Dear Colleagues:
Greetings. I am writing because in the relatively near future our
department is going to be moving to a new building. I asked the
administration whether we could get roof access to do environmental
monitoring or to place solar panels to provide energy to constantly run
some nature and research-oriented programming on TVs a few floors below
in the student lounge. Though they admin seems open to the idea, they
also need a proposal in 2 weeks. So, given these time constraints (and
my inexperience!) I thought I might reach out to colleagues who have had
success setting up various types of systems as described above. I would
like to do this for the obvious educational and environmental reasons,
but have no experience. The area we have to work with is about 20 feet
by 20 feet, we are in the arid city of Las Vegas, and there are no
taller buildings or mountains next to us. I am open to all ideas,
including joining a government or university monitoring network so we
add value to that which already exists. It would be wonderful if we can
display the real-time data we collect in the lounge or on the web.
Does anyone care to share plans they have used or maybe offer some other
guidance? We would like our actions to provide a good example to our
students.
Best wishes,
BILL
PS Apologies for cross-posting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. William James Smith, Jr.
Assistant Professor
Department of Environmental Studies
Greenspun College of Urban Affairs
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
4505 Maryland Parkway, Box 454030
Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-4030
phone: (702) 895-4439
fax: (702) 895-4436
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://environment.unlv.edu/
Adjunct Assistant Professor
The University of Iowa
Department of Geography
http://www.uiowa.edu/~geog/people.htm
Some samples of ongoing research (most not included, but
available upon request)--
http://www.philippinefamily.net/CEEPresearch.html
Micronesian Source Water Protection Coalition
http://www.philippinefamily.net/fsmswpp.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Old man, Ouaninou, Ivory Coast
"I admire your courage and I know that you are doing everything in your
power to give us water, but may I give you some advice? <...> I have
noticed that in the dry season the termite hills continue to grow. And
termites need a lot of water. They look for water in the brooks deep
down in the earth. I know the location of the termite hills in the
fields around the village. Do you see the one located at the lowest
level? Put your machine there. You'll find water there". An old man
from a village close to Ouaninou, in the Western part of Ivory Coast,
talking to the head of a well drilling team that had drilled
unsuccessfully for water for three days. The following day the team
found water at the location indicated by the old man.
(Clavreul, J.Y. (2003). The wisdom of the elderly, water and termite
hills.
In: Graaf, S. de (ed). Water stories. Delft, The Netherlands, IRC,
http://www.irc.nl/products/publications/title.php?id=159 )
