Student Water Use Knowledge?

This semester has been extremely busy!!!! As previously outlined, I am working on two projects- one relating to the Dominican Republic and one relating to renewable energy sources. A third project however has stemmed from my Dominican Republic research. While in Human Dimensions of Wildlife in the College of Natural Resources, I have completed a survey project on water use throughout campus. This ties to graduate student Tammy's work on student water consumption very well. This week I am compiling my results from this study. Then I am going to finish my report on renewable energy and finally, I will collect and organize all of my information on the Dominican Republic project. I cannot believe this semester is almost over. Also this week, Heather and I both applied for the ACC Research Grant. Hopefully both of us will be funded for our work next semester. My proposal detailed a second trip to the Dominican Republic- but this time to the northern coast, instead of the eastern coast. This will add a new element to my DR project. I love research and I hope this project gets funded!!! I think about the importance of water resources every day and I am so happy to be working in the field of water resource research!

Potential for Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Systems

This past Friday I toured the Blacksburg VPI Sanitation Authority. It was very interesting to actually see how the wastewater is treated before returning to the New River.

As of now, Blacksburg's water is pumped through various pipes to the main sewage pipe, located beneath the Drillfield, and then by gravity is transported to the plant where water is treated. Water goes through primary and secondary treatment. The secondary treatment uses microorganisms to further cleanse the water through processes including nitrification/ denitrification. Activated sludge is then separated from the water and the clear liquid is sent to the chlorine tanks before being discharged into the New River. While other plants choose to rid of their sludge by re-applying it to land for purposes such as fertilzation, the Blacksburg VPI Sanitation Authority chooses to incinerate their sludge.

The tour was the beginning of my new project where I will be looking at the differences in energy use between centralized waste water treatment versus decentralized waste water treatment and applying it to a local neighborhood/area. New developments, especially ones that are isolated from the city or area where a centralized system is applied, have potential to use decentralized systems.

If an isolated neighborhood uses a decentralized system, how much energy can be saved? If wastewater can be treated on site and be recycled/reused in the vicinity rather than traveling to a facility to be treated and placed back into a water source...how much energy will be saved and is it a significant amount?

The local area I will be looking at is Tom's Creek Village, which serves as a good area because its relatively isolated.

Wave goodbye to energy problems?

Could wave and tidal energy be efficient means of generating electricity? Could this coastal resource then power the extremely energy intensive desalination process? My research project this semester is exploring the current literature on these new technologies and applying this information to the potential for use in desalination. Since my project this summer, coastal watersheds have become more and more interesting. Saltwater intrusion is already causing many coastal areas (including Virginia) to turn to desalination as a means for providing fresh water to the growing populations. While renewable energy technologies continue to advance and become more efficient, ideas such as wave and tidal energy have not been explored in terms of environmental impact and sustainability. I will post more information as I collect it but I am extremely eager to determine if these new energies could provide enough electricity for the inevitable increase in desalination water treatment plants.

OUTREACH NOW

Tomorrow I will have a poster in the OUTREACH NOW conference at the Virginia Tech Inn. Please feel free to come by and view my poster throughout the day. I will be "staffing" my poster in the afternoon between 3 and 5. The poster is on service learning through international outreach in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. The poster details two different areas of outreach. One is the study abroad class in the Dominican Republic taught by Dr. Younos. I have been the TA for this class for the past two years. The other project is the honors students project in Honduras called Ut Prosim, El Porvenir. I was a leader in this project throughout the past year. International relations and service learning have always been passions of mine. I am extremely pleased to be participating in this conference tomorrow! Come join in on the fun!

Veron, Dominican Republic

Here are pictures from Veron, Dominican Republic. Many households have water tanks on rooftops and much of the piping includes small, unburied, PCV piping. While in Veron, I not only took water samples to evaluate water quality, but I talked with several local people about water perception and water education. I found that while many people buy bottled water to drink, they still use untreated water for cooking and bathing. Often, the bottled drinking water is only preferred because it is cold when purchased at the store or colmada. When collecting samples, everyone was extremely nice and very willing to provide us with water. The trip was a success and I plan on returning one more time over winter break to collect data for my thesis project. Now however, I am working on my semester long research project on water and energy. I will be studying the possibility for coastal renewable energy to supplement energy needs for water treatment.

