[Process Document] Water and People
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This is “living” documentation journal of the design and research process of three stay-at-home activities centered around water in the Anthropocene created through the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. At the bottom of the blog is a collection of different sources and websites to use as reference.
07/29/2020 | Blogpost Draft
Feeding the Monster in the Sewer
Water is a resource that I often take for granted. I take daily showers, wash my dishes, and do my laundry without a second thought to the amount or quality of water that is used. Human beings only experience a small aspect of the water cycle, and we end up losing sense of the tangibility of water. The water cycle we’ve all learned about in school can be boiled down to: precipitation, surface runoff, infiltration, evaporation, and condensation; but how do we, as human beings, fit into all of this? What is the human water cycle and how has the water cycle changed within the Anthropocene?
In order to explore the concept of the human water cycle I needed to start by looking at infrastructure. Infrastructure is the set of fundamental systems necessary for the operation of a society. In the case of water infrastructure, the water purification systems and sewage systems are some of the most impactful additions human beings have 9included into the planet’s water cycle. These infrastructural systems span thousands and thousands of miles underground, connecting houses, neighborhoods, and cities. And yet, at least for me, there was a vast mental disconnect between the water that flows underneath us and the water that we consume. That’s when I learned about fatbergs.
In 2017 an 820 foot long mass weighing 130 metric tonnes was discovered in the sewers of Whitechapel in London, England. The same type of mass, weighing 42 metric tonnes was found in Melbourne, Australia during the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, most likely due to the flushing of “toilet paper substitutes” (i.e. paper towels, sanitary products, facial tissues). These masses are called fatbergs and can be found in most major cities, especially those with older sewage systems like Pittsburgh. A fatberg is a solidified mass of fat, formed overtime in sewers, that stick to the build up of unflushable sewage. Fatbergs cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to remove, while also harming water quality through sewer overflows, which is when the sewer system literally overflows with sewage, in this case, caused by the blockages from the fatbergs.
Fatbergs are a human phenomenon that directly impacts both ourselves and the greater environment. The sewer overflows that they cause can enter both the built and natural environment, introducing pollutants such as human waste from our toilets and fats from our kitchen sinks into the living domain. But as harmful as they are, they can be easily prevented.
How, you ask? The solution is simple… don’t flush down anything other than toilet paper and bodily waste. But why? What makes toilet paper any different from other paper-like materials? The answer lies in the unique material quality that toilet paper is made up of. Unlike paper towels that use long fiber pulps, which improves the strength and absorptivity of the material, and facial tissues that contain additives that hold the fibers together, toilet paper is made using approximately 70% hardwood pulps with short fibers and 30% softwood pulps with longer fibers. Due to the hardwood pulps, once the toilet paper makes contact with water, the short fibers, which also help keep the toilet paper soft to touch, are able to untangle and fall away into smaller fragments, eventually dissolving into tiny bundles of short fiber that can easily flow through the sewage system.
Objects like ‘flushable wipes’, unlike toilet paper, take hours to days to break down. This means that just because we are able to flush something down, doesn’t necessarily make it safe for sewer and septic systems. If you want a visual reference to understand this, try putting ‘flushable’ wipes and toilet paper into two separate containers of water. See for yourself what happens.
Fatbergs are all the more relevant to us during the times of the pandemic, especially in the United States. As people stay home, more objects that aren’t healthy for the sewage system are being flushed by the minute. () Think about the times you flushed anything other than toilet paper. Are you feeding a potential fatberg in your neighborhood?
07/23/2020 | Activity (2) Script and Storyboard
The script and storyboard for the second activity video.
Current Script:
Water is all around us. Americans alone drink more than one billion glasses of tap water everyday. Water is an essential resource, but at the same time… it’s limited.
According to the National Groundwater Association, the Earth is made up of about 71% water. Out of that, 99.7% is in oceans, icecaps, soil, and the atmosphere. That leaves us with around 0.3% of the Earth’s water to use. That isn’t a whole lot.
So how have we continued to use the same water again and again over the lifetime of the planet? It’s simple: the water cycle. And as humans have entered the equation, the natural water cycle has been modified, through the introduction of sewage and water treatment systems.
