While you’re here maybe you can answer this or make a video on it. explain to me why we can’t use solar towers to evaporate water to purify it while also generating electricity at the same time.
Ooh! It's Grady! I have a minor issue with the water tower listed at 2:59, and your water hammer video has all the background you'd need to understand. Basically, this video lumping it in with water towers without some caveat is slightly burying the lead. Since there is no tank on top, this tower is not very for storing significant amounts of water. The key is finding where this style is built: near pump houses built early on in the 20th century. Back then municipal water was pumped by giant steam pumps, rather than modern electric impeller style pumps. Their enormous pistons created constant pulses of pressure that would tear apart pipes without some way of letting off all that energy. In your video you talk about surge arrestors which use an elastic bladder to absorb some of the energy of pressure changes. You then mention traditional tank style water towers being able to absorb the surges by driving the water up when the pressure increase, and which consequentially also normalize the low pressure valleys by the hydraulic weight of the water coming back down. For reducing water hammer, the diameter of the water column doesn't really matter (give or take friction and resistance) as hydraulic head is simply a measure of how high up the surface of the water is. So, you really just need a pipe connected to the water network, sticking up out of the ground, open to the air on top with some screening to make sure bugs and worse debris don't get in. Make sure the pipe is taller than the maximum hydraulic head you expect so none spills out the top, and you have a standpipe. Now, in some places the standpipe is just iron pipe standing up out of the ground, and I do love when a thing's name describes exactly what it is. But some places decided to pretty it up a bit, such as the Chicago Water Tower shown at the time listed in the beginning of this increasingly long comment. And then there is my favorite, which is also a standpipe and not a "traditional" water tower: Milwaukee's North Point Water Tower. I mean, just search for some images of this fairy tale inspired piece of architecture. And to top it off, in the mid 80's an artist made a 30 foot long dragon sculpture that perched on a window of the tower for five days. Which brings to mind my actual favorite version of this water tower, which unfortunately doesn't exist in this reality (yet.) In my memory the dragon has grown larger and larger like a fisherman's prized catch until now I distinctly remember an elegant, regal copper dragon completely covered in patina from the years it spent there, body curled up around and around the tower like a powder blue Wat Samphran, watching out over and past the horizon of Lake Michigan, scanning for... hydraulic transients, I guess? And I think the world would be a better place if more municipalities dressed their infrastructure up with this level of whimsey. I'll also give some points to those communities that paint their water tower tanks with giant smiley faces.
@@moonam8389 there is a lot in Poland, some are quite old. Here is some examples from polish Wikipedia pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wie%C5%BCa_ci%C5%9Bnie%C5%84#Galeria
One way of water conservation I saw in Japan was having a sink on top of the toilet tank so the water that’s used to wash hands after doing your business is stored in the tank to flush the toilet for the next use.
Other solutions in the Western USA: Get rid of lawns, rain water harvesting, water recycling and get farmers to pay for water at cost so they'd have to conserve. Desalinate only when there is excess renewable energy.
Agree with all of those ideas. The main issue though with charging farmers water at cost is that it would most likely bankrupt 99% of farmers. I think the way we think of agriculture needs to completely change. We need a lot more farms just at a very small scale, that way peak efficiency can be achieved.
But if you charge farmers more you, they have to charge more for their food to stay profitable. Meaning that the price of food will go up, not everyone could afford. And the government could never pay for it either.
@@EglomHistory When the price of water is low, farmers use too much to grow thirsty crops such as alfalfa, rice and almonds. Taking too much water from underground aquifers caused the ground to sink as much as 30 feet, destroys the soils because of salt accumulation and farming land displaces wildlife. The Central Valley has good soil, plentiful sunshine, but not enough water. These farmers that damage the environment need to go out of business. Higher water price will force farmers to innovate (look at Israel being to grow food in the desert). The cost of our foods must include the damage to the environment, otherwise, soon, there won't be an environment left to grow foods.
@@gr8bkset-524 farmers have to already maintain their lands environment or they can’t make it profitable. I see that you mentioned you live in the Suburbs of Los Angeles in another comment, well I live in rural Alberta both my grandfathers were farmers. And not everyone could afford the raise in the cost of food. The farmers are more important to our survival then Bill Gates, Greta Thunberg or UA-cam’s: we should respect them not plot to put them out of business
@@AshLilburne price demand model? Read the DOE's order #202-21-1 from 2-14-2021 stating extra energy couldn't be generated for under $1,500 Mw/h. That called a govt planned, price fixing, bread line venezuelan economy
It's always weird when your small hometown is featured in a stock image. I definitely had to watch that part again! Thanks for showing Salem's water towers!
Answer: A private company or a legal entity owned by the central government or local municipality generates electricity at a power plant that is fueld either by Coal, Oil or Nuclear or they use a giant wind farm usually located a few miles at least ~10 miles away from the city border or they'll use solar panels (wind & solar are extremely uncommon) or they'll build a dam on a usually large section of a river which is generally located at the edge of the city. Most cities then send this electricity from the source to a transformer where it then travels through large pylons to smaller transformers where it is then sent through smaller pylons to individual buildings either above ground travelling through wooden poles or under the pavement/sidewalk. Some cities like London will build dedicated tunnels under large and wide rivers so that the grid can span both sides of rivers such as the tunnel under the River Thames in London. Most electricity in cities is generated by coal, oil or nuclear in plants in industrial estates in urban areas or just outside or on the city border where a plant failure will do less damage but will be further away from consumers of electricity . Most coal, oil and/or nuclear is transported to the power plant by rail using either dedicated frieght rail lines or on branch lines or they'll transport by road using a truck/lorry powered by Diesel (in most places), hydrogen or CNG or in former soviet states such as Ukraine they might use electricity by use of trolleybus wires and with oil specifically they'll use an oil pipe for the most secure method of transporting the fuel for the plant. Specifically in Texas, there is an electricity shortage because eco-communists like Bill Gates or Greta Thunberg pressured the Texan state government to end the use of "non-renewables" which means anything that isn't wind or solar and whats happened is that the big storm they had, has covered all the solar panels making them unusable and the the wind turbines have frozen up so they can't spin during high winds and only a few years ago they had decomissioned some (I think it was nuclear but I'm not entirely sure) power plants that didn't use wind or solar as a source and now they can't generate enough electricity to the grid which is something that's been going on in Calafornia for years its just that in CA, they started importing electricity from other states despite the high cost & low efficiency rates of doing so...
