March 22, 2016
by Building The World
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We can live three weeks without food, but only three days without water. Our world faces a water crisis. Alarmingly, every 90 seconds a child dies of a water-related disease. Both developing and developed global areas suffer water problems; Flint, … Continue reading
January 23, 2016
by Building The World
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Flint, Michigan has made world news for a sad reason. In a temporary cost-cutting measure, authorities switched the city’s watersupply from Lake Huron (via Detroit) to the Flint River, known to contain corrosive minerals. Absent filters or other safeguards, river … Continue reading
December 29, 2015
by Building The World
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Depletion of underground aquifers accelerates global sea rise. According to a study published in Nature by a team of researchers including Yoshihido Wada of NASA Goddard Institute at Columbia University and Marc Bierkens of Utrecht University, groundwater use is rapidly … Continue reading
December 1, 2015
by Building The World
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Urban centers with populations over 10 million, megacities are the greatest consumers of resources, especially water. When London reached limits to growth, the New River allowed the city to expand. At a time when the Tiber threatened health and safety, … Continue reading
November 18, 2015
by Building The World
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Water is life, some would state. Water resources determined success of some of the world’s greatest cities: Baghdad, London, Rome, Singapore. Environmental consequences of climate change can be observed in water resources: floods devastate; drought strangles. Earth, the water planet, … Continue reading
June 8, 2015
by Building The World
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“Take two walks and call me in the morning,” might be among future prescriptions. Pediatrician Dr. Robert Zarr has created a database of 350 parks and green spaces in Washington, DC, integrating data into Unity Health Care’s system; doctors can … Continue reading
June 3, 2015
by Building The World
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World water is in crisis. For example, 70% of Tanzanian households lack clean drinking water: now Askwar Hilonga, of the Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology, is about to change that. Growing up in rural Tanzania, the chemical engineer recalls … Continue reading
May 22, 2015
by Building The World
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California is setting precedent. Facing drought of unprecedented severity, a group of farmers in the threatened Sacramento and San Joaquin River delta have offered to reduce their water usage by 25%, or leave 25% of their fields unplanted, in exchange … Continue reading
February 25, 2015
by Building The World
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Earth may be a water planet, but this vital resource is not evenly distributed. Over 1.2 billion people face water scarcity; another 1.6 billion live in areas with enough water but not enough infrastructure to carry supplies from aquifers, … Continue reading
October 20, 2014
by Building The World
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Ancient Rome had more water per person than most of today’s cities. And there was enough for fountains, celebrated in Ottorino Respighi’s “Fontane di Roma.” Water is a limit to growth: Tiber threatened, Rome sent expeditions to the … Continue reading