Interior Natural Desert Reclamation and Afforestation projects

Mankind can control the weather!

INDRA Technologies Overview

Technologies Overview: Please see notes for more detailed treatment

The basic INDRA plan is to create evaporation controlled transit ways from areas of water abundance, such as rising seas or flooded area, to target areas wherein various social benefits can be gained.   These social benefits include;

1. agricultural stability and enhancement via humidity manipulation
2. bio-diversity increases through expanded habitats and habitat stability control, 
3. regional climatic stability through dynamically controlled  shifts in regional hydrology
4. local air quality stability through increased predictability and hydrology planning

To implement an INDRA project in a region there are numerous publics and technical challenges that must be addressed.  The technical challenges include;

1. flow controlled transit,
2. evaporation control methods,
3. management of flow salinity to serve agricultural, municipal, and habitats.
4. mixed local and regional power requirements. 

The publics which must be served include;

1. natural and artificial source ecologies,
2. transit way ecologies
3. target ecologies
4. regional biomes
5. economic, and regional infrastructure and right of way issues., 

    

Transit way:

The transit of water from the ocean to higher elevations and over vast distances, in a secure,  in-expensive, effective way is our challenge.  Many arid regions are separated from heavily sourced and therefore humid regions by natural boundaries, which include mountains, surface elevations, sub-surface geological impediments and vast expanses of land. 

Transit of brackish water through freshwater areas without damage to local ecology is also a challenge, especially during significant weather events like floods, seasonal rains, or earthquakes.  Fortunately many of these problems have been adequately addressed with current oil and gas pipeline methods and techniques.

The basic idea employs a dual channel system composed of preformed darkened concrete sections , and wide saltwater or frSpate irrigation in Africaeshwater riparian zones, that will effectively manage evaporation. Maximizing evaporation when additional regional humidity is required, and minimizing evaporation when appropriate. [See evaporation in the next section]  The issues of channel design are construction, long-term maintenance, operation, and management.  

The design objective of evaporation management presents additional challenges for the transit system.  Steep ascents of significant volumes of water will require constant positive operating pressures.   A system of pumps and low pressure systems will be required to achieve the required pressures. These active procedures will be combined with a series of stepped reservoirs and artificial storage habitats such as salt marshes.

Natural channels will be employed where possible, however in most areas massive construction projects will have to be undertaken.  Not unlike the aqueducts of ancient Rome, these systems will require many public sacrifices in land and funds. Even where circumstances allow the use of natural channels, they will have to altered in size, flow rates and possibly even direction of flow.

http://www.spate-irrigation.org/

The fundamental science behind an INDRA project is humidity control to affect climate and weather conditions.  Humidity is only one of a variety of factor that we currently understand about rain.  It is generally accepted science that the level of atmospheric humidity a key to rainfall or the lack thereof.   There are many humidity source within a particular ecosystem.  Plant transpiration, evaporation from water sources, perspiration from animals, some commercial activities.  An INDRA project will provide an enhanced evaporation source which is tune-able to local needs.

To affect significant modifications to local humidity will require water flows and various evaporation methodologies.   The transit system will as a feature of its design expose large amounts of sometimes heated water to the atmosphere.   Routes will be selected to optimize the affects of sunshine as an evaporation agent.  Additionally the transit method will incorporate a variety of methods to maximize the surface area exposed to both sunshine and atmospheric phenomena such as wind or heat sources. 

Methods for increasing evaporation, will include;

1. Baffles  (the rapids effect)
2. Intervallic  atomizers
3. Heat absorbing transit ways (Darkened concrete)
4. Advective energy sources (i.e. pumps and gravity feeds)
5. Heat: Active and passive [solar] heating systems
6. Enhanced surface areas
7. Riparian transpiration enhancements

To minimize evaporation, these methods will be applied;

1. Minimize surface area by switching water flow to closed pipes
2. Cooling methods such as flow integration and mechanical methods
3. Flow routing based upon regional planning goals

The primary method of removing salt from brackish water will be via natural and enhanced evaporation.   As water is transited in open channels various methods, described above will be used to steadily increase the brackishness of the flowing water.

Regional salt pans, combined with MSF destillation plants strategically located through out the channel network.  Brackish water will be converted to fresher water quite effectively using multi-stage flash technology because the levels of salinity will be significantly increased during open evaporation transit.

Mechanical desalination processes are energy intensive, so these plants will be located near the natural power sources for the network which are interchanges and high vehicle or animal traffic areas where our PEC technology can be employed. .   Where this is not feasible other power generation methods will be applied, especially GFG [t-dams], solar, and hydropower.

Habitat creation will also be a major source of desalination.  Salt marshes wherein natural riparian processes will remove salt from brackish water will be located in areas suitable to nurture increased biodiversity. 

The primary power requirements involve the movement of water up grades.  However, secondary requirements will be for system maintenance and desalination operations. A combination of clean technology power sources can be utilized, for example solar or wind power can be employed in appropriate areas.  The primary technological underpinning of the this scheme is gravitational power.

Gravitational power will be tapped via PECs in [Pressure to Energy Converters] roadways adjacent to pumping stations where feasible.  In locations where traffic is not available for power harvesting, our GFT or T-dam technology can be applied.