@@bishbosh4815 nope. This is all stuff I've learnt in my own time and some of it was in GCSE geography but most of it in my own time. An extra note as to whats happening in Texas is that I've heard that one of their nuclear plants wasn't prepared for the winter storm and so that has also contributed to the electricity shortage. I also gave this video a thumbs DOWN due to a William H. Gates sponsorship, a man who wants to depopulate the earth and usher in global communism.
In one comic-book adventure Asterix the Gaul passes by one of them being built and says, "The Romans are ruining the countryside with their new construction!"
How would you deliver that water across Europe? How much would be the cost of setting such a cross-region infrastructure? Think twice... how many people live in Slovakia compared to entirety of Europe? When will the underground water run out?
Yeah we'll be fine until we get a constant stream of climate refugees that will make 2015 look like childsplay. Although I'm less worried about the refugees than the nazis and other extremists they will give rise to
Hey City Beautiful, I think you should make a video on the recent winter storm in Texas, and compare our infrastructure to infrastructure in more wintery climates.
Zzzzzzzzzzt......and you mucked up the entire grid by not investing in key infrastructure protection measures. There goes the electricity, now those water pumps just failed, the oil refineries are now stressed. What are those poor fire fighters going to do? Let the large apartment burn. Smooth move Exlax.
@@Wells306 I'm talking about the current water crisis. Most of Texas either has no water at all or is under a boil advisory. Where I live in Dallas the water is unsafe and smells like sulfur.
I'm in East Texas. The source in my town is an aquifer, but in the nearby city it's a man-made lake and recycled from waste and tastes so terrible you can even taste it in the drinks from fast food soda machines and sometimes even the food.
You mentioned agriculture but you didn't mention how changes to the agricultural industry could help solve the water shortage and decrease its impact on the environment (permaculture, mulching, no dig methods, etc). You focused on the individual, and while yes everyone has to play their part, systemic changes have to be put into place before blaming individuals.
Here in Rochester Minnesota we have a water tower that's a giant ear of corn 🌽 that's almost 100 years old. I have yet to see a cooler water tower anywhere else.
Desalination creates other environmental issues, such as disrupting and killing local marine life. Also it's extremely power-intensive. It could be done in a green way with micro-nuclear power plants, but often these urban areas are spooked by nuclear energy and vote against it.
@@razzy1 sure. Just saying that cost is the reason why desalination instead more widespread. Maybe we shouldnt build megacities in deserts, or have agriculture in Southern California, either
@@buddabulletproof yes thats true, but we also shouldn’t be eating so much meat. Currently if the us switched completely over to just eating vegetables, it would only use the size of 1 of the smaller states, and it would use much less water. As of right now the us uses like half the country for meat production.
sydney had drought conditions for a few years - its main drinking dam water level dropped dangerously low. water restriction measure were put in place, but it wasnt enough (at the time). in response the state govt built a desal plant that i think has come online twice in the past decade. opposition at the time said it was a massive expenditure for little return - having it available as an option meant we had enough drinking water when required, especially in the summer months where a brutal el nino can have deadly effects on vulnerable australians who dont have access to enough water or some other method of keeping cool.
As someone who has worked in storm and sewer maintenance (albeit only for 3 months) theres so much intricacy that goes into the underground pipe work. The elevation from one manhole to the next to ensure that all the sewage and water wont stop along the way, the mathematical equations that are made to figure out the sizing of pipe, based off of amount of houses in the area. A lot more to it than people realize.
Umm I can’t really say what my favorite water towers are because there aren’t water towers in Hawai’i. Also I think people that are on tap really need to learn how to conserve water. As someone who lives off of catchment, I am shocked by the blatant overuse of water I often see from people
Great video, but one major downfall that was forgotten for the desalination solution is the huge amount of brine (highly concentrated salt) that would be a byproduct of making ocean water drinkable, which currently doesn’t have any use so it must be stored somewhere and monitored. That, and the fact that desalination plants are currently extremely expensive.
I feel like whenever you post a video, my happiness increases exponentially, like I'm always waiting to see new content from you. I honestly don't know what I'll do when you retire. 🤓
I live in a moderate-size town (Kamloops, about 100,000 people). The climate is arid but we have ample water from the Thompson river, fed by snow in the mountains. No water towers, though: our water reservoirs are up local mountains.
@@michaelmichael2382 this is true, though grass (at least as used in most lawns) should be a much lower priority than it is. Also, When you water it is super important. Late evening is best. (No risk of the droplets causing lensing effects that damage the plants, And far less water is lost to evaporation.) Also, most other countries have less lawns than the USA, at least in areas that don't get enough rain to support the grass naturally. More proper farmland or high density housing, less suburban sprawl dumping huge amounts of water into unproductive uses like keeping the lawn green in the hottest part of the year (grass can, generally, survive the dry and heat of summer (in climates where summer is fairly dry), its leaves just go brown and dead in the meantime. But that doesn't look nice, so for maintaining lawns enough extra water is expended to simulate spring and autumn rains. Which is very wasteful.) Watering the plants that will actually die otherwise is perfectly reasonable (well, unless you've chosen Particularly unsuitable plants), likewise for food crops. Lawns, though, are mostly pure vanity, and in climates that don't naturally support them, utterly wasteful.
It’s crazy that Los Angeles has Half the population but double the Pollution of NYC. It’s crazy Its almost like to the point were the mountains are just used as an excuse.
My favorite Water Tower is the one in Hallandale Beach. It's like 60 feet tall but looks tinny next to the 2, 400 feet tall apartment building and hotel on either side of it.
Water planning researcher here: this subject, as many others, can be discussed so much, I'll just bring up two things: first, desalination can be a problem as much as a solution, not only because of the increased energy consumption but also because of the impact on marine ecosystems, problems in the management of sub products like brine, the inevitable increase in the price of tap water, the usual problems with quality and taste, and sudden changes on water consumption patterns. Second: this falls into your solution number 2, water conservation; the best possible cultural change that could happen for water conservation is the massification of veganism, or at least a drastic reduction of meat consumption. Worldwide, food production is the biggest use of water, and meat production is the most inefficient way to produce nutrients, even proteins, when it comes to water and land use goes. The production of a unit of meat requires several times the water and land of the production of an equivalent unit of crop vegetables, fruits, etc.