Water treatment systems take water from freshwater sources, in Pittsburgh’s case the Allegheny River, and turn the murky, polluted water into drinkable tap water. According to PWSA, or the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, the process in Pittsburgh looks something like this.
First, the collected river water is coagulated using chemicals which react to the polluting particles, causing them to stick and clump together. The water is then taken through the filtration process, where it flows through anthracite coal and sand to remove any of the remaining particles. Afterwards, the water is disinfected with Sodium Hypochlorite, a type of chlorine compound, to remove microbial particles. That’s not where it ends. Once the water has been purified, fluoride, which is a naturally occurring mineral that prevents tooth decay, is added back into the water as recommended by the Center for Disease Control.
And as surprising as it sounds, you can try and see the coagulation process at home. And while the water you end up purifying at home won’t be completely clean due to microbes and SHOULD NOT be consumed, it is an important tool for us to understand where our water comes from so that we can keep taking care of it.
To mimic the coagulation and sedimentation process, you will need a container filled with murky water from a natural water source, which can be substituted with dirt mixed with water, and alum, which can be bought at your local supermarket.
The coagulation process itself is very simple, but the outcome is fascinating. You simply add an half an ounce of alum into water and mix it well to create an alum solution. Then, drop the alum solution into the murky water solution and stir. As you can see here, the water that we added alum into has separated while the other container stayed the same. So what happened here? This is a process known as flocculation. By adding alum, which is a flocculant, the particles floating in the water come together into larger particles called flocs that sink due to gravity. In a water treatment plant, this separated water would be filtered out and disinfected to become the tap water that we use and drink everyday.
With this in mind, think about your relationship with water. How do you treat it? What kinds of pollutants do you flush down the toilet? How much gasoline runs down the sewer grate when you or your family drives a car? Because all of this matters. Because what we put into the system, will eventually… come back to us.
07/20/2020 | Activity (2) Brainstorming and Script
Starting to brainstorm and write the script for the second activity video.
Brainstorming
Does Pittsburgh use flocculation?
SIDE BY SIDE VIDEOS OF REGULAR WATER WITH FLOCCULATED WATER!
What is purity? Purification for human consumption — minerals are actually essential for human health. What does clean look like? How does the actual system work? Maybe how it should work?
The activity will first start by explaining and visualizing the percentage of water on Earth, and how much of it is freshwater, and how much of that is available water for human consumption.
“So where does our water come from?”
TALK ABOUT THE WATER SOURCE (from the river)
This will lead into a conversation about how our water is limited and, thus, recycled. The same water we let out in a toilet, eventually comes back through our sinks. Then I will get into more of the specifics of the human water cycle, which wasn’t covered in the previous video (mainly the water purification aspect).
The activity itself will be kind of a zoom into an aspect of the water purification system, where flocculation actually does happen. It will be important for the audience to know that this doesn’t CLEAN THE WATER YET. There are still microbes and bacteria that swim around the clear water.
07/15/2020 | Meeting (5) Debrief
Notes and thoughts after the fifth conversation about concepts and the current research on zoom.
After showing Asia the first draft of the first video I received some feedback:
- Try to cut down the video a little bit, trimming some longer clips
- Maybe mention why they are stirring the jars (to emulate a toilet flushing
- Add a section where the audience is prompted to leave out the experiment for longer (if it hasn’t changed, don’t flush it!)
- Leave the end open ended?
07/06/2020 | Activity (1) Almost Done!
Work in progress update for the first activity.
Current Script:
Throughout the Anthropocene, which is the current geological time period where humans influence the climate and environment, we have changed the water cycle. It has gone from this (classic water cycle diagram) to this (water cycle diagram with water infrastructure). We now recycle water through our human-made infrastructure, also known as the sewage system. And as much as we have placed it there, it is our duty to protect and take care of it.
In September of 2017 in Whitechapel, London, England an eight hundred and twenty foot long mass, made of wet wipes, cooking fat, and other water pollutants was discovered, lodged deep within the sewers. In April 2020 in Melbourne, Australia, a forty six ton mass, equivalent to the weight of around 10 adult elephants was found — mostly likely due to the toilet paper shortage from the COVID-19 quarantine panic, which led to the flushing of massive amounts of non-dissolvable materials.
