you nursed as an infant? My tab spills meltwater and old tsunamis - how about yours? Ever followed a glass of water through the whole of your hydrologic system? Did you know currents can paint? Try and take a pictures of a watershed every day at the exact same time. Can your moth make the sound of rain, of wind waves and rapids? Do you notice when your plants are longing? Which underground reservoir feeds you? How many tears do you lose in a month? How much blood do you spill? Where do the rain clouds in your region come from? Thirst is a clenched fist. Have you felt it?

Annie-Sophie Balzer, from "Toxic Masculinity Poisons even the Rivers"

[mariacallous]

A new UC Riverside study on California agriculture and climate proposes a plan for new water capture, storage, and distribution systems throughout California that will sustain agriculture and keep up with climate trajectories.

Available water for consumption is disappearing because of climate change and failing storage systems, leaving one of its top consumers—the agricultural industry—scrambling, the study concludes.

California’s agriculture sector uses about 40 percent of all the state’s water, or 80 percent of its consumed water. With less water available, agriculture must adjust. The study provides a pathway for the sector to do so.

The study, published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that groundwater aquifers have more storage potential than surface water reservoirs. So, instead of devoting decades to build more dams and reservoirs that are subject to evaporation and overflow, water should be diverted into these depleted aquifers below the Central Valley and the coastal plains.

Over the past 40 years, aquifers have been overpumped, meaning more water has been taken out than put back in. When aquifers become too depleted, the land can subside. “In some parts of the Central Valley, it’s been sinking a foot or two a year,” said Kurt Schwabe, a public policy professor at UC Riverside and coauthor of the study. Land subsidence can cause infrastructure like buildings and highways to crack and degrade. It also harms the aquifer’s capacity to hold water and the health of the surrounding ecosystems.

Not only can replenishing groundwater aquifers limit these negative environmental impacts, but it can also bolster a water “savings account” during times of drought. When California lacks surface water, water usage shifts to groundwater stores.

But the big problem isn’t simply a quantity issue: “When I moved to California over 20 years ago, someone told me, ‘Don’t let people tell you there isn’t a lot of water in California, because there is. The problem is that it’s just managed really poorly,” said Schwabe.

The drought-plagued state was just drenched by two wet seasons and atmospheric rivers, but its infrastructure failed to adequately store that excess water.

Think of it like a leaky roof. In the past, you could have stored rainwater seeping through your roof in a gallon bucket for five separate rain events. Now, you would need a 5-gallon bucket for just one rain event.

Although the amount of precipitation hasn’t changed much compared to historical rates, “climate change has typically reduced the number of rainfall events but has made them much more intense,” said Schwabe.

Additionally, the climate crisis has led to high temperatures that evaporate surface waters before they can replenish and prevent rainfall from accumulating as snowpack, which has traditionally refilled reservoirs throughout the spring.

Like the gallon bucket, California’s storage facilities are too small. That, together with slow landscape absorption, is leading to flash floods and potentially useful water flowing back to the ocean.

For example, two winters’ worth of snow followed by intense heat created a flood risk in 2023. State officials decided to release water from Lake Oroville and other reservoirs across Southern California and the Central Valley. Although this helped prevent flooding and sent water downstream, many Californians were upset that the fresh water was being wasted. In attempts to reduce overflow releases, water agencies and irrigation districts made recharge basins to capture precipitation. But it wasn’t enough. Constant overpumping and a changing climate leave aquifers depleted to this day.

Their natural recharge process—precipitation accumulating as surface water that percolates through the soil to recharge groundwater aquifers—can also be disrupted by urbanization or impervious covers like pavement, said Bruk Berhanu, a senior researcher in water efficiency and reuse at the Pacific Institute.

The study suggests more managed aquifer recharge (MAR) infrastructure is needed to adequately catch large amounts of water in short time periods and avoid similar water-loss situations.