I'm a municipal engineer in Quebec, and I have a few comments: 1) We do not seem to use water towers in Quebec. All pumps used for water or sewage must have a back-up electricity generator. They are usually diesel generators, but at least one of the city of Montreal's water treatment plant has a gas power plant. If the pump is required for fire protection (for example, water pressure is not sufficient in part of the city to provide fire protection, sometimes a pump will be installed to boost pressure in case of fire), the pump needs to be tested daily. 2) I used to think that the increased demand for water in the summer came from watering lawns, filling pools, etc., and that may be true in suburban residential areas, but in areas with large buildings, such as downtown or in commercial / industrial zones, the increased demand comes from the cooling towers of central air-conditioning systems. During a heat wave, those cooling towers require an enormous amount of water. I know of the case of a hospital, for example, where at 100F, half the water consumption for the hospital is for the cooling tower. Air-cooled systems are available, but they are much larger and more expensive than water-cooled systems, and tend to be used in desert countries such as Saudi Arabia.
There's a bobber-shapped water tower in Pequot Lakes, MN. It's a landmark located in the heart of the town and is by far the most recognizable part of it. The tower no longer stores water anymore (there's another water tower south of the town that serves as the real water tower), but it's still a cool landmark.
One small issue about desalination no one talks about is what happens to the salt when its gone. Either you store it, making an expensive system more expensive, or it goes back into the water, not only making it more energy intensive to desalinate the saltier water, but screws up the local ecology because of the different salinity levels. Still very useful as something to do when theres no other option for mega wealthy cities, but in no ways ideal
Favorite "Water Tower" is the North Point Water Tower on the East Side of Milwaukee! While no water is there anymore, it covers up a pipe that used to hold water.
9:42 Informal settlements in Africa particularly are a problem on 4 levels: - Increased risk of flooding because of less surface area for rainwater to seap through (so more runnoff into the streets) - More wasted water, since less finds its way into the aquifer. which means the water cannot be re-pumped for use (in the long term) + sinks the affected area. - 3 & 4 are mentioned in at 9:42 in the video
My favourite water tower is the Grimsby dock tower. It was built in 1852 and was opened by Queen Victoria, it is styled like the Torre del Mangia in Italy. Sadly it is no longer in use.
Two former water towers in Hamburg, Germany. Now re-used as planetarium and hotel respectively: 1. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburg_Planetarium 2. de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schanzenturm Couldn’t find an English translation for the second, but it says it used to be the biggest water tower in Europe when built in 1910.
My favorite water tower is the Ypsilanti Water Tower in Michigan, I live near it and it’s beautiful but also the worlds largest most phallic object haha
I live in Cape Town South Africa. We came right up to the brink of this. Our city managers were warned in 2011 about the inevitable collapse of water supply and given a huge menu of options of what they could do. They did... none of them. When we came to the brink of the taps running dry they've belatedly started to implement various strategies - including desalination and tapping aquifers - to make up for the city's continually growing population. Luckily citizens of every income level responded well to reduce usage. I spoke to a couple from Chennai, which did experience the taps actually running dry. They told me that rampant, unrestrained development in the water table due to Tamil Nadu's less than stellar government had absorbed masses of rainfall before it could get to the source water.
The Dole Pineapple Water Tower in Honolulu (1928-1993) stored water for fire prevention for the cannery. It was sad to see this landmark dismantled due to rusting as it was no longer maintained in great condition after the cannery closed.
Cadillac Desert was also made into a documentary which you can find on youtube. Also, the movie Chinatown was based on the story about how LA stole its water from the Owens.
Favourite water tower? I lived in Poland for 6 months and Bydgoszcz, while not in use anymore is probably one of my favourites I've witnessed and been in in life. 😍
My favourite water tower is the one on my profile picture, it’s a mile from where I live and I have a video on my channel on where exactly it can be located in Chicago
Ok, out of all dams in the world, you have used Orlík dam (0:52) which is purely hydroelectric facility. But you got like for that. BTW, that thing on the left is unfinished boat lift. On the other hand it regulates flow of Vltava from which Prague gets (again), part of it's water supply, so I think that counts.
I was fascinated to learn that Lake Dillon is a reservoir owned by the city of Denver. There’s a tunnel that pipes water from there across the continental divide into Denver’s watershed. This is because most of Colorado’s rainfall (or snowfall for that matter) happens in the mountains and Western Slope, while the vast majority of the population lives on the Front Range.
My favourite water tower was the one that was just down the street from the house I grew up in. They named the neighbourhood Tower Hill, then they removed the water tower so now the name makes no sense. Some people now call it Notower Hill.
I don't know if I have a favorite water tower. But my favorite water tank El Palacio de las Aguas (The Water Palace) located in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Desalination seems like a good way to deal with intermittent renewable energy sources. The plant can adjust to the amount of available power and soak up surpluses when the wind and sun are plentiful turning surplus power into surplus water and then throttle back when the availability drops.
take a look at the chateau d'eau de Douvrin in France , here watertowers a concrete-built most of the times and municipalites tend to paint theses more and more !
I know you're channel mostly focuses on North American urban stuff but do you know why there are relatively far fewer water towers in the UK than the US? I see those big fancy water towers all the time in US TV/movies but they are quite rare here in the UK!
@@Maazin5 Not really, but I know houses often have a tank in the attic for hot water but as far as I know the cold water is under pressure from the mains water supply?
St. Louis has some great water towers. Compton Hill tower on south Grand is beautiful, and north Grand has two just as amazing towers only a few blocks from each other on Bissle street and one in a traffic circle on Grand. And can’t forget the Catsup water tower just across the river on 159 in Collinsville.
In much of Asia water needs to be boiled to drink, and some places use seawater for flushing toilets. Many people regularly buy big jugs of bottled water, or have reverse osmosis filters fitted in their homes.
New York's history with water is a lot more complicated. Manhattan lightning island of rivers in lenape Algonquin. However, by the 19th century, we had outstripped local sources of clean water. the main source of water in New York City was the collecting pond, which was an environmental nightmare. It was situated within the city and was used for drinking water, wastewater, and Industrial uses. When we built the aqueduct system to bring water in from upstate, the collecting pond got filled in and became five points, which was a different form of cesspool. We currently have two functioning pipes into the city, and these are leaking. Fortunately, we are building a third
Here’s a shout out to all friends, family, and people that decided to move out of the Midwest to CA or TX. You wanted to move there for the weather so don’t complain about the fires and drought! And please don’t come crawling back in masses.
