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Home > Blogs > Farm Life and Local Harvest > Archives > 2009 > November > 03
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
UD Engineering Students develop rainwater collection systems
This week and last week, student teams from Assistant Professor Dr. Kenya Crosson’s first-year engineering design class (at the University of Dayton) presented their preliminary designs for rainwater collection at community gardens. They presented a variety of designs: collecting either from an existing roof, a constructed roof, or from a sloping drain-plate on the ground. (I’ll post pictures later if I get permission.)
Over the next month, the students will refine their designs, and build and test prototypes. Some of the teams will probably install the real thing to test at various community gardens.
To install a water hydrant at a community garden costs about $2000. The annual water bill ranges from $75-$200. The student teams were given a total budget of $250 to construct their designs. If they come up with a really good, easily constructed design - and the initial proposals are promising - this could make starting (or just watering) a community garden much less expensive!
Garden Station and Mr. McGregor’s Garden attended the presentations with me, and may be testing sites for the rainwater collection systems.
