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We have the technology to solve this problem, and we've had it for thousands of years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_cisterns https://en.wikipedi

We have the technology to solve this problem, and we've had it for thousands of years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_cisterns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_cisterns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_stepwells_in_Gujarat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_stepwells_in_Gujara... Los Angles piloted a "smart cisterns" program in 2015 that captured residential roof runoff in centrally monitored and operated cisterns, which could hold or release water according to flood conditions and local demand: https://stormwater.wef.org/2015/11/los-angeles-homeowners-capture-stormwater-smart-cisterns/ https://stormwater.wef.org/2015/11/los-angeles-homeowners-ca...

TheSpiceIsLife 5y ago
I recall reading about something similar in Tokyo Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Area_Outer_Underground_Discharge_Channel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Area_Outer_Underg...
slavoingilizov 5y ago
How exactly do wells and cisterns prevent wildfires? Like many others this technology treats the symptom and doesn’t solve the problem.
- rsj_hn 5y ago
  The technology to prevent wildfires is controlled burns. The Ohlone indians would regularly do controlled burns, reducing the density of trees by 90%. A combination of anti-controlled burn mentality, building expensive homes in forested areas, and an antipathy to "greedy loggers" has turned California into a tinderbox waiting to go off. The state needs to liquidate 90% of its forests ASAP, because reducing carbon emissions and blaming political enemies aint gonna turn California into a tropical climate. It's an arid state prone to hundred-year droughts, and it's not the place where you want to see lots of trees, not unless you also enjoy seeing the occasional massive wall of flame devouring the countryside.
  - eigen 5y ago
    > The technology to prevent wildfires is controlled burns. ... A combination of anti-controlled burn mentality, building expensive homes in forested areas, and an antipathy to "greedy loggers" has turned California into a tinderbox waiting to go off. Agricultural and Prescribed Burn Notices are currently approved in the vast majority of the state [1]. and you can see from the historical data [2] that only Aug - Oct have significant restrictions. [1] https://ssl.arb.ca.gov/pfirs/cb3/cb3.php?id=16 https://ssl.arb.ca.gov/pfirs/cb3/cb3.php?id=16 [2] https://www.arb.ca.gov/smp/histor/histor.htm https://www.arb.ca.gov/smp/histor/histor.htm
  - zbrozek 5y ago
    Many CA communities make it hard to cut down trees ("conservationism"), and also don't religiously enforce clearance rules that they do have on the books. The combination means that there's a huge pileup of fuel even in suburban neighborhoods. To those downvoting - this is a town-owned parcel in my neighborhood, just a few miles down the hill from the CZU complex evacuation zone. https://i.imgur.com/PVUoUVg.jpg https://i.imgur.com/PVUoUVg.jpg
    - rsj_hn 5y ago
      Indeed "Academics believe that between 4.4 million and 11.8 million acres burned each year in prehistoric California. Between 1982 and 1998, California’s agency land managers burned, on average, about 30,000 acres a year. Between 1999 and 2017, that number dropped to an annual 13,000 acres[...] California would need to burn 20 million acres — an area about the size of Maine — to restabilize in terms of fire." https://massivesci.com/articles/megafire-california-climate-change-wildfire-controlled-burns-fire-management/ https://massivesci.com/articles/megafire-california-climate-...
      - njarboe 5y ago
        Well, 4.4 million acres burned in 2020 and 1.7 million in 2018, so were a third of the way to that 20 million already.

TheSpiceIsLife 5y ago

I recall reading about something similar in Tokyo Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Area_Outer_Underground_Discharge_Channel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Area_Outer_Underg...

slavoingilizov 5y ago

How exactly do wells and cisterns prevent wildfires? Like many others this technology treats the symptom and doesn’t solve the problem.

rsj_hn 5y ago
The technology to prevent wildfires is controlled burns. The Ohlone indians would regularly do controlled burns, reducing the density of trees by 90%. A combination of anti-controlled burn mentality, building expensive homes in forested areas, and an antipathy to "greedy loggers" has turned California into a tinderbox waiting to go off. The state needs to liquidate 90% of its forests ASAP, because reducing carbon emissions and blaming political enemies aint gonna turn California into a tropical climate. It's an arid state prone to hundred-year droughts, and it's not the place where you want to see lots of trees, not unless you also enjoy seeing the occasional massive wall of flame devouring the countryside.
- eigen 5y ago
  > The technology to prevent wildfires is controlled burns. ... A combination of anti-controlled burn mentality, building expensive homes in forested areas, and an antipathy to "greedy loggers" has turned California into a tinderbox waiting to go off. Agricultural and Prescribed Burn Notices are currently approved in the vast majority of the state [1]. and you can see from the historical data [2] that only Aug - Oct have significant restrictions. [1] https://ssl.arb.ca.gov/pfirs/cb3/cb3.php?id=16 https://ssl.arb.ca.gov/pfirs/cb3/cb3.php?id=16 [2] https://www.arb.ca.gov/smp/histor/histor.htm https://www.arb.ca.gov/smp/histor/histor.htm
- zbrozek 5y ago
  Many CA communities make it hard to cut down trees ("conservationism"), and also don't religiously enforce clearance rules that they do have on the books. The combination means that there's a huge pileup of fuel even in suburban neighborhoods. To those downvoting - this is a town-owned parcel in my neighborhood, just a few miles down the hill from the CZU complex evacuation zone. https://i.imgur.com/PVUoUVg.jpg https://i.imgur.com/PVUoUVg.jpg
  - rsj_hn 5y ago
    Indeed "Academics believe that between 4.4 million and 11.8 million acres burned each year in prehistoric California. Between 1982 and 1998, California’s agency land managers burned, on average, about 30,000 acres a year. Between 1999 and 2017, that number dropped to an annual 13,000 acres[...] California would need to burn 20 million acres — an area about the size of Maine — to restabilize in terms of fire." https://massivesci.com/articles/megafire-california-climate-change-wildfire-controlled-burns-fire-management/ https://massivesci.com/articles/megafire-california-climate-...
    - njarboe 5y ago
      Well, 4.4 million acres burned in 2020 and 1.7 million in 2018, so were a third of the way to that 20 million already.