These masses are called fatbergs. A fatberg is a solidified mass of fat, formed overtime in sewers, that stick to the build up of unflushable sewage. These fatbergs cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to remove, while also harming water quality through sewer overflows, which is when the sewer system literally overflows with sewage, which comes back into nature and eventually back to us. Fatbergs exist in many major cities, including Pittsburgh, and while the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority, also known as ALCOSAN has yet to discover any 50 ton fatbergs, with the help of the community we can take preventative measures to avoid it.”
So what do people deposit into the water cycle to cause these fatbergs? Well… anything other than toilet paper and bodily waste. From paper towels to floss, and anything else that isn’t biodegradable, which means an object that is able to be broken down by bacteria, can end up as a part of a fatberg.
So, I did a small experiment, which you can follow along, to see why this is so. All you need is a couple of containers you can fill with water, a roll of toilet paper and anything else you usually flush down the toilet or drain down a sink.
I took a couple jars and filled them with water. Then I took sheets of toilet paper, paper towels, and regular paper and put them in separate jars. After this, I mixed around all three jars vigorously. As you can see, the toilet paper dissolved into tiny pieces, while the other two stayed completely intact.
The toilet paper is actually made up of short wood fibers that barely cling to each other. When it makes contact with water, the bonds between the fibers fall apart, creating individual fibers. On the other hand, the other materials are much more solid and do not break down in water as easily.
Now ask yourself this, am I contributing to a potential fatberg in my neighborhood? What kind of pollutants do I flush? How about the other people in this household?
Try out the experiment on your own, and see if anything else that you or your family usually flush down, breaks down like toilet paper. I bet it won’t.
After working tirelessly on the first activity, it is almost done! Here are some more frames from each scene:
While this activity is taking a couple more days longer than I had hoped, I want to keep up with this kind of quality of work for the rest of my internship/self-directed study. I believe this will only be possible by having two activities/interventions. I am also not confident enough in the research I did about the second proposed activity/intervention on runoff to create a holistic, fleshed-out educational video.
I also think it will be most beneficial for both the Anthropocene Section and my own education to allow me to generate a video that is actually worth sharing. I am also currently working on the blog post at the same time. Activity 1 and its corresponding blog post should be complete by Monday (July 13). I’m looking forward to sharing on Tuesday!
UPDATE: Today’s thunderstorm was a blessing for getting some B-Roll recordings! Run-off!
07/06/2020 | Activity (1) WIP
Work in progress update for the first activity.
This update will be extremely short because there’s still so much to do for the first video (and I’m unsure if I will have the activity done by Thursday!), but I am currently filming clips at home and drawing scenes.
In other news, I filmed my toilet flushing yesterday…
and drew aisles of toilet paper!
More to come later…
07/03/2020 | Meeting (4) Debrief
Notes and thoughts after the fourth conversation about concepts and the current research on zoom.
Most of the meeting was simply comments on details about the script. The script itself has been modified slightly since. The images below are a couple of frames from the current work-in-progress. I really want these videos to become something that both I and the Anthropocene Section will be proud of!
07/02/2020 | Activity (1) Storyboard
Starting to prototype and storyboard the activity video for the first activity.
Storyboarding
I created an extremely rough storyboard for the activity video. The storyboard has been compiled into an initial rough draft with a temporary voice over. It was drawn to the previously written script, which was sectioned into “scenes”.
06/29/2020 | Activity (1) Prototyping
Starting to prototype and storyboard the activity video for the first activity.
The first activity will be a simple visualization that shows the importance of watching what we deposit into the water cycle. This will be done by dissolving toilet paper in a jar or bag of water and attempting the same for paper towels. The audience will be able to see the difference between the two, as the toilet paper will break down while the paper towels will not.
They can then question the people within their household what they flush down the toilet; testing those water pollutants out as well. This will, ideally, bring immediate attention to what people contribute to water pollution.
BRAINSTORMING:
Maybe the introduction is simply a question?
How to “catch” the audience:
What do you flush down the toilet?
Story about the fatberg in London?
The water cycle?
