BACKGROUND:

Asa consequence of global warming, floods have become a major concernover the world. In particular we have experienced this by first handin our country, Uruguay. This inspired us to come up with a solutionfocused on a city scale.

WHAT IT DOES:

Studying topographic maps andflood records of Montevideo, we distinguished different areas whichare affected by this problematic. For instance, the sewage system maycollapse as a result of a bad canalization.

Using the existinginfrastructure, and implementing certain modifications we proposecreating an underground system which consists of tanks that can storethe exceeding water, and later release it to a bigger tank that wouldbe at a lower altitude. Making use of the topographic data and floodrecords, the positioning of the tanks in a geographic area can beplanned. Also, according to the annual rain records the dimension ofthe tanks can be determined.

The tanks will have filters toavoid waste, sediments and microorganisms. Also they will need anannual maintenance to avoid the pipes obstruction.

Talking about the design of thetank, in order to avoid the dependence of electrical network, wedecide to base it in the “Pitagoras’ Cup” concept. Whenever acertain level of water is reached the tank empties itself totally,letting the water proceed its course to the bottom of the system.

All the collected water in thebottom tanks can be later reused (with a proper treatment) at severalapplications such as industrial processes, irrigation systems, firetrucks, etc.

FUTURE PLANS:

Something that should beconsider is the implementation of sensors that could constantlymonitor the water level, letting to more detailed data of the volumeof precipitations and a better knowledge of the tank situation. Incase of an imminent storm, certain tanks could be purged by addingwater to empty the tanks (a consequence of its design). This sensor could be powered bythe water current itself, making it an independent monitoring system.

The difference between this project at the scale of a cup with the one proposed is that one cannot rely on capillarity, which doesn't mean it can't be solved.This siphon system is nowadays used in some toilets, and making it work by releasing a big amount of water at once. In order to implement this idea to the big water tanks, a something similar to a see-saw can be implemented. By control its point of rotation, the length of this see-saw an calculating how much mass is needed to make it rotate, a very good approximation of the water temporary collected and released at once can be estimated (it would be a simple calculation dealing with an almost hydrostatic problem and torque, given that the current coming from the rain would be small compared to the mass of water that the see-saw would be holding).

Pilot project can beimplemented in a certain city, to later decide in which areas aroundthe world the system would prosper.

PROJECT BENEFITS:

The water would not only bestored but reused in many different applications, as well asmitigating the floods in critical areas. This also means animprovement in the health aspect because diseases spread by waterstagnation would be avoided.

Moreover, the costs of theproject are drastically reduced as a result of using existinginfrastructure.

HOW IT WOULD BE CARRIED OUT

The main partner of thisproject would be the city hall because it has the control over publicareas. Also the citizens can get involved by sharing their concernsand ideas (e.g.: wanting a tank from which to take water forirrigating public parks).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

https://www.unicef.org/spanish/wash/wes_related.ht...

https://baptisthealth.net/baptist-health-news/es/e...

http://www.inia.uy/gras/Clima/Precipitación-n…

https://www.dinama.gub.uy/indicadores_ambientales/…

https://es-uy.topographic-map.com/maps/fwfr/Montev...

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