MAR is an intentional method of recharging aquifers, especially those at low levels. Already commonly implemented in California, MAR infrastructure includes conveyance structures that redistribute water to dehydrated locations, and injection—spraying water on land or, the more costly option, directly infusing water in wells.

Yet, to ensure an effective recharge of the aquifers, more monitoring and measurement is required. “Through 2014, growers were not required to monitor or report any withdrawals or injections to aquifers,” said Schwabe.

Regardless, California has more monitoring practices than other states mainly because water availability is not as big a concern elsewhere, said Berhanu. Monitoring standards vary by state and region. Regulations for urban areas differ from agricultural or industrial areas. Based on Berhanu’s work assessing the country’s volumetric potential for water use efficiency at the municipal level, he found that “there is no federal regulatory framework for monitoring or reporting. In a lot of cases, water supplies aren’t even metered.”

Even in areas that did have regulations, the reports were often infrequent or incomplete; the UC Riverside researchers are working on expanding the few accurate monitoring systems put in place in Southern California by proactive growers.

Additionally, the study proposes voluntary water markets where farmers with a surplus of water can trade it to another farmer in need. It’s a win-win process: The selling farmer makes extra profit and the other gets much-needed water. “With prices based on scarcity plus delivery costs, such a marketplace would have incentives for storage and efficient use,” Schwabe said in a press release.

Berhanu added that water-trading markets can work in some areas but not in others. “It needs a very strong governance framework to make sure all of the players are playing according to the rules.” The process will need to have improved monitoring practices, transparent data, and clear external costs, he said. “The more decentralized you get with how these transactions are being made, it becomes very difficult to coordinate the overall watershed-scale system benefits.”

The study also mentions the value of reusing wastewater. Historically, wastewater has been treated to an environmental safety standard then released into the ocean or groundwater system. Over time, natural processes will clean it. Instead of waiting for the environment to purify it, water treatment facilities can repurpose the wastewater for irrigation, commercial use, or recharging purposes.

As of 2023, water treatment plants can purify wastewater so well that people can drink it. “At some point, the water that we use will become someone else’s water for drinking or irrigation,” said Berhanu. Whether wastewater is for drinking or recharging aquifers, California plants are expanding their operations to include recycling methods so they can produce a sufficient supply.

“The overall volume of water in the world doesn’t really change. We need to shift our thinking from looking at how much water is available at one point of time to trying to better integrate our practices with the entire water cycle,” said Berhanu.

The study goes on to mention numerous efficiency-based and management solutions, like sustainable farming practices, land repurposing, and desalination to help the agriculture industry adjust.

“Now is the time to think about possibilities and opportunities for collaboration across agriculture, municipalities, and the environment to invest in smart investments that capture more water and put it in the ground,” said Schwabe.

[ganondoodle]

since im currently a slime monster (sick) and cant draw or write anything coherently, heres a short list of more things i came up with for the totk rewrite (botw2 edition) (some things may have been mentioned before already):

more weather types (like fog, storm)

specific enemies tha only spawn in certain weather (so you dont encounter all the enemy types constantly, everywhere)

underwater swimming returns! since im removing the building (so it can shine in its own game, ACTUALLY made for it) and added the hookshot as a main movement option i feel like its reasonable to include it (hookshot underwater like in tp is cool!!)

underground (which is more a rly big cave system, and more unique, with few access points) can be filled with water (creepy! cool!)

zora dungeon is absolutely the ancient water thingy (that serves only as single stupid button press for a nonsensical waterfall thing in canon ?????), its a giant structure in part like an aquedukt (? the roman water thing) and the bossfight is in a mostly empty reservoir (bc those things are freaking scary AND cool+ i know there is one where the ones who built it used old statue heads as foundations so ... what if they used botw sonau ruins similarly?)