In 2017, a 140 ton, 820 foot long mass was found in the sewers of London, England. A fatberg is a solidified mass, formed overtime in sewers from the build up of unflushable sewage such as wet wipes, grease, and food waste. In the past four months, in April 2020, a 46 ton mass was found in Melbourne, Australia — mostly likely because of the toilet paper shortage, which led to the flushing of massive amounts of unflushables.
POTENTIAL SCRIPT:
Throughout the Anthropocene, which is the current geological age where humans influence the climate and environment, we have changed the water cycle. It has gone from this (classic water cycle diagram) to this (water cycle diagram with water infrastructure). We now recycle water through our human-made infrastructure, also known as the sewage system. And as much as we have placed them there, it is our duty to take care of it.
In 2017, an 820 foot long mass, made of wet wipes, cooking fat, and other water pollutants was found in the sewers of Whitechapel in London, England. In April 2020, a 46 ton mass was found in Melbourne, Australia — mostly likely because of the toilet paper shortage, which led to the flushing of massive amounts of unflushable materials.
These masses are called fatbergs. A fatberg is a solidified mass, formed overtime in sewers from the build up of unflushable sewage. These fatbergs cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to remove, while also greatly spoiling water quality, which eventually, as shown by the water cycle, comes back to us.
So what do people flush to cause this? Well… anything other than toilet paper and bodily waste. From paper towels to floss, and anything that isn’t biodegradable, which means an object that is able to be broken down by bacteria, can end up as a part of a fatberg.
So, I did a small experiment, which you can follow along, to see why this is so.
I took a couple jars and filled them with water. Then I took sheets of toilet paper, paper towels, and regular paper and put them in separate jars. I then mixed around all three jars vigorously. As you can see, the toilet paper disintegrated into tiny pieces, while the other two stayed completely intact.
The toilet paper is actually made up of short wood fibers that barely cling to together. When it makes contact with water, the bonds between the fibers fall apart, creating individual fibers. The other materials, on the other hand, are much more solid and do not break down in water.
Now ask yourself this, am I contributing to a potential fatberg in my neighborhood? What kind of pollutants do I flush? How about the other people in this household?
Try out the experiment on your own, and see if anything that you or your family usually flush down, breaks down like toilet paper. I bet it won’t.
06/26/2020 | Meeting (3) Debrief
Notes and thoughts after the third conversation about concepts and the current research on zoom.
During this meeting I proposed to have the first activity video to consist of three separate smaller activities. These would have all followed the water cycle, focusing on the human made infrastructure.
After passing around a few comments, we decided it would be good to revert back to having three activities, which just followed the same guidelines as the ones I generated for this one.
Activity #1 EDUCATION:
The first activity will be a simple visualization that shows the importance of watching what we deposit into the water cycle. This will be done by dissolving toilet paper in a jar or bag of water and attempting the same for paper towels. The audience will be able to see the difference between the two, as the toilet paper will break down while the paper towels will not.
They can then question their household what they flush down the toilet and test those water pollutants out as well. This will bring immediate attention to what people contribute to water pollution.
Activity #2 AWARENESS:
The second activity will be more of an exploration that prompts people to try collecting water from a local pond, lake, or any body of water. If this is not possible for the specific audience, they can even try going outside during heavy rain and collecting runoff water. The activity will then explain that this unclean water will enter the human water cycle once again, waiting to be picked up by a water treatment plant to become potable water.
This will allow people to visualize and become more aware of how water pollution affects the individual.
Activity #3 ACTION:
The third activity will be a scientific experiment about flocculation. Using the same water from activity 2, or any murky liquid (by mixing loose dirt with water), and alum, which can be found at most local grocery stores, you can separate the visible pollutants from water. This is done through a process called flocculation, where the “flocs” sink to the bottom. This experiment is meant to be extremely accessible, through the use of a common compound, which is used in pickling and canning. It will be important to note that a treatment center goes further than this, using far more chemicals to further filter and purify the water.
Through this activity people can actively visualize the concept of “cleaning water”. I believe that demonstrating and enabling people to attempt to “clean” their own water will help them truly understand that the water that they consume is the same as the dirty water they may pollute.
These videos will be around 3–5 minutes long.
06/22/2020 | Moving Forward With Activity (1)
Finding helpful tools and resources to take the intervention activity forward.