The Great Thirst - Norris Hundley if you’re interested in going deeper. Hundley is THE GUY for California water history, and the book is a detailed history of how water management has defined the state’s history and enabled it’s growth. CA has more water experience than just about anywhere and provides lessons for future projects. Highly recommend!
@Bob Landers there used to be a couple lakes in the San Joaquin Valley. The Central Valley has a challenging watershed. 70-80% of the water is in the northern Sacramento Valley, but 2/3 of the land is in the San Joaquin. In addition, most Central Valley land is unusable in natural state due to the flooding caused by the El Niño/La Niña cycle and the 10yr drought cycle. The most extensive system of dams, reservoirs, canals, and aqueducts in the world was constructed to bring the watershed under control and turn the valley into an extremely productive agricultural region
My favourite Water Tower is the John Street Pumping Station in Toronto. It used to sit where the Skydome (where Blue Jays play) now is and initially the dome was built around it. It was then relocated in the 80s. I like it for its history but mostly because it looks like an evil villain (like Dr. Evil)’s lair or something lol.
Water tower nerd here. Always been partial to the flashlight/lightsaber hilt standing on end but the traditional small town 20s, home of the Warner brothers and their sister Dot ( call her Dottie and die) watertower comes in second
In Brisbane, a number of the 19th century water towers were sunk into the ground at the crest of various hills around the city. They were then capped with natty little corrugated steel roofs that sit just above ground. Most of them are still in service, but the one on Spring Hill was taken out of service and converted into an opera house. Check it out. encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ9rj-UW4wCycvcYtk1lnyH6810A4HkDEK2MQ&usqp=CAU I reckon it's one of the top two opera houses in Australia.
Good to see how everything works. If i had one piece of advice it would be to store some water you never know when a pipe might bust and you be out of luck for days.
We had a yellow water tower near my hometown called the Smiley Water Tower, named for it's most prominent feature. They later added a bow tie and it's the best thing ever
I live in a town called Amorebieta, in the Basque Country, a region of Spain, and I really think I have never seen a water tower in my town of in any of the cities and towns I have visited in my hole life
You can't mention the American West and Cadillac Desert and then *not* bring up the elephant in the water conservation room: Western farmers having unmetered secondary water. They waste soooo much water growing stuff that just isn't tenable to grow here
Maybe LA would have more water if they didn't build massive pools on the roof of every luxury highrise? Just a thought. Seemed excessive when I visited there.
Have you visited the Inland Empire? (San Bernardino and Riverside counties) I’m originally from Riverside and a lot of families have pools in their back yard. A pool on a high rise is actually efficient when you consider the number of residents per gallon of water used.
I recently found a channel called Strong Towns that puts strong urbanization with cost. They argument made by Strong Towns is suburban communities are bankrupting cities. Cities can only cover the increased cost with more suburbs.
Great overview, and thanks for the shoutout!
Hello!
While you’re here maybe you can answer this or make a video on it.
explain to me why we can’t use solar towers to evaporate water to purify it while also generating electricity at the same time.
Oh yes, I know how to use my billions to stop climate change.
Let's sell a book, and make even more millions
Ooh! It's Grady! I have a minor issue with the water tower listed at 2:59, and your water hammer video has all the background you'd need to understand. Basically, this video lumping it in with water towers without some caveat is slightly burying the lead. Since there is no tank on top, this tower is not very for storing significant amounts of water. The key is finding where this style is built: near pump houses built early on in the 20th century.
Back then municipal water was pumped by giant steam pumps, rather than modern electric impeller style pumps. Their enormous pistons created constant pulses of pressure that would tear apart pipes without some way of letting off all that energy. In your video you talk about surge arrestors which use an elastic bladder to absorb some of the energy of pressure changes. You then mention traditional tank style water towers being able to absorb the surges by driving the water up when the pressure increase, and which consequentially also normalize the low pressure valleys by the hydraulic weight of the water coming back down. For reducing water hammer, the diameter of the water column doesn't really matter (give or take friction and resistance) as hydraulic head is simply a measure of how high up the surface of the water is. So, you really just need a pipe connected to the water network, sticking up out of the ground, open to the air on top with some screening to make sure bugs and worse debris don't get in. Make sure the pipe is taller than the maximum hydraulic head you expect so none spills out the top, and you have a standpipe.
Now, in some places the standpipe is just iron pipe standing up out of the ground, and I do love when a thing's name describes exactly what it is. But some places decided to pretty it up a bit, such as the Chicago Water Tower shown at the time listed in the beginning of this increasingly long comment. And then there is my favorite, which is also a standpipe and not a "traditional" water tower: Milwaukee's North Point Water Tower. I mean, just search for some images of this fairy tale inspired piece of architecture. And to top it off, in the mid 80's an artist made a 30 foot long dragon sculpture that perched on a window of the tower for five days. Which brings to mind my actual favorite version of this water tower, which unfortunately doesn't exist in this reality (yet.) In my memory the dragon has grown larger and larger like a fisherman's prized catch until now I distinctly remember an elegant, regal copper dragon completely covered in patina from the years it spent there, body curled up around and around the tower like a powder blue Wat Samphran, watching out over and past the horizon of Lake Michigan, scanning for... hydraulic transients, I guess? And I think the world would be a better place if more municipalities dressed their infrastructure up with this level of whimsey. I'll also give some points to those communities that paint their water tower tanks with giant smiley faces.
*water engineering mentioned*
Practical Engineering: Who summoned me?
"What's your favorite Water Tower?"
Me, an Austrian: "The Alps"
I, too, commonly ask people what their favorite water tower is in a common conversation
We don't really have water towers in europe ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@moonam8389There's plenty in Sweden. I've also seen many in Poland and other eastern states. I think I've seen a few in the Netherlands as well.
@@moonam8389 there is a lot in Poland, some are quite old. Here is some examples from polish Wikipedia pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wie%C5%BCa_ci%C5%9Bnie%C5%84#Galeria
Hallo
One way of water conservation I saw in Japan was having a sink on top of the toilet tank so the water that’s used to wash hands after doing your business is stored in the tank to flush the toilet for the next use.
Dude that's brilliant. But what about sink pissers?
@@germanogirardelli those people don’t even deserve access to clean water
If you use the sink only for washing hand that's fine, but if you use it to wash all sorts of stuff then the tank will get very dirty very fast.
I love that you just assume that this channel is watched by the kind of person who has a favourite water tower. Because you're probably right.
Gas City, Indiana, has a water tower with “Gas City” on it written in Comic Sans. Not my favorite per se, just very memorable.