New school year- new projects

Unfortunately, Tiffany and Stephanie are no longer working in the VWRRC because they were only here for the NSF REU summer program. In good news however, the new school year brings new projects! Check out the press release about the summer program we participated in.

This school year, myself and two other undergraduates will continue to work for the Virginia Water Resources Research Center. I will have two main focuses this semester. The first project I would like to complete is one based on looking into desalination and energy use on the coast of Virginia. I am extremely interested in coastal ecosystems and the problems that arise relating to water resources in these areas. The second project will be my honors thesis project and it will relate to water use and water quality in the Dominican Republic. While I haven't completed my thesis proposal yet, the project will be a comparison of water use and water quality between tourist areas and local, non tourist areas. I am actually in the Dominican Republic as we speak and I will post plenty of pictures when I return to Blacksburg next week!

Final Touch Ups

Today has been a busy day!! Tomorrow, as Caitlyn said, are our final presentations and the time to hand in our final reports that we've been preparing all summer.  It's sad to say goodbye to Virginia Tech, but its been a fun  summer and a great experience!  Many of the watershed REUers will be attending Steppin' Out tomorrow.  I'll even be working the table on Saturday morning spreading knowledge about watershed quality and Stroubles Creek!!  Thanks NSF and VWRRC for making this summer possible!

It has been a good summer

Today is our last "work day" of the NSF REU program. Tomorrow we have our final presentations in the Skelton Center on campus. The past couple of weeks have been jam packed with writing and editing reports as well as constructing powerpoint presentations. I can't believe the summer is practically over! For most of the NSF REUs, we have a couple of weeks before school starts. Unfortunately, Mari, one of our fellow NSF students, has to drive straight back to school when this program comes to a close on Friday! There have definitely been some ups and downs throughout this program. Some days we had a great time out in the field collecting water samples and learning about GPS and water quality sensors. Other days we sat around the office and felt unmotivated and tired. Traveling was definitely a blast for me although it made the summer move so much faster! My trip to the Dominican Republic was wonderful and will be followed up by a trip this fall. I also enjoyed traveling to conferences in Ithaca and Chicago. I felt though, as if I didn't spend enough time in Blacksburg this summer. I suppose that can be a good thing as well since I will be here for another year of school starting at the end of August. This summer has been a wonderful chance for myself and other undergraduate students to get to know other students from around the country and to begin to work in the always expanding world of water research. While stress levels have been extremely high this week with deadlines quickly approaching, we still managed to have some fun by attending trivia night at a local restaurant last night as well as completing a couple of craft projects! This weekend is the local "Steppin Out" festival in downtown Blacksburg and I couldn't think of a better way to end the summer. I hope that everyone gets a chance to see some of the interesting vendors and musicians before they leave to return home. The photo I included is one of the NSF REU group (with a couple people missing) from our very first week in Blacksburg! I can't wait for the next stage in my water resources research!

Stroubles Creek Has Issues :(

Agriculture - not important??

A housing development, Fiddler’s Green, is in the process of being developed in the last space of agricultural land remaining in the Upper Stroubles Creek Watershed. The only saving grace for some of this agricultural land is that in 1991, Katherine Hoge entered into an engagement with the town of Blacksburg, in which thirty-two acres of her land was placed into a conservation easement. According to Andrew Warren, Zoning Administrator for the town of Blacksburg, this type of conservation easement is the only one of its kind in Blacksburg. Additionally, Warren has indicated that it would in violation of the easement if the thirty-two acres were to ever become abandoned or fallow, therefore indicating that this area must remain active agriculture in the future. In an article discussing the easement, it is reported that the land has been recently bought by Jim and Heather Cowan, in which the land will remain ninety percent agricultural with organic farm management practices, and will be used as a horse farm (Collegiate Times, November 19, 2008). Additionally, a second lake is going to be constructed on the property (increasing open water in Upper Stroubles Creek Watershed), which will act as a migratory bird habitat. Ironically, one of the selling points of trying to bring buyers to Fiddler’s Green is the close location to the easement and the beauty of being located near the horse farm.