“The details of what and how you are doing the activity should be clear in this first prototype. A “how to” or “did you know” script for the video, and a storyboard sketch with description of what is happening will be helpful in understanding your ideas for this first prototype.”
I have recently asked Marti to purchase the Exploralab book to use as a reference. The book has a lot of different “experiments” that kids can use to investigate science at home. Although it might be a little late for this specific activity, I hope to use it to help me ideate the next one.
I was also entertained by the idea of having an activity for each part of the water cycle, so I will attempt to have several smaller activities that connect to each other.
I will be going through the water cycle (Anthropocene version) in the video, explaining and inserting several small activities. Each of these activities will involve families asking each other questions and carrying out actions based on the answers. The first activity will be the toilet activity, where the audience will be prompted to ask their family members what they flush down the toilet. They can then put the noted objects (i.e. floss, hair, etc.) in water and compare how the objects react with how toilet paper reacts.
The second activity will be a more holistic activity that prompts the audience to collect water from a local pond or lake or even collect the runoff during heavy rainfall. They can then attempt to coagulate the water sample to separate the liquid from the solid. This will be the first part of a larger activity.
The third activity will be to attempt to filter the separated water sample. The instructions are in the link.
These activities will represent waste, contaminant, and treatment — which are all aspects of the human waste/water cycle.
I will be uploading a work-in-progress storyboard on Wednesday.
06/22/2020 | Meeting (2) Debrief
Notes and thoughts after the second conversation about concepts and the current research on zoom.
Debrief
Several interesting comments were made during this meeting:
- One of the most important notes I heard from the meeting was getting the activities to engage with the families. Asking family members about things they flush is a great first step to this concept!
- Another thing I realized I need to start doing is looking at these topics in a more experimental lens: collaboration between people and plants, making soil come alive, etc.
- Activities that actually involve the body and movement (kinesthetic learning) are more exciting and engaging. This could involve activities such as mapping where the water goes when it rains.
- Several smaller activities that revolve around the water cycle would have been a fantastic project! I’m not sure if I have the time to do that though…
- I think Marti made a great point in having the stakeholder meeting with the education group. I’m a little trouble imagining a final product because I feel uncertain what kind of platforms these videos and media are to be designed/made for.
- I should think more about the sociocultural! What does this mean for people? How does any of this affect the immediate person?
I think for now, I will focus entirely on the first activity and start thinking about the second activity again after some more research and a few more conversations with Marti, Nicole, and Asia.
06/14/2020 | Making the Unseen, Seen (2)
Narrow down topics further and develop on previously generated ideas.
Initial Questions and Thoughts
Over the weekend I reviewed the main goals of the project and reset my focus. I was extremely uncertain about the direction I was going, especially in the topic of public/audience relevance. I think it was important that I re-framed my point of view to focus more on concepts like: what does the public know already, what should the public know, what is an interesting way to deliver information?
Should this have a specific focus on Pittsburgh or aim for more general information? For now I will focus on Pittsburgh specific information. I also think it may be beneficial, as we talked about before, that we focus on two activities/videos. Currently, it seems a bit difficult to create content that is rich in both concept and material for three different topics. This can be visited again once I actually start on the “sprints”.
Tap Water Quality — Lead
After my conversation with Asia, I understood the necessity in narrowing the extremely wide topic of water quality. Much of the public already recognizes the issues of lead in water. How can we instigate action, or help educate people on the depth of the problem. Why does water quality matter and what affects it? Previously I was trying to approach it through a DIY experiment lens, which included the red cabbage pH level test. Perhaps it could be an explanation of tap water quality, why it matters, ways to test it, how to prevent it, and the science behind it.
Well Water Test were suggested to be used, but all of the Well Water Tests I have found online have been extremely pricey. This link, which was shared by Asia, was extremely helpful, especially the video at the bottom. However, I think I need to start consulting specialists for more direct and/or specific information.
I will get into more specifics later to flesh out ideas.
Some sources to go off of:
PWSA Annual Drinking Water Report 2019
Customer Water Quality (Lead) Test Results
Carcinogens in Western PA (Article)
Humans in the Water Cycle — Infrastructure
This topic goes hand in hand with the previous one. Just as the water we take in is important, it is vital for both our environment and ourselves, that we care for the water we let out. Yes, around 70% of the earth is made up of water. But, only 3% of that is freshwater — 70% of it being unavailable. In the end, only 0.3% of water on the earth is available surface water for people. A baseline ideology that we all need to understand is that water is limited.
