Saturday, July 21, 2007

Passive Water Harvesting

My own emphasis has been on the production of a active water harvesting device capable of been deployed everywhere. There are locales in which passive systems can be used beneficially.

A great example is the rigging of plastic nets in the Atacama Desert in Chile and Peru. These harvested dew at night in enough quantity to supply a village with drinking water. Again a combination with trees growing adjacent could prove economicly successful. The trees should be placed in small depressions to help collect additional moisture collecting on the leaves.

There are many places were this strategy can be used that will prove a lot easier than the Atacama.

Another method is the dew pond technique used by country men in the distant past throughout England. This is really taking advantage of the fact that a pile of large stones allows good air flow and that the interior will remain chilled. I can envisage building windrows of stones in a stony desert that both clears and levels the land while establishing a dew collector on the boundaries. Neat trick if this could be productive enough.

What is critical is taking advantage of natural topography at least, and then modifying the terrain to maximize response. This is a lot of effort, yet justified since it is maintained perpetually threafter with little additional effort.


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