Citizen Scientist

I was recently viewing the link on the Solar Roadways and i have to say it is fascinating to see the amazing project this man and woman are putting out there so we could have a cleaner environment. After watching the video i was asking myself few questions and i pretty sure some of you would end up asking yourselves some question too. Here is another link that would answer some of the questions you may have after watching that GREAT VIDEO…
http://www.solarroadways.com/faq.shtml

Based on the slope of the land around our Sagamore site, the main water flow is directed down White Plains Road. At the center of the road is a small peak where water is driven to opposite sides, hence the divergent arrows. Sagamore Street slopes slightly to the East where water is led away from our site into the street drain as shown. Water also drips down from the elevated cement supports and rail line, especially where vegetation is present. Vegetation’s roots loosen the soil allowing water to percolate through more easily. Our site gets water from the rain that falls directly onto its soil and from water draining over the streets and off buildings. The draining water enters the site through the inlet and over the sidewalk on the North side of the site.

Talk about getting the most out of our streets, check out this video on the potential of solar roadways:

http://www.solarroadways.com/intro.shtml

All, we had some intense rain last night in philadelphia, after 2 days of intense heat…. not sure if you got the same in NYC, but did anyone make any observations about how the most recent sequence of weather seems to have affected your sites? Were there more or less people out during the extreme heat? Did 1-2 days of extreme heat seem to hurt the vegetation?

Hi guys, I wanted to share some news about Sagamore. Good news: I saw what looked like caterpillar bites on leaves by the shallow well. And the daffodils are blooming beautifully. I do have some weird news though. I saw a nasty orange film by the tree. It’s probably old soda (I’m hoping). But I have pictures below to help explain.

Something I wanted to share… I grow a bunch of different vegetables in my backyard and so far this year, I have not had to irrigate them once with the hose. We are fortunate (in this sense) that we live in a region of the world where precipitation is frequent and regular. In some parts of the world (like the US southwest), the humidity and sunlight may be ideal for growing vegetation, but plants will only go if you irrigate them… I’d love to know when (if ever) the plants at any of the sites you are monitoring start to wilt. It would be interesting to see if we could identify a particular number of days without rain when the vegetation at all of the sites seems to be stressed…. My prediction is that Colfax plants will wilt before any of the others… any of you want to guess why I say that?

Something I wanted to share… I grow a bunch of different vegetables in my backyard and so far this year, I have not had to irrigate them once with the hose. We are fortunate (in this sense) that we live in a region of the world where precipitation is frequent and regular. In some parts of the world (like the US southwest), the humidity and sunlight may be ideal for growing vegetation, but plants will only go if you irrigate them… I’d love to know when (if ever) the plants at any of the sites you are monitoring start to wilt. It would be interesting to see if we could identify a particular number of days without rain when the vegetation at all of the sites seems to be stressed…. My prediction is that Colfax plants will wilt before any of the others… any of you want to guess why I say that?

Ashley,
that is very interesting…. did it look like a rat? We’ve seen them before at some of our sites, and in fact had to abandon one site because they kept gnawing on the sensors and breaking the! any chance you can get a photo?
Franco

Hi Team,
I’ve been out since my wife just had a baby, but I am now back and will start participating in the journal discussions. I hope the work is going well so far…
Franco

So I had to make up a neighborhood scenario for the Sagamore site, since I live in Brooklyn. Hope it’s understandable.