From that point we can really start to delve into the concept of the Water Cycle. The water cycle is a cycle. Water is constantly reused and treated to be potable after intake and usage. Water contamination occurs due to both infrastructural, industrial, and household issues. Speaking on infrastructure, specifically here in Pittsburgh, old pipes were made of lead. Industrially, fracking and other industrial waste that release chemicals are a major issue. The more complex chemicals entering the water cycle, cannot be completely treated at a plant, so trace particulates of the contaminants remain in our water. Moreover, some ways of disinfecting water leads to formation of other contaminants.
The place I want to focus on, however, is within the house — mostly because initial action is most likely to happen within a house, more specifically in the toilet. Paper towels, contacts, floss, and medication all have their reasons to not be flushed down the toilet. Floss and paper towels cause clogs, which both can lead to infrastructural issues, such as sewer back up — both within homes and on the streets (brown water from sewer grates when it’s raining?), contacts and other plastics lead to microplastics, which often cannot be broken down by the bacteria that break down bio-waste in treatment plants, and medication, which leaves trace amounts of chemicals in water even after treatment. One of the first steps to caring for our water is what we put into it.
Waste Water Treatment — Alcosan
Green Water
I love concept of creating a map for people to find green infrastructure near their homes. This resource has a lot of information on the various “water projects” around Pittsburgh where the map can be based on. Creating a resource where people can learn about the unseen green infrastructure, both visually and in person would be amazing. Perhaps in the video I can call out/create diagrams on how various systems (rain gardens, bioswales, channels, etc) work, why they work, and where they are!
06/10/2020 | Making the Unseen, Seen (1)
Start to narrow down topics and develop on previously generated ideas.
Reviewing the Anthropocene Communications Approach
- To recognize, explore and appreciate the mutual benefits among humans and other living beings (plants, microbes, animals, etc)
- Showcasing positive roles of people in nature and providing invitations for our publics to connect, collaborate, and take action
- Values
- Inclusive, diverse ways of knowing, thinking, behaving
- Holistic, connects ideas to material consequences, across time and space,
- Invites open-minded play, performance, humor, speculative framings, unknowns
- Participatory, accessible, assembles people for community-making
The Current Narratives
- Tap Water Quality
- Humans in the Water Cycle (Water Infrastructure and Contaminants)
- Flood Zones and the Residents
Tap Water Quality — Microbiology
I think this topic will be able to reach out to both ecological and social factors. For the infographic I want to inform the public on information about tap water quality and ways they can improve it from both within their homes as well as their neighborhoods. The graphic can also talk about social ways to help the neighborhood. This website also contains information on the contaminants within tap water in Pittsburgh.
For the activity video, I was thinking that we could do the classic red cabbage chemistry experiment to create pH indicators at home. While this experiment doesn’t necessarily test tap water pH levels, I think it’s a fun, interactive, and accessible way to start the conversation on water quality. We could also include in either the infographic or the video about how people can get free lead tests if their water is from PWSA.
Humans in the Water Cycle — Infrastructure
This topic would focus more on the infrastructure and man-made aspects of water. By laying out information about the infrastructure that connects a household sink to a water treatment plant and back to the sink, we can inform the public on how water is treated, why water contamination is harmful, and how they/we can prevent it.
Through the graphic, I could explore the various contaminants that go into various water sources and drains, most prominently the toilet and kitchen sink. Perhaps I could tie in both of the narratives about food waste and restroom waste, which would enable this topic to have a more holistic variety of information.
The activity video coupled with this topic would be the toilet paper experiment. This experiment helps really visualize why somethings are considered contaminants and why somethings aren’t. For example, the undissolvable paper towels can clog up a drain, while also causing treatment plants to have to spend energy to remove it. Moreover, even if the paper towels get through to the sewers, they can build up and clog entire sewage systems.
