#irrigation

[thunderstruck9]

Maxfield Parrish (American, 1870-1966), Water Let in on a Field of Alfalfa, 1902. Oil on paper laid down on board by the artist, image: 15½ x 10 in.; board: 17 x 11¼ in.

[blondebrainpowered]

Orange trees being watered in a Spanish courtyard.

[inziladun]

A map, a myth and a pre-Incan lagoon: the man who brought water back to a drought-ridden town

When historian Galo Ramón uncovered a long-forgotten pre-Incan water system in Ecuador, he set about restoring it, and helped transform the

Ramón discovered that designs for the Pisaca lagoon were recorded in maps, wills, accounts of land disputes, property titles and interviews. He realised the Paltas had developed a system for sowing and harvesting water that involved collecting and infiltrating rainwater, groundwater and underground runoff (sowing) to recover it later when it reappeared in springs and wells downstream (harvesting). That system enabled the Paltas to regulate water flows and store water in aquifers for domestic use and irrigation during periods of drought. “The springs tend to increase significantly during the rainy months and then dry out by August due to poor soil permeability. Without the Paltas’ system, water runoff is rapid, so you don’t have a permanent source to feed the spring,” Ramón says. The main element of this system is the artificial lentic – or still water – wetland (cocha in Quechua) created at high altitudes to collect rainwater during the rainy months. The Paltas built these lagoons on fractured rocky terrain – the permeability of the pond bottoms allowed for slow water infiltration and aquifers to recharge.

[wikipediapictures]

Natsuko Dam

[rowanrabe]

The beginning of my irrigation project in the Withered Wasteland. Also me and my bestie Lapras.

[jasonstiff]

When Montana farmers need to irrigate, but Mother Nature drops lows into the teens and 20s, it makes for a beautuful photo opportunity.

#Montana #farming #water #irrigation #cold #ice #beautiful #photography #Wednesday #weather

[myfairynuffstuff]

Archibald Bertram Webb (1887 - 1944) - Irrigating Currant Vines, Australia c.1927. Colour lithograph.

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Solar panels on water canals seem like a no-brainer. So why aren't they widespread?

The idea of putting solar panels on top of the world's thousands of miles of irrigation canals has long seemed like a good one.

I really hope they can work the bugs out of this solution, because if it's done right, it'll really be a win-win situation. Less evaporation of water, and solar power being generated every day? Yes, please. We are smart, resourceful beings, and this is far from the most difficult problem we've had to address.

This is also a great example of how we can go back and fix mistakes of the past. We very, very rarely ever come up with technological solutions that take long-term effects on the environment into consideration, and so the way many things are designed often leads to some sort of damage, whether through manufacture, use, disposal, or all of the above. Retrofitting canals (which have been used in agriculture for thousands of years) will have benefits not only in the ways mentioned above, but also gets people thinking more about the impacts we make.

I'm hoping that this will lead to more new technology being developed in ways that already anticipate and account for negative impacts so that they avoid them in the first place, rather than having to engineer new solution many years down the line.