Other solutions in the Western USA: Get rid of lawns, rain water harvesting, water recycling and get farmers to pay for water at cost so they'd have to conserve. Desalinate only when there is excess renewable energy.
Like the desalinate idea
Agree with all of those ideas. The main issue though with charging farmers water at cost is that it would most likely bankrupt 99% of farmers. I think the way we think of agriculture needs to completely change. We need a lot more farms just at a very small scale, that way peak efficiency can be achieved.
But if you charge farmers more you, they have to charge more for their food to stay profitable. Meaning that the price of food will go up, not everyone could afford. And the government could never pay for it either.
@@EglomHistory When the price of water is low, farmers use too much to grow thirsty crops such as alfalfa, rice and almonds. Taking too much water from underground aquifers caused the ground to sink as much as 30 feet, destroys the soils because of salt accumulation and farming land displaces wildlife. The Central Valley has good soil, plentiful sunshine, but not enough water. These farmers that damage the environment need to go out of business. Higher water price will force farmers to innovate (look at Israel being to grow food in the desert). The cost of our foods must include the damage to the environment, otherwise, soon, there won't be an environment left to grow foods.
@@gr8bkset-524 farmers have to already maintain their lands environment or they can’t make it profitable. I see that you mentioned you live in the Suburbs of Los Angeles in another comment, well I live in rural Alberta both my grandfathers were farmers. And not everyone could afford the raise in the cost of food. The farmers are more important to our survival then Bill Gates, Greta Thunberg or UA-cam’s: we should respect them not plot to put them out of business
Texas watching this right now... 😳
This video titled "How privitised systems that rely on a price/demand model ultimately only hurt the poor and benefit the rich"..? :lol
You beat me to it
@@AshLilburne price demand model? Read the DOE's order #202-21-1 from 2-14-2021 stating extra energy couldn't be generated for under $1,500 Mw/h. That called a govt planned, price fixing, bread line venezuelan economy
Desalination, ‘nuff said
👁👄👁
It's always weird when your small hometown is featured in a stock image. I definitely had to watch that part again! Thanks for showing Salem's water towers!
Next topic: how do cities get enough electricity
I think a lot of Texans are wondering about this at the moment.
Answer:
A private company or a legal entity owned by the central government or local municipality generates electricity at a power plant that is fueld either by Coal, Oil or Nuclear or they use a giant wind farm usually located a few miles at least ~10 miles away from the city border or they'll use solar panels (wind & solar are extremely uncommon) or they'll build a dam on a usually large section of a river which is generally located at the edge of the city. Most cities then send this electricity from the source to a transformer where it then travels through large pylons to smaller transformers where it is then sent through smaller pylons to individual buildings either above ground travelling through wooden poles or under the pavement/sidewalk.
Some cities like London will build dedicated tunnels under large and wide rivers so that the grid can span both sides of rivers such as the tunnel under the River Thames in London.
Most electricity in cities is generated by coal, oil or nuclear in plants in industrial estates in urban areas or just outside or on the city border where a plant failure will do less damage but will be further away from consumers of electricity .
Most coal, oil and/or nuclear is transported to the power plant by rail using either dedicated frieght rail lines or on branch lines or they'll transport by road using a truck/lorry powered by Diesel (in most places), hydrogen or CNG or in former soviet states such as Ukraine they might use electricity by use of trolleybus wires and with oil specifically they'll use an oil pipe for the most secure method of transporting the fuel for the plant.
Specifically in Texas, there is an electricity shortage because eco-communists like Bill Gates or Greta Thunberg pressured the Texan state government to end the use of "non-renewables" which means anything that isn't wind or solar and whats happened is that the big storm they had, has covered all the solar panels making them unusable and the the wind turbines have frozen up so they can't spin during high winds and only a few years ago they had decomissioned some (I think it was nuclear but I'm not entirely sure) power plants that didn't use wind or solar as a source and now they can't generate enough electricity to the grid which is something that's been going on in Calafornia for years its just that in CA, they started importing electricity from other states despite the high cost & low efficiency rates of doing so...
@@wclifton968gameplaystutorials well damn are you a lecturer? 😂
@@bishbosh4815 nope. This is all stuff I've learnt in my own time and some of it was in GCSE geography but most of it in my own time.
An extra note as to whats happening in Texas is that I've heard that one of their nuclear plants wasn't prepared for the winter storm and so that has also contributed to the electricity shortage.
I also gave this video a thumbs DOWN due to a William H. Gates sponsorship, a man who wants to depopulate the earth and usher in global communism.
@@wclifton968gameplaystutorials you're not a student even then?
"Imagining large irrigation sky bridges like ancient Rome had"
you mean a aqueduct? they are still being used. at 5:27 that is how they often look like even if they do get higher of the ground if needed.
In one comic-book adventure Asterix the Gaul passes by one of them being built and says, "The Romans are ruining the countryside with their new construction!"
Heresy. Those baby ducks would look adorable even on dry ground.
I'm living on Žitný Ostrov, there is fresh water for 2000 years for every citizen in Central Europe
How would you deliver that water across Europe? How much would be the cost of setting such a cross-region infrastructure? Think twice... how many people live in Slovakia compared to entirety of Europe? When will the underground water run out?
@@David_Journey not that difficult a lot of networks are already linked.
Yeah we'll be fine until we get a constant stream of climate refugees that will make 2015 look like childsplay. Although I'm less worried about the refugees than the nazis and other extremists they will give rise to
Wouldn't it evaporate within 2000 years?
12ken
It probably won’t, unless something happens to the water output into the body of water. Otherwise it would’ve evaporated 2000 years ago.
The giant corn water tower in Rochester Minnesota is pretty rad.
my hometown :) came here to make the same comment.
@@din6040 Haha, same!
@@din6040 I grew up about 40 miles west of Roch so I spent quite a bit of time there too. Good times.
*Texans: Wait you guys are getting water?*
Hey City Beautiful, I think you should make a video on the recent winter storm in Texas, and compare our infrastructure to infrastructure in more wintery climates.
*Texas: I'm gonna do whats called a pro gamer move*
Zzzzzzzzzzt......and you mucked up the entire grid by not investing in key infrastructure protection measures. There goes the electricity, now those water pumps just failed, the oil refineries are now stressed. What are those poor fire fighters going to do? Let the large apartment burn. Smooth move Exlax.