Humans, always ruining something...

CRAZY!! Look at all that agriculture!! Look at it! It is amazing to go out and look at the world aroud us and to try to image what it used to be back then. Currently, urban land cover accounts for over 90% of the land cover in Upper Stroubles Creek Watershed, whereas agricultural was the dominate land cover in 1937 (about 75% land cover). On the other hand, it is interesting to note the lack of forest cover in this image due to the complete flattening of land in the past for agriculture. So, even though urbanization is the present day man-made issue, there were other issues in the past, such as forest clear-cuts.

The wonderful world of ArcMap

This is a map of the upper Stroubles Creek watershed. This is the area of Stroubles Creek I'm doing research on!
The green dots represent testing sites reported on by student's at Virginia Tech. The watershed has been "clipped" in ArcMap to only show the watershed boundary defined as the upper limits (above the Virginia Tech duck pond). This tool allows me to plot student testing locations along with government and community organizations who have done testing on the stream. The map gives insight to those reading my report and makes the material more comprehensive.

New areas of interest!

This project on designing a rainwater harvesting system for a resort in the Dominican Republic has really sparked my interest in two new areas. The idea of saltwater intrusion is intriguing and incredibly multifaceted. I was born and raised on the coast of Virginia so I love water and love the beach. Unfortunately, however, coastlines all across the world are witnessing saltwater intrusion in various ways. The complex modeling and countless factors that are evaluated in order to calculate the rate and angle of saltwater intrusion is incredibly intricate. I am going to continue to learn more about the modeling that goes into evaluating saltwater intrusion after I complete this project.

The second area of interest is eco-tourism and the need to build sustainable tourism. I really fear that if more resorts and companies don’t start looking towards the environment, so many fragile and one-of-a-kind ecosystems could be lost forever. This project has definitely showed me the importance of looking to see if that future vacation destination is ecologically friendly. It has also made me question the idea of eco-tourism? I hope to evaluate a possible question such as "What is the biggest/smallest/longest/shortest impact on the environment when traveling?" and "What exactly is eco-tourism?"

Un sistema de captación de agua de lluvia

What is rainwater harvesting and is it really worth it?

Rainwater harvesting is any form of collecting rainwater from a surface. It has been used by civilizations all over the world for centuries. Traditionally rainwater harvesting has been used as a method to provide more water for irrigation purposes. Now however, many people are looking to rainwater harvesting as a great method of conservation. Across the US, cities and states are looking at building codes and water restrictions in order to update them to allow rainwater harvesting. At this time though, most places in the US prohibit it (except as a farming technique) and others that allow it only permit the water to be used for non potable use (toilet flushing, irrigation, car washing...). The two most progressive cities in the US right now for this upcoming technology are Portland, OR and Austin, TX.

Here in the Dominican Republic I am designing a rainwater harvesting system for the Punta Cana Resort and Club. This system and report will show how much water is available to harvest, based on roof size, roof material, and average rainfall. It will also show an estimated cost for the system. In the US, there is a "return" factor based on water price and electricity that dictates whether the system will repay itself over time. Here, this resort has several wells that provide the water so they do not pay a water tariff. They will save money however, because they will use less electricity pumping water from the water treatment plant. One of the main concerns on this primarily coastal country is the limited freshwater aquifers. Especially on the coast, saltwater may infiltrate the freshwater table in a matter of years if water is not conserved. The resort is very receptive of conservation possibilities. Unfortunately, many other resorts are not so interested. Hopefully, they will soon find that preserving the environment is really preserving the toursim industry and the economy of this beautiful country.

