Saving the blue planet (How membrane and spatial structures can preserve our precious water resources

Abstract

Water covers 70 % of our planet's surface and is vital to its survival, but water is becoming an increasingly rare resource. The conundrum is that the earth's population continues to expand, but the amount of potable water is becoming severely limited. Aggravated by the effects of global warming, fresh water is evaporating into the atmosphere at faster rates and is cycling back to earth where it is not necessarily needed; a small amount that dissipates into the atmosphere is lost forever. As engineers and designers, we are equipped to create structures that contain water efficiently and help prevent its evaporation. Spatial structures and tensioned membrane structures are ideally suited to this task. This paper explores both the problem of water scarcity and the potential solutions for protecting this most vital of resources.