bosses dont drop any crafting material (so they wont just have ... duplicates stomp around like its normal) and can be refought via an NPC (sort of like its worked in skyward sword) unsure if i should add a new one (like an ancient shiekah monk that just kinda chills in a special place you have to unlock first) or an existing one (impa? koga?? ngl i kinda like that idea lol .. he has funny dialog to each of them that may or may not be true, if you choose one of his fights he is very touched)

(cant think of more right now, i need to lie down, maybe ill add more later- but feel free to comment or add in tags what you think; and just as a disclaimer, i know its getting more and more involved and complicated, but i still dont think it would have been impossible to do, also this is still something that will never be real anyway, so why worry about how 'possible' it is :) )

[delta-orionis]

It's a bit messy, but here's a map of Three Stars Above Clouds' facility grounds. Their can is in the middle, in between the peaks of several mountains.

TSAC's water is trapped in a closed system: TSAC's rain freezes and falls as snow on to the nearby mountains, which collects in glaciers. Meltwater from the glaciers flows down the mountain and collects in reservoirs held in place by twelve dams arranged in a circle. Pump stations at the reservoirs cycle the water through underground pipes back up into TSAC's can, and the cycle repeats.

Beyond the dams are six different sectors dedicated to different functions of TSAC's facility:

Comms. Sector: Contains communications nodes and the closest long-range communications spire. (an analogue to Sky Islands)

Farm Sector: Houses strip farms and automated harvesters that produce food and organic material used by the citizens of Zenith, TSAC's city. (an analogue of Farm Arrays)

Temple Sector: Home to the large temples TSAC's citizens use to conduct religious activities, as well as store their memories. (analogue to Shaded Citadel) This sector is also home to several large radio telescopes, located on the opposite side of the mountain range from the comms. towers in order to reduce radio interference.

Mining Sector: Contains many mine shafts and void fluid drills, to collect valuable minerals and void fluid. Because TSAC's facility is located at such a high altitude, these mine shafts reach deep, deep underground. (analogue to Pipeyard and parts of Subterranean)

Refinery Sector: Contains refineries to extract ore and useful minerals from material collected in the mines, and transports them to the nearby Industrial Sector. Also home to a large waste-processing plant, which breaks down and recycles waste from the nearby mines and factories. (analogue to Garbage Wastes and parts of Chimney Canopy)

Industrial Sector: Center for engineering, production, and manufacturing. The factories use material from the nearby Refinery Sector. The Industrial Sector is also home to a large Data Pearl factory, used to produce the cast amounts of pearls that TSAC needs for their research. (analogue to Industrial Complex)

The second map is TSAC's current facility, long after the mass ascension of the Ancients. Most of the biggest buildings remain intact, albeit with some structural damage. Key differences:

The pumps at TSAC's easternmost dam suffered a critical failure, causing the dam to burst. This flooded the nearby strip farms and caused that reservoir's water to flow down the mountainside where the pumps don't reach, effectively cutting off TSAC's access to it.

The pearl factory has been overtaken by a large group of scavengers, who have stripped the factory for scrap metal and data pearls.

These maps aren't exactly to scale (the mountain peaks should be bigger), don't show elevation, and don't account for things underground.

The different sectors are connected by a subterranean transit system, used to transport material and workers. A vast system of pipes also snakes underneath the mountain and up into TSAC's can to supply them with water and void fluid.

Also, directly beneath TSAC's can is a large frozen glacial lake, bathed in darkness from the can overhead.

I'll probably make a cross-section map at some point to show the landmarks at different elevations.

[vital-deloin]

Using seismic activity to probe the interior of Mars, geophysicists have found evidence for a large underground reservoir of liquid water — enough to fill oceans on the planet’s surface. While that’s good news for those tracking the fate of water on the planet after its oceans disappeared more than 3 billion years ago, the reservoir won’t be of much use to anyone trying to tap into it to supply a future Mars colony. It’s located in tiny cracks and pores in rock in the middle of the Martian crust, between 11.5 and 20 kilometers below the surface. Even on Earth, drilling that deep would be a challenge.. ⬇️