{"id":6412,"date":"2016-11-06T17:34:44","date_gmt":"2016-11-06T23:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=6412"},"modified":"2016-11-06T17:34:44","modified_gmt":"2016-11-06T23:34:44","slug":"water-water-water-california-ctd-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2016\/11\/06\/water-water-water-california-ctd-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Water, Water, Water: California, Ctd"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not all the news about California water supplies is bad<\/a>. NewScientist<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(22 October 2016) reports<\/a> on a new tool in water management being deployed in the Sierra Nevadas<\/strong><\/em> – a sensory net<\/em>:<\/p>\n

In an attempt to take control of the state\u2019s water cycle, a project called SierraNet<\/a> is covering California\u2019s mountains with networks of sensors. It will report snow and water conditions in unprecedented resolution, and allow monitoring of the unpredictable watersheds. The data will help California to manage its water and the hydroelectric dams that depend on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve operated our water systems by the seat of our pants for the past century,\u201d says Roger Bales, a civil engineer at the University of California, Merced, who jointly leads the project. \u201cWe\u2019ve operated with very little information, because there was plenty of water and not that many people.\u201d<\/p>\n

SierraNet distributes a mesh network<\/a> of sensor packages that measure snow depth, humidity and air temperature, as well as solar radiation, soil temperature and soil moisture content. These sensor packs use a low-powered radio to relay the data they gather back through the mesh to a higher-powered base station.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The cost of not doing so?<\/p>\n

California\u2019s drought and the accompanying drop in hydroelectric generation is costly both for the economy and the environment, according to an analysis<\/a> by Peter Gleick at the Pacific Institute think tank in Oakland, California. In the four years to September 2015, hydropower was down so much that it cost Californian ratepayers about $2 billion more over that period for their electricity, Gleick writes. \u201cThe additional combustion of fossil fuels for electric generation also led to a 10 per cent increase in the release of carbon dioxide from California power plants.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"screenshot-from-2016-11-06-17-21-10\"<\/a>

SierraNet<\/strong> map. Source: UCB<\/a>\u00a0\/ UC-Merced<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The University of California-Berkeley<\/strong><\/em> provides a map and real-time chart here<\/a>. They also note some of the existential problems:<\/p>\n

Dense forests make a challenging environment for WSNs [Wide area Sensor Networks]. A wild fire once ravaged an entire WSN (Duncan Peak). On a similar note, strong winds led to the collapse of a tree on one of the basestations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not all the news about California water supplies is bad. NewScientist\u00a0(22 October 2016) reports on a new tool in water management being deployed in the Sierra Nevadas – a sensory net: In an attempt to take control of the state\u2019s water cycle, a project called SierraNet is covering California\u2019s mountains \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6412"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6415,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6412\/revisions\/6415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}