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Raiding the Bread Basket - Use and Abuse of the Mississippi River Basin
- 28 Jan 2012
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- Abuse Agriculture Basin Enviroment Food Irrigation January 28 2012 Mississippi Rivers
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"You wake up to cereal made from midwestern corn. You slip on cotton clothes, get into a vehicle fueled partly by ethanol and dine later on chicken and rice—all made possible by crops from the Mississippi River Basin, a vast area that stretches from Montana to New York and drains all or parts of 31 states.

The part of the basin east of the Mississippi River largely relies on rain to grow crops; farmers on the west side irrigate much, much more. All told, it's among the most productive farming regions in the world."

via news.nationalgeographic.com
Waterproof Sand Could Green the Deserts
- 24 Jan 2012
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- Irrigation January 24 2012 Nanotechnology Natural Resources Water desert
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"Global freshwater use tripled during the second half of the twentieth century as population more than doubled and as technological advances let farmers and other water users pump groundwater from greater depths and harness river water with more and larger dams. As global demand soars, pressures on the world’s water resources are straining aquatic systems worldwide. Rivers are running dry, lakes are disappearing, and water tables are dropping. Nearly 70 percent of global water withdrawals from rivers, lakes, and aquifers are used for irrigation, while industry and households account for 20 and 10 percent, respectively" World's Water Resources Face Mounting Pressure

"When regular desert sand lies beneath, water bleeds endlessly downward leaving roots dry until the next watering.

With new hydrophobic sand in place, traditional watering of desert plants five or six times a day can be reduced to one watering, saving 75 per cent more water, a precious resource that is dwindling...
One of the advantages of the hydrophobic sand... is that while it allows aerobic activity to move upward from the soil, it prevents underground desert salinity deposits from passing through to plant roots above; salt is corrosive and kills plants."

via nextbigfuture.com
California's Big Squirt, 1951
- 19 Dec 2011
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- 18December11 Engineering Futuristic Historical Inventions Irrigation
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"The parched deserts of Southern California need water to transform their barren soil into fertile farmlands and tourist Meccas such as those existing elsewhere in the state. So far the problem has remained unsolved. But Sidney Cornell, a Los Angeles construction engineer, thinks he has a solution. He wants to construct a series of geyser-like power plants one mile apart to shoot water from the mouth of one into the funnel of the next, as depicted here by MI artist Frank Tinsley. The water would arc over hilly sections, have a flat trajectory over plains. Its velocity would approach 400 mph. These stations— 400 in all—would cost about $300,000 each."

via blog.modernmechanix.com
Airdrop Irrigation Concept Wins James Dyson Award
- 11 Nov 2011
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- 10November11 Agriculture Airdrop Contests Innovations Irrigation
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"The Airdrop irrigation concept is a response to poor agricultural conditions in periods of severe drought. Extensive research into droughts revealed an increase in soil evaporation and trans-evaporation (plant and soil) due to the increasing temperatures. Airdrop Irrigation works to provide a solution to this problem. Moisture is harvested out of the air to irrigate crops by an efficient system that produces large amounts of condensation."

via jamesdysonaward.org

Raiding the Bread Basket - Use and Abuse of the Mississippi River Basin

Waterproof Sand Could Green the Deserts

California's Big Squirt, 1951

Airdrop Irrigation Concept Wins James Dyson Award

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