Instead of expanding the urban sewer system for draining all the new excess water expected — the "gray" solution — they're building parks that become ponds:
During heavy rains, the flowerbeds fill with water and wait to drain until the storm runoff subsides. The upside-down umbrellas collect water to be used later to nourish the plantings. And clever landscaping directs stormwater down into large underground water storage tanks. Above those tanks are bouncy floor panels that children love to jump on—when they do, the energy from their feet pumps water through the pipes below.
And streets that become canals:
During the worst deluges, certain streets with raised sidewalks will become “cloudburst boulevards,” creating a Venice-like cityscape of water channeled safely through the city until it can empty into the harbor....
"Water is used as a resource to improve urban life"....
ALSO:
In New Orleans: "a network of interlocking canals and water-absorbing parks... [t]he 'living with water' philosophy..." and (yikes!) "a new source of mosquito-born illnesses and even drowning risks...."
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19 comments:
Retention pond = Mosquito pond.
Does Denmark have a problem with water-shortage? These might all be fine ideas and attractive ways to hide functionality, but I'm sick to death of the green notion of solutions in search of problems and acting like something is problem when it actually isn't.
...but will the Muslim migrants understand it all?
But I like the idea of having kids running the pumps by jumping up and down. If only they'd make it mandatory for government workers.
If you create small pools of standing water without natural fauna populations to eat the larvae, you are mosquito farming. Is that really the crop they want?
Copenhagen is dead flat at sealevel. There are many solutions that are practical in Copenhagen, but will not work that well in, say, Denver, CO.
There are mosquitos in Scandinavia, especially in the north. One big one landed on the airfield in Bodø once, and they put 50 gallons of avgas in it before they noticed it was not a Cessna.
But the climate does not favor malaria or other tropical diseases. At least I never heard of any contracted at home when I grew up.
So climate change produces increased rainfall in Copenhagen, and drought in California. Interesting.
Malaria was quite common in northern lands until recently. Maybe DDT broke the chain of transmission; I don't think anyone knows.
"it’s an example of how the job of adapting to climate change can be turned from a seemingly negative thing into a positive one."
But we can't adapt. All we can do is die.
If, and only if, the Danes wish to improve public safety, they would expel all Muslim immigrants.
Why not build a pipeline to bring the excess water from northern Europe to the Mideast? The UN could be in charge, and the recent immigrants could provide the labor? It would be a win-win-win-win!
That only sounds like more expensive sewers.
Also, is it safe to regularly have a street full of rushing water?
Houston has been doing much this for years. We have retention ponds, parks that are below grade that will flood during storms, etc. The retention ponds are required in new developments in proportion to the amount of hard surface. Some of the ponds are designed to drain when the bayous empty out, some are permanent. The permanent ones have fountains to prevent stagnation and beautify the area.
There is no "solution" to climate change (formerly known as "global warming"). To think so is to think one is god. If the climate didn't "change" a many many years ago, then most of N. America would be covered in ice. Could we have stopped the volcanic activity 1000s of years ago that made the earth warmer than it is today?
Gumby's prophecy of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming cannot be contained in a simple mold.
Interesting moves by Copenhagen and maybe they will advance the science of urban hydrology and the technology of water management. Maybe they will share what they learn in a relevant way.
Or maybe it is just more Green grant-wangling with smoke, mirrors and never-never promises.
Acid test: are there numbers showing water problems before/after? Costs of alternate solutions? Life-cycle value?
The mosquito breeding problem is a possible example of unanticipated consequences. And there are always those.
Great idea! Anyone competent designing it? After all, water management is just about man's earliest technology. 5000 years, that we know, of hydrology experience to guide 'em.
tim maguire said...
Does Denmark have a problem with water-shortage?
No, actually the problem that this si supposed to deal with is too much rainfall. The ideas is this is cheaper tahn adding capacity to the sewer system. As for why they expect more rain, there us because there is, or it is estimated there is, approximately 5% more water vapor in the atmosphere than there was at some point in the past. I don't know why that has to mean more rain. That might be a separate calculation. Why that measn more rain will fall in the future in Denmark is not too clear. Climate change is actualy supposed to change rainfall patterns, too. But the theory is anyway, there will be/are more big storms, and more blizzards.
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