Water offers a great challenge for green architects to reckon with in their building designs. Its life giving abilities and importance to our livelihood means that it must be carefully fostered and applied, such that this God given resource may never be wasted.
Why Is Water Sustainability Important For Green Architects?
You may wonder why conserving water may be important, in the view that water seems to be in plenty all over the sea. The answer to this is given in the fact that water sustainability that is being considered here has to do with potable water that is usable by man and their domestic requirements.Sea water and water that is not from fresh water sources has a high saline content and impurities that make it unsuitable for man’s consumption or for use in many day to day activities such as cooking and domestic purposes. It may be useful for other domestic non-potable sources, but also only if it is available.
Water can also be harvested from these sources which are available in plenty such as sea water, which is great for coastal communities. Some developed countries are actually harvesting and purifying sea water for use in their communities. This process involves a desalination process which separates drinkable water from impurities. The caveat to this though is the fact that though the water resources may be plenty, the actual desalination process is quite energy intensive, and requires reliable energy sources to undertake this. With this in mind, harvesting sea water often becomes the recluse of wealthy nations.
Green Architects Must Consider Good Water As A Scarce Natural Resource
Water that is suitable for man’s consumption can therefore be considered as a scarce resource, especially with regard to the provision of clean potable water to our urban communities. Many urban areas are distant from large fresh water bodies,within land locked locations. There is therefore a limitation in the amount of water that is available for these urban centers in reservoirs or fresh water resources. In most instances, towns have to resort to creating artificial reservoirs for storage of domestic potable water.
This marks the challenge that planners and architects involved in the green agenda must face up to. Whatever water supply that is available must be planned to provide for large urban communities, with an ability to expand with population growth. They must also seek to ensure the most sustainable use of whatever water is available.Planning for water resources can be a tricky undertaking, as it involves forecasting the needs for a certain population for a period of time. This can be challenging in that if the parameters change, i.e. if the population grows faster than was planned for, or the water resources were to diminish for whatever reason, the entire plan can go haywire. It is vital to plan for posterity to avoid a water source that was previously adequate for a given population becoming inadequate and obsolete within a very short time span.
Water Sustainability Is Vital For Green Architects
It is important for infrastructural services to buildings to be thorough and encompass every building service required, including water supply and reticulation. Management of this precious resource can be broken down into the following areas;
- Dealing with the management of clean water supplied to a building
- Management of waste water and sewerage
- Natural water control and management from natural sources of water
By integrating these areas of water management, the green architect can go a long way towards achieving sustainability as regards water resources. All green architects should be able to integrate these areas within their projects.