As someone from Texas can confirm we have a great water supply, definitely isn't unsafe, and smells like eggs
What part of Texas though? Panhandle water definitely tastes different than coastal water than does the hard hill country water.
@@Wells306 as someone who has been to many different areas in Texas, I can confirm this.
@@Wells306 I'm talking about the current water crisis. Most of Texas either has no water at all or is under a boil advisory. Where I live in Dallas the water is unsafe and smells like sulfur.
@@realjohnsomeone Most of the time the water is of pretty good quality, but all the pipes are bursting in texas right now.
I'm in East Texas. The source in my town is an aquifer, but in the nearby city it's a man-made lake and recycled from waste and tastes so terrible you can even taste it in the drinks from fast food soda machines and sometimes even the food.
You mentioned agriculture but you didn't mention how changes to the agricultural industry could help solve the water shortage and decrease its impact on the environment (permaculture, mulching, no dig methods, etc). You focused on the individual, and while yes everyone has to play their part, systemic changes have to be put into place before blaming individuals.
Here in Rochester Minnesota we have a water tower that's a giant ear of corn 🌽 that's almost 100 years old. I have yet to see a cooler water tower anywhere else.
In Zichron (Israel) we have a giant mural in ours and it's super old, it's been there since 1882
Chek mate😉
We have Mountains
Former RochMN resident here, I love that weird thing.
mn has all the best water towers - lindstrom (in vid) and rochester
Coastal cities should be using desalination plants, Los Angeles being a prime example.
Desalination creates other environmental issues, such as disrupting and killing local marine life. Also it's extremely power-intensive. It could be done in a green way with micro-nuclear power plants, but often these urban areas are spooked by nuclear energy and vote against it.
The bigger problem is that it's much much much more expensive than piping in natural freshwater
@@buddabulletproof And? We should pay more for water. It isn’t infinite
@@razzy1 sure. Just saying that cost is the reason why desalination instead more widespread.
Maybe we shouldnt build megacities in deserts, or have agriculture in Southern California, either
@@buddabulletproof yes thats true, but we also shouldn’t be eating so much meat. Currently if the us switched completely over to just eating vegetables, it would only use the size of 1 of the smaller states, and it would use much less water. As of right now the us uses like half the country for meat production.
As someone who lives in Milwaukee and looks out at Lake Michigan.
"Hmmmm, I don't know!"
If you live in Milwaukee, I know you aren't saying "I don't know!" to the question "what is your favorite water tower?"
@@UrbanPanic North Ave water tower has that classic stone castle look to it. I think it's just for display now and no longer in use.
sydney had drought conditions for a few years - its main drinking dam water level dropped dangerously low. water restriction measure were put in place, but it wasnt enough (at the time).
in response the state govt built a desal plant that i think has come online twice in the past decade. opposition at the time said it was a massive expenditure for little return - having it available as an option meant we had enough drinking water when required, especially in the summer months where a brutal el nino can have deadly effects on vulnerable australians who dont have access to enough water or some other method of keeping cool.
As someone who has worked in storm and sewer maintenance (albeit only for 3 months) theres so much intricacy that goes into the underground pipe work. The elevation from one manhole to the next to ensure that all the sewage and water wont stop along the way, the mathematical equations that are made to figure out the sizing of pipe, based off of amount of houses in the area. A lot more to it than people realize.
Why isn't Bill Gates involving himself in cleaning Flint's water crisis? That would seem right up his alley.
He's too busy buying up all the US farmland...seriously, he's the largest owner of private farmland in the US with 142,000 acres.
I like this channel and this video, but, yea. Hard pass on Bill Gates, his book & his opinion.
I understand the need of sponsors, of course.
Not a lucrative business venture. For many billionaires philanthropy is just a way to get good PR and a tax write-off
Umm I can’t really say what my favorite water towers are because there aren’t water towers in Hawai’i.
Also I think people that are on tap really need to learn how to conserve water. As someone who lives off of catchment, I am shocked by the blatant overuse of water I often see from people
Great video, but one major downfall that was forgotten for the desalination solution is the huge amount of brine (highly concentrated salt) that would be a byproduct of making ocean water drinkable, which currently doesn’t have any use so it must be stored somewhere and monitored. That, and the fact that desalination plants are currently extremely expensive.
Use it as road salt.
I feel like whenever you post a video, my happiness increases exponentially, like I'm always waiting to see new content from you. I honestly don't know what I'll do when you retire. 🤓
The city I live in has underground water containment tank that holds 19 million gallons which is super cool.
can’t wait for phoenix to continue growing until lake pleasant drys up and we face a water crisis 😍
Thank you so much for making this video! Each time I watch I feel like I should just pursue a career in urban planning and management.
My favorite water tower is the one where the Warner Brothers (and the Warner Sister) live.
I live in a moderate-size town (Kamloops, about 100,000 people). The climate is arid but we have ample water from the Thompson river, fed by snow in the mountains. No water towers, though: our water reservoirs are up local mountains.
And then Americans use them for grass in their front yard.
What is them?
grass is the #1 most cultivated crop in america. no wonder they're like cows.
@@michaelmichael2382 water supplies.
Not only Americans use water supplier for watering plants
@@michaelmichael2382 this is true, though grass (at least as used in most lawns) should be a much lower priority than it is.
Also, When you water it is super important. Late evening is best. (No risk of the droplets causing lensing effects that damage the plants, And far less water is lost to evaporation.)
Also, most other countries have less lawns than the USA, at least in areas that don't get enough rain to support the grass naturally. More proper farmland or high density housing, less suburban sprawl dumping huge amounts of water into unproductive uses like keeping the lawn green in the hottest part of the year (grass can, generally, survive the dry and heat of summer (in climates where summer is fairly dry), its leaves just go brown and dead in the meantime. But that doesn't look nice, so for maintaining lawns enough extra water is expended to simulate spring and autumn rains. Which is very wasteful.)
Watering the plants that will actually die otherwise is perfectly reasonable (well, unless you've chosen Particularly unsuitable plants), likewise for food crops. Lawns, though, are mostly pure vanity, and in climates that don't naturally support them, utterly wasteful.
I live near a huge reservoir that supplies water to Jersey city.
It’s crazy that Los Angeles has Half the population but double the Pollution of NYC. It’s crazy Its almost like to the point were the mountains are just used as an excuse.
My favorite Water Tower is the one in Hallandale Beach. It's like 60 feet tall but looks tinny next to the 2, 400 feet tall apartment building and hotel on either side of it.
