Water Table in a Habitat

--- In ssi_list@... Ian Woollard
>
> >Even so, what happens to the water that percolates through the
soil?
> >
> What happens on earth? It goes into a drain which goes down hill
and
> leads to a river. The river leads to a lake or a sea. Do the same
thing
> on a habitat and pump the water out of the lake, process/filter
it, and
> rain it back down again. Is this hard?

On Earth, some water stays near, or on, the surface, flows down
hill, joins a river, then to a lake. Other water percolates through
the ground until it hits impermeable rock, then flows along those
contours until it finds its way to a lake, or if the underground
contours prohibit water flow to a lake, the accumulated water
becomes an aquafer.

In a Habitat, the Island 3 variety, with the farming (traditional or
hydroponic, carried out elsewhere, the flora will need to be
sustained with water. If there is indeed some "natural" weather
system, then rain will occur. In the parts of the Habitat that are
urbanized, the rain will fall on rooftops, city streets, sidewalks,
etc, all impermeable, and that water can be channeled to drains,
sewer mains, lakes, etc.

How about the wter that falls on your lawn, rose garden, city parks,
etc? As I see it most will be evaporated or used by the flora, but
some will be excess, and I don't think we want to have a aquafer
accumulating against the pressure hull, do we?

So, do we line the dirt with those big plastic sheets that they now
use to line landfills. They're supposed to last for thousands of
years.

Or do we have a cast basalt liner around the interior of the Habitat
constructed in the form of many small peaks and valleys. The water
wouldn't be able to permeate the basalt liner, it would flow down
the slope to the valley bottom, where we could use pipes like they
use for septic fields, namely, ones that have holes in them to allow
the water to enter the pipe but not escape it. Then channel the flow
through a pipe system to a central reservoir.

Is this over-engineering the problem? Is this a problem at all?

Nevertheless, I do believe the solution has to be maintenance free
for the entire life of the Habitat because it may be difficult to
repair or maintain such a system when building will be built over
the surface thus prohibiting access.

Do you see a simpler way to replicate the water reclamation cycle?

TangoMan