Another idea...
This one is completely in left field. Totally off topic. And had an interesting origin.
I will be the first one to tell you that I know very little about roadway drainage. Today on the ride into work (I ride the bus, so don't freak out here) I was studying the road outside the window. We were approaching a particular part of the road that often floods, so I began studying the drainage in the area. For the most part, the way they funneled the water to various areas seemed ingeinus, until they got to the area that floods frequently and then it was like they forgot what they were doing and slapped something together.
Anyway --- the idea is this: build drainage so that it has options. Specifically: build pipes so that water can be rerouted to other areas. I.E. a drainage area becomes flooded, you cut off any drainage that drains towards that area --- rerouteing it to a less waterlogged area. It would be fairly easy to control this completely electroniccaly and wirelessly. Electronically, because it could be totally self contained --- solar powered --- and thus easy to waterproof. Wirelessly so that it can all be controlled from a central location.
Ideally, normal flow would be through both branches of the drainage, to minimize blockages that might occur through disuse.
Something like this would be great in Houston --- where one part of the city can get 20 inches of rain and another only gets 5-10.
Just a random idea :)
I'm out.
I will be the first one to tell you that I know very little about roadway drainage. Today on the ride into work (I ride the bus, so don't freak out here) I was studying the road outside the window. We were approaching a particular part of the road that often floods, so I began studying the drainage in the area. For the most part, the way they funneled the water to various areas seemed ingeinus, until they got to the area that floods frequently and then it was like they forgot what they were doing and slapped something together.
Anyway --- the idea is this: build drainage so that it has options. Specifically: build pipes so that water can be rerouted to other areas. I.E. a drainage area becomes flooded, you cut off any drainage that drains towards that area --- rerouteing it to a less waterlogged area. It would be fairly easy to control this completely electroniccaly and wirelessly. Electronically, because it could be totally self contained --- solar powered --- and thus easy to waterproof. Wirelessly so that it can all be controlled from a central location.
Ideally, normal flow would be through both branches of the drainage, to minimize blockages that might occur through disuse.
Something like this would be great in Houston --- where one part of the city can get 20 inches of rain and another only gets 5-10.
Just a random idea :)
I'm out.