Water planning researcher here: this subject, as many others, can be discussed so much, I'll just bring up two things: first, desalination can be a problem as much as a solution, not only because of the increased energy consumption but also because of the impact on marine ecosystems, problems in the management of sub products like brine, the inevitable increase in the price of tap water, the usual problems with quality and taste, and sudden changes on water consumption patterns. Second: this falls into your solution number 2, water conservation; the best possible cultural change that could happen for water conservation is the massification of veganism, or at least a drastic reduction of meat consumption. Worldwide, food production is the biggest use of water, and meat production is the most inefficient way to produce nutrients, even proteins, when it comes to water and land use goes. The production of a unit of meat requires several times the water and land of the production of an equivalent unit of crop vegetables, fruits, etc.
I'm a municipal engineer in Quebec, and I have a few comments:
1) We do not seem to use water towers in Quebec. All pumps used for water or sewage must have a back-up electricity generator. They are usually diesel generators, but at least one of the city of Montreal's water treatment plant has a gas power plant. If the pump is required for fire protection (for example, water pressure is not sufficient in part of the city to provide fire protection, sometimes a pump will be installed to boost pressure in case of fire), the pump needs to be tested daily.
2) I used to think that the increased demand for water in the summer came from watering lawns, filling pools, etc., and that may be true in suburban residential areas, but in areas with large buildings, such as downtown or in commercial / industrial zones, the increased demand comes from the cooling towers of central air-conditioning systems. During a heat wave, those cooling towers require an enormous amount of water. I know of the case of a hospital, for example, where at 100F, half the water consumption for the hospital is for the cooling tower. Air-cooled systems are available, but they are much larger and more expensive than water-cooled systems, and tend to be used in desert countries such as Saudi Arabia.
When you said “water towers are my favorite urban infrastructure...what’s your favorite water tower?” I knew i was home
There's a bobber-shapped water tower in Pequot Lakes, MN. It's a landmark located in the heart of the town and is by far the most recognizable part of it. The tower no longer stores water anymore (there's another water tower south of the town that serves as the real water tower), but it's still a cool landmark.
My favorite water tower is the Florence yall tower in Florence Kentucky.
One small issue about desalination no one talks about is what happens to the salt when its gone. Either you store it, making an expensive system more expensive, or it goes back into the water, not only making it more energy intensive to desalinate the saltier water, but screws up the local ecology because of the different salinity levels. Still very useful as something to do when theres no other option for mega wealthy cities, but in no ways ideal
Favorite "Water Tower" is the North Point Water Tower on the East Side of Milwaukee! While no water is there anymore, it covers up a pipe that used to hold water.
9:42 Informal settlements in Africa particularly are a problem on 4 levels:
- Increased risk of flooding because of less surface area for rainwater to seap through (so more runnoff into the streets)
- More wasted water, since less finds its way into the aquifer. which means the water cannot be re-pumped for use (in the long term) + sinks the affected area.
- 3 & 4 are mentioned in at 9:42 in the video
My favourite water tower is the Grimsby dock tower. It was built in 1852 and was opened by Queen Victoria, it is styled like the Torre del Mangia in Italy. Sadly it is no longer in use.
My favorite Water-tower is the one I first smoke weed under in my hometown ❤️
Two former water towers in Hamburg, Germany. Now re-used as planetarium and hotel respectively:
1. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburg_Planetarium
2. de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schanzenturm
Couldn’t find an English translation for the second, but it says it used to be the biggest water tower in Europe when built in 1910.
My favorite water tower is the Ypsilanti Water Tower in Michigan, I live near it and it’s beautiful but also the worlds largest most phallic object haha
I live in Cape Town South Africa. We came right up to the brink of this. Our city managers were warned in 2011 about the inevitable collapse of water supply and given a huge menu of options of what they could do. They did... none of them. When we came to the brink of the taps running dry they've belatedly started to implement various strategies - including desalination and tapping aquifers - to make up for the city's continually growing population. Luckily citizens of every income level responded well to reduce usage.
I spoke to a couple from Chennai, which did experience the taps actually running dry. They told me that rampant, unrestrained development in the water table due to Tamil Nadu's less than stellar government had absorbed masses of rainfall before it could get to the source water.
My favorite water tower is Prospect Park Water Tower in Minneapolis, MN. It has earned itself the nickname “witch’s hat” because of its unique roof.
Step one: Live near the great lakes
Step 2: dump phosphorus into the lakes.
step one - build desalination plants
step two - if you do not have ocean front property build a pipeline to the ocean
The Dole Pineapple Water Tower in Honolulu (1928-1993) stored water for fire prevention for the cannery. It was sad to see this landmark dismantled due to rusting as it was no longer maintained in great condition after the cannery closed.
Visited the California Aqueduct in a class in college, weird to see such a small canal which supplies so much of LA's water
Cadillac Desert was also made into a documentary which you can find on youtube. Also, the movie Chinatown was based on the story about how LA stole its water from the Owens.
Favourite water tower? I lived in Poland for 6 months and Bydgoszcz, while not in use anymore is probably one of my favourites I've witnessed and been in in life. 😍
My favourite water tower is the water tower in kerava, Finland with a big golf ball on top
My favourite water tower is the one on my profile picture, it’s a mile from where I live and I have a video on my channel on where exactly it can be located in Chicago
Ok, out of all dams in the world, you have used Orlík dam (0:52) which is purely hydroelectric facility. But you got like for that. BTW, that thing on the left is unfinished boat lift. On the other hand it regulates flow of Vltava from which Prague gets (again), part of it's water supply, so I think that counts.
We have a lot of rooftop water collection in my town, houses have their own rainwater tanks.
The water towers with the little smiley faces in central texas are my favorite. For example the one in Bastrop when you are driving down TX-71.
I was fascinated to learn that Lake Dillon is a reservoir owned by the city of Denver. There’s a tunnel that pipes water from there across the continental divide into Denver’s watershed. This is because most of Colorado’s rainfall (or snowfall for that matter) happens in the mountains and Western Slope, while the vast majority of the population lives on the Front Range.
This one used to be a water tower in Madrid, Spain. Now it is a museum:
es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dep%C3%B3sito_elevado_de_Chamber%C3%AD
My favourite water tower is the Tilburg water tower in Tilburg, The Netherlands. It's from 1897 and I grew up near it!
My favourite water tower was the one that was just down the street from the house I grew up in. They named the neighbourhood Tower Hill, then they removed the water tower so now the name makes no sense. Some people now call it Notower Hill.
