View of urban runoff discharging to coastal waters (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I have noticed how when civilization encroaches on the riparian buffer zones, that the watershed always suffers in process, eventually to be reduced to storm water runoff channels and canals.
Being someone that can see the environmental impact of people on nature, I am always appalled by the results of civilization. Lately, I have noticed the effect a lot when looking at Google Maps or Google Earth.
Lately I have thought I should start a non-profit organisation that finds angel investors that are willing to invest into the non-profit, and use the funds to buy up Riparian Buffers Zones, and hire environmentally aware people to live on these lands and to manage them, gathering runoff from the city and filtering it, catching the nastiness like engine oil and tire dust and other gook, and then using the partially decontaminated water to grow fuel crops on small patches and parcels of the purchased land.
In some areas of cities, the runoff ditches would not lend themselves to living on them, but the easement strips along those runoff channels and ditches constantly require mowing and weed management, so they could be used to grow more fuel crops instead, so with some smart water channeling, the runoff water would grow crops, the crops would convert waste water and organic compounds in the water into fertilizer and irrigation, and the fuel crops in turn could be used to run part of the operation’s equipment and vehicles, either in the form of converting the biomass into ethanol to run in E85 vehicles, or turned into Syn-Gas to run electric generation plants which then power some of the operation’s infrastructure.
There are other positive side effects to doing this, one of which is turning areas that normally grow invasive or allergy causing weeds that use up precious fossil fuels (for weed control), into areas that produce a product for the amount of fossil fuels utilized to manage the areas, and if managed properly, these areas would not require toxic weed management techniques or supplies, and the land would slowly become less and less toxic as the biological action in the soil can begin to break down the toxic compounds already deposited on the land.
Then, if we use IP enabled remote sensors and a WiFi private LAN to manage and record the sensor data, we can monitor and manage the Riparian Buffer Zone(s) with minimal personnel, and concentrate on planting and harvesting fuel crops and improving the environment.
Anyway, I needed to record this phase of my though processes, hopefully I can pursue this further in future posts.