Mysterious Water

Wednesday, June 24th, Steph, Tammy, Erika (volunteer from Oberlin), and I had a journey into the town of Blacksburg for an early morning full of GPS collection. We had a lot of uncovered ground in which to collect points - the high school and a lot of recreational fields. This involved a lot of wandering and zig-zagging around the fields and on the running track. Luckily school is out of session, so only the few driving by had the priviledge of thinking we were delusional. Two known springs feed into Stroubles Creek, one of which we had previously found. This spring has been funneled into a central "spout" that is under a tunnel by the apartment complex Erika lives in. The other spring has been a little harder to identify. We believe that it might be covered up by a bunch of rocks in a separate apartment complex. But, we are unsure of this, for it might be simple groundwater flowing out of this area where we think the spring might exist. This means that the spring is actually further downstream from this area of mysterious flow we have found, and the construction at the apartment complex has actually extended the delineation of the creek due to storm water management and/or daylighting potential groundwater flow. We need to go back out with waders to access parts of the stream we were unable to on this adventure. The exciting part of this adventure (besides playing on the multiple playgrounds and picking blackberries) was a third spring we have discovered. This is a known spring, but most people have not connected this spring with supplying water to Stroubles Creek. Again, when we can go back out with waders we will be able to further investigate this spring, but for now, we believe this spring might feed into Stroubles Creek, and it is the supply of water from this spring that actually feeds the daylighted section of Stroubles by the fire house.

Greetings from the Dominican Republic

My name is Caitlin Grady and I am a rising senior at Virginia Tech. I have been working in the Virginia Water Resources Research Center since April 2008 and this summer I have the pleasure of working through an NSF REU grant, under Dr. Tamim Younos, on a project in the Dominican Republic. This project is to analyze and prepare a cost benefit analysis as well as a design for a rainwater harvesting system at the Punta Cana Ecological Foundation, which is a part of the Punta Cana Resort and Club. This project will evaluate water consumption and potential water harvest from rainwater while also looking into design components and cost of construction. I am currently in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic collecting information about water use and roof type as well as current plumbing constraints and how this system could be implemented. This could, in the future, become a model to resorts in the area on how to conserve and re-use water.

About Me

Hello World. Tiffany Sprague here. I am going into my sixth year at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. This summer I am conducting research at Virginia Tech under a NSF REU Grant. Tamim Younos, PhD is my main advisor, while graduate student in the Geography Department, Tammy Parece, oversees my project. The goal of my research here is to pair with Steph to conduct a longitudinal study on the Upper Stroubles Creek Watershed. This watershed has been highly affected by urbanization on the Virginia Tech campus and the downtown section of Blacksburg. Urbanization has resulted in construction related elevation changes, covering long segments of the creek (for example, Stroubles actually runs underneath the Drillfield on campus), and storm water management related changes, such as storm drains that carry water to other watersheds. Thus, the main focus of my project will be to take GPS readings throughout the town to delineate a field-derived Digitial Elevation Model (DEM), and compare my DEM with those that have been generated from old topographic maps and present day satellite imagery. I will also analyze land use changes over time in the "original delination" of the Upper Stroubles Creek Watershed using aerial photography that dates back to the 1930s. Therefore, through the use of GIS and Remote Sensing, I hope to gain a better understanding of the impacts urbanization has on the Upper Stroubles Creek Watershed, and what this means for the future of this creek.

Introduction

Hi, my name is Stephanie DiBetitto and I am an undergraduate at the University of Vermont.  This summer I am doing research under Dr. Tamim Younos, and being advised by Tammy Parece.  My research includes a longitudinal analysis of the Upper Stroubles Creek Watershed.  I will be examining the physical, chemical and biological changes in the watershed due to urbanization over time.  I mostly do literature review to find historical data on Stroubles Creek, along with raw data of research already done.  By compiling all that is known about these changes I will be able to accurately determine the overall effects of urbanization on a watershed overtime.  My research also includes GPS, GIS, map and aerial photography data interpretation.  

Welcome

Hello and welcome to the Virginia Water Resources Research Center Undergraduate Research Blog! This blog has been created in order to document the research efforts of the VWRRC and the undergraduate students who are committed to learning through research. This summer, three undergraduate researchers will be documenting projects constructed by Dr. Tamim Younos under the NSF REU grant program. A few other researchers and professors may also comment and post on this site throughout the summer and the upcoming year. Welcome to our blog! Enjoy!