I don't know if I have a favorite water tower. But my favorite water tank El Palacio de las Aguas (The Water Palace) located in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Desalination seems like a good way to deal with intermittent renewable energy sources. The plant can adjust to the amount of available power and soak up surpluses when the wind and sun are plentiful turning surplus power into surplus water and then throttle back when the availability drops.
Thanks for making these videos man, I'm thinking about going into urban planning as a career
take a look at the chateau d'eau de Douvrin in France , here watertowers a concrete-built most of the times and municipalites tend to paint theses more and more !
I know you're channel mostly focuses on North American urban stuff but do you know why there are relatively far fewer water towers in the UK than the US? I see those big fancy water towers all the time in US TV/movies but they are quite rare here in the UK!
Good question! Do you know how your water is pressurized?
@@Maazin5 Not really, but I know houses often have a tank in the attic for hot water but as far as I know the cold water is under pressure from the mains water supply?
St. Louis has some great water towers. Compton Hill tower on south Grand is beautiful, and north Grand has two just as amazing towers only a few blocks from each other on Bissle street and one in a traffic circle on Grand. And can’t forget the Catsup water tower just across the river on 159 in Collinsville.
In much of Asia water needs to be boiled to drink, and some places use seawater for flushing toilets. Many people regularly buy big jugs of bottled water, or have reverse osmosis filters fitted in their homes.
New York's history with water is a lot more complicated. Manhattan lightning island of rivers in lenape Algonquin. However, by the 19th century, we had outstripped local sources of clean water. the main source of water in New York City was the collecting pond, which was an environmental nightmare. It was situated within the city and was used for drinking water, wastewater, and Industrial uses. When we built the aqueduct system to bring water in from upstate, the collecting pond got filled in and became five points, which was a different form of cesspool.
We currently have two functioning pipes into the city, and these are leaking. Fortunately, we are building a third
Gaffney SC peach water tower on I85 that looks like a butt. They finally put a leaf on it. "Peachoid" still looks like a butt.
Can you cover electrical generation and why Texas suffer so much blackouts during these ice storms?
Cant help but notice that NYC Subway map on the shelf. Are those lights real-time? I’d definitely like to buy or build one of those if possible.
My favorite watertower is in my own city in the Netherlands. Check out the "Deventer Watertoren" made in 1892, it's so pretty.
Cadillac Desert has been such a fascinating read! I nerd out over water development, particularly in the western US where it's so scarce.
Portland’s Oldtown Water Tower is my favorite.
Here’s a shout out to all friends, family, and people that decided to move out of the Midwest to CA or TX. You wanted to move there for the weather so don’t complain about the fires and drought! And please don’t come crawling back in masses.
A city near me had a water tower that was converted into an office space, with an elevator. Crazy.
Oh my god I just saw that real-time nyc subway map in the moma gift shop I want one so bad, excellent taste sir
The Great Thirst - Norris Hundley if you’re interested in going deeper. Hundley is THE GUY for California water history, and the book is a detailed history of how water management has defined the state’s history and enabled it’s growth. CA has more water experience than just about anywhere and provides lessons for future projects. Highly recommend!
@Bob Landers there used to be a couple lakes in the San Joaquin Valley. The Central Valley has a challenging watershed. 70-80% of the water is in the northern Sacramento Valley, but 2/3 of the land is in the San Joaquin. In addition, most Central Valley land is unusable in natural state due to the flooding caused by the El Niño/La Niña cycle and the 10yr drought cycle. The most extensive system of dams, reservoirs, canals, and aqueducts in the world was constructed to bring the watershed under control and turn the valley into an extremely productive agricultural region
My favourite Water Tower is the John Street Pumping Station in Toronto. It used to sit where the Skydome (where Blue Jays play) now is and initially the dome was built around it. It was then relocated in the 80s. I like it for its history but mostly because it looks like an evil villain (like Dr. Evil)’s lair or something lol.
The Örebro Mushroom is my fav water tower in the world, because I grew up close to it and it is actually quite nice.
Water tower nerd here. Always been partial to the flashlight/lightsaber hilt standing on end but the traditional small town 20s, home of the Warner brothers and their sister Dot ( call her Dottie and die) watertower comes in second
In Brisbane, a number of the 19th century water towers were sunk into the ground at the crest of various hills around the city. They were then capped with natty little corrugated steel roofs that sit just above ground. Most of them are still in service, but the one on Spring Hill was taken out of service and converted into an opera house.
Check it out. encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ9rj-UW4wCycvcYtk1lnyH6810A4HkDEK2MQ&usqp=CAU
I reckon it's one of the top two opera houses in Australia.
It's worth noting that the LA Water Wars is also what the movie Chinatown is about.
Good to see how everything works. If i had one piece of advice it would be to store some water you never know when a pipe might bust and you be out of luck for days.
We had a yellow water tower near my hometown called the Smiley Water Tower, named for it's most prominent feature. They later added a bow tie and it's the best thing ever
I live in a town called Amorebieta, in the Basque Country, a region of Spain, and I really think I have never seen a water tower in my town of in any of the cities and towns I have visited in my hole life
The Sulphur Springs Water Tower in Tampa is a cool tower with an interesting history
There’s a water tower near a golf course in my city that looks like a golf ball on a tee. That’s probably my favorite water tower.
My favorite water tower is where our favorite zany siblings live.
what are the twinkling lights behind you on your right side? is that a sort of live train location LED indicator?
At 02:22 “From Nacogdoches to New Orleans, in beat up old cars and limousines.”
- Rock n Roll Doctor - Little Feat
You can't mention the American West and Cadillac Desert and then *not* bring up the elephant in the water conservation room: Western farmers having unmetered secondary water. They waste soooo much water growing stuff that just isn't tenable to grow here
Maybe LA would have more water if they didn't build massive pools on the roof of every luxury highrise? Just a thought. Seemed excessive when I visited there.
Have you visited the Inland Empire? (San Bernardino and Riverside counties) I’m originally from Riverside and a lot of families have pools in their back yard. A pool on a high rise is actually efficient when you consider the number of residents per gallon of water used.
just want to add, grass lawns are awful and if you have one get rid if it. have a garden. plant native plants.
Favorite water tower : the famously phallic Ypsilanti Water Tower, in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
I recently found a channel called Strong Towns that puts strong urbanization with cost. They argument made by Strong Towns is suburban communities are bankrupting cities. Cities can only cover the increased cost with more suburbs.