Green Water—Water Cycle
This topic would explain how green spaces are beneficial to the quality of water within a city. This would very much be a continuation of the Water Infrastructure narrative. After some quick research, it is apparent that large green parks and green spaces are often located next to wealthier neighborhoods. Even in Pittsburgh, there are several large parks, such as Schenley Park, Highland Park, Frick Park, and Point State Park, which are all located next to higher income neighborhoods.
Through an activity that models out a bioswale or any other green system, we can test out the filtration of contaminated water (water + oil) through a plant. This would enable a conversation on why water retention is important, especially in the context of Pittsburgh’s ancient sewage system.
Bioswales help slow down the flow of water into aquifers and in result, the underground water infrastructure, while also purifying it. Through the plants and gravel, the stormwater runoff is filtered and slowed, allowing for purer water to enter back into the hydrologic cycle.
NIXED — Flood Zones and the Residents
Due to technological developments, flood zones have been mitigated in various places, thus allowing high-income residents and landowners to occupy these “flood zones”.
06/08/2020 | Narrowing Down the Topics
Start to narrow down topics and develop on previously generated ideas.
Overview
Last Friday I wrote about “making the unseen visible”. I think having this core theme about water would be kind of awesome! Having this theme would tie all the activities together, while also enabling sociopolitical and sociocultural topics to be explored. Through “making the unseen, visible” we will be able to cover topics from infrastructure to social justice to microbiology.
Infrastructure
It might be reasonable to couple the previously illustrated toilet paper activity and an activity or infographic about infrastructure in order to help people visualize why “water contaminants” are considered “contaminants”.
Through the visualization of the unseen infrastructure, specifically what happens when something is flushed down a toilet or drained through the sink, it helps people understand where all this waste goes to and what happens to it. I would have to do more research on the specifics!
Social Justice
One of the most problematic “unseen” water issues is based around race and demographics. It may be beneficial to visualize how, at least in Pittsburgh, the neighborhoods located in flood zones correlate to economic standing. By tackling this issue, we can bring awareness to the lack of equality — especially in terms of water.
This topic would be joined with a water testing activity. Two ideas come to mind: an activity that talks about how to conserve water, which is important for reducing water bills, or an activity that tests the contamination level of a household’s water. Through this test, we would also bring awareness to the water quality of their neighborhoods and hopefully encourage public action.
…more resolved concepts to come Wednesday…
06/05/2020 | Meeting (1) Debrief
Notes and thoughts after the first conversation about concepts and the current research on zoom.
Debrief
It could be interesting to layer the different narratives and stories to tackle more than the environmental factor of the Anthropocene.
- How can we talk more about sociocultural aspects of society as well?
- Engage the three legs of sustainability: environmental, socially responsible, governance.
We should be focusing on inclusivity. Environmental awareness should work as a voice to current issues, which includes Black Lives Matter.
So how do we do this…?
- Thinking of activities that are larger than themselves. They could layer and connect into a bigger picture.
- Maybe visualizing water flood zones as opposed to income level? (CON: hard to focus on the Natural History aspect of this)
Further Ideas
Testing pH levels could be interesting!
- Using small, cheap pH strips to test water level or soil level in gardens.
- Bringing up the fact that hydrangeas naturally test pH…?
Water footprint activities are good, but remember to explain why this is important and an issue.
Think about this in the scope of a walkthrough and an expert who points out things, allowing you to notice so much more than you did before.
- Maybe this turns into a conversation about combined sewers as well?
- Why is it bad to use the garbage disposal?
- How much water are we actually using and why should we aim to conserve?
- MAKING THE UNSEEN VISIBLE
Thoughts on Medium
I think that it would be awesome if we coupled infographics with activity videos, so that we can provide information, while providing a context in which the audience can experience the information.
06/04/2020 | Initial Research and Concepts (2)
Discover and curate 6–8 ideas about different narratives focused around water in the context of the Anthropocene.
Possible Narratives
Water Footprint (Water Usage) — Fixtures(?)
- Scale might be a bit too individualized
- Hard to conceptualize an engaging activity that’s more than just understanding water usage
- Low-flow fixtures as a base point would be interesting; seeing and calculating how much water you could save…
Water Footprint — Embedded Water Footprint
- This is an extremely SIMPLE concept (for now), but even figuring out an approximate of the household’s water usage as opposed to an average household would be influential
- The embedded water footprint would definitely use the Water Footprint Calculator as a baseline!
- (The “average daily indoor water use in the US is around 60 gallons per person per day”) — Water Footprint Calculator
Hydrologic Cycle — Green Systems
- This would help illustrate how beneficial green space is for the natural filtration of water, although this would require households to have plants (with roots!)
- I could maybe create a model of a bioswale and show what it does, where it goes, and why it works
- One issue is, again, the scale of this activity… including “participation” seems to be a difficult task, especially considering that landscaping is one of the largest uses of water at a standard home
Hydrologic Cycle — Runoff
- Visualizing people as a part of the water cycle is extremely important, and is often left out of the narrative
- Perhaps this can be combined with the bioswale/green infrastructure activity and have “polluted water” go through the bioswale system and explore how the water comes out?
Water System Contaminants — Food Waste
- It could be interesting to find a way to really visualize or demonstrate the path of food waste that goes down a sink drain (and how the food will eventually end up in a landfill which causes the increase of Biological Oxygen Demand of wastewater).
- Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD): “Represents the amount of oxygen consumed by bacteria and other microorganisms while they decompose organic matter under aerobic conditions at a specified temperature”
- BOD is significant to both aquatic life and the aesthetic quality of streams and lakes.
Water System Contaminants — Restroom Waste
- Showing the difference between different objects that are often flushed reacting to water (using toilet paper as a basis)
- Currently this would show how toilet paper disintegrates, as opposed to “flush-able wipes”, facial tissues, and paper towels. It could even point out that different toilet paper dissolve at different rates.
- This activity would delve further into why the toilet paper is flush-able (ingredients) and why this is important.
06/02/2020 | Initial Research and Concepts
Creating three activities people can do at home to understand water in the context of the Anthropocene.
Key Points to Reiterate
- Recognize, explore, and appreciate mutual benefits among humans and other living things
- Showcase positive roles of people in nature, inviting the public to connect and take action
- Make sure the activities are inclusive, holistic, fun, and participatory
- Keep in mind of the current conditions (COVID-19), it shouldn’t be the focus but it should still be considered
Potential Topics
- Water Usage at Home (Water Footprint)
Testing for efficient systems and faucets
Understanding why this is important - Hydrologic Cycle
People as a part of the water cycle
Filtering your own water
A more holistic approach to the water cycle - Water System Contaminants
Visualization of toilet paper dissolving in water as opposed to paper towels and “flush-able wipes” and Kleenex tissues
Taking a look at ingredients and the holistic realization of why this is harmful
Some Thoughts…
Today I did some a quick experiment of leaving paper towel and toilet paper in jars of water in an attempt to visualize the disintegration of toilet paper. This would lead to the conversation about contaminants that go into the water system, which would affect both the individual (through toilet clogs, etc) and the collective (because the water system is connected and cyclical). This activity could be the beginning of a potential experiment that focuses on water contaminants.
I also think that, considering that these activities are focused on the household and how the public can visualize different information on water from their immediate homes, it would be interesting/important to talk about low-flow fixtures. An activity to test the flow-rate of your shower head or sink faucet might be interesting to include, which would feature tips on how to conserve water (greywater systems, not using full pressure, etc).
Water Calculator also has some great resources on teaching about water and how to be more efficient with water. I will probably take tomorrow to look through most of the resources here.
An important conversation to be had is the amount of waste that is generated, especially during quarantine, where we can visibly see our weekly waste in one setting. Although this isn’t too focused on water, it might be interesting to delve into the topic of water pollution in relation to land pollution (i.e. not recycling).
On a more positive side, I want to think about green infrastructure and the benefits greenery has on water quality. A derivative of this activity could be a very straightforward, but interesting way of visualizing the filtration effect greenery and plants have on water, while also depicting runoff pollution!
Sources to Consider:
Information on Biological Oxygen Demand
(USGS)
“A wave of change is coming to our planet’s water resources”
(Science News for Students)
“Modeling water quality in the Anthropocene: directions for the next-generation aquatic ecosystem models”
(Science Direct)
“Understanding of water resilience in the Anthropocene”
(Science Direct)
“Global water, the anthropocene and the transformation of a science”
(Science Direct)
“Water and Us in the Anthropocene”
(National Geographic)
