Live data from Hacker News

Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]

youtube.com

51–60 of 71 posts

Re: Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]

#51
post #11

What happens to the plants during the summer if there is too little rain? Do they also install watering systems? That would be expensive to maintain.

Berlin was a sump before becoming a city, it still has ground water almost up to ground level in some areas. Has a bunch of pumping stations to lower ground water, too.

Re: Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]

#52
post #7

These kinds of techniques are often claimed to be effective against flash floods, which makes sense since they slow down water transfer to rivers. Does anyone know any studies about how effective it could be against seriously heavy precipitation of the scale of Harvey or South Asia floods right now? In other words, how well does the approach scale?

Civil engineering has pretty well quantified the rate at which water is absorbed by certain soils, accounting for groundcover, trees, pavement, local detainment, etc. Berlin's sponge mission is baiscially distributed detainment, working to offset hardscaping (driveways and roofing). In other words, it's a well known and very predictable science, but we (we being US land development industry) has not cared. HOWEVER rain at the scale of Harvey cannot practically be planned for beyond "don't build on land that's lower than average"

Re: Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]

#53
post #7

These kinds of techniques are often claimed to be effective against flash floods, which makes sense since they slow down water transfer to rivers. Does anyone know any studies about how effective it could be against seriously heavy precipitation of the scale of Harvey or South Asia floods right now? In other words, how well does the approach scale?

Civil engineering has pretty well quantified the rate at which water is absorbed by certain soils, accounting for groundcover, trees, pavement, local detainment, etc. Berlin's sponge mission is baiscially distributed detainment, working to offset hardscaping (driveways and roofing). In other words, it's a well known and very predictable science, but we (we being US land development industry) has not cared. HOWEVER ra…

Well, that's partly true. A lot of the flooding is due to the fact that the entirety of Texas doesn't care about hydrology, and all that water is ending up downstream, in Houston.

There'd still be flooding, and it would still be bad, but a certain degree of flooding was avoidable.

Re: Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Civil engineering has pretty well quantified the rate at which water is absorbed by certain soils, accounting for groundcover, trees, pavement, local detainment, etc. Berlin's sponge mission is baiscially distributed detainment, working to offset hardscaping (driveways and roofing). In other words, it's a well known and very predictable science, but we (we being US land development industry) has not cared. HOWEVER ra…

Well, that's partly true. A lot of the flooding is due to the fact that the entirety of Texas doesn't care about hydrology, and all that water is ending up downstream, in Houston. There'd still be flooding, and it would still be bad, but a certain degree of flooding was avoidable.

Deregulation at work

Re: Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]

#55
post #14

Nice project, it makes Berlin appear like a progressive, nice place to live. But actually it has so many problems that should be solved first before even thinking about things like this. For instance total failure to integrate the Muslim minority, increasing racism against Jews (Men usually wear a baseball-cap over the Kippah in public due to fear of being beaten up), prices that double each 7-10 years while salaries…

> increasing racism against Jews This is true. > Men usually wear a baseball-cap over the Kippah in public But this is right-wing bullshit. The rise in anti-Semitic crimes is used by Pegida to stir up fear of refugees, Muslims, and Islam, and it's also used by Netanyahu and the Israeli / Jewish right to encourage immigration to Israel. The reality is that the rise in anti-Semitism begins in 2014, prior to the refugee…

citation?

Re: Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]

#56
post #7

These kinds of techniques are often claimed to be effective against flash floods, which makes sense since they slow down water transfer to rivers. Does anyone know any studies about how effective it could be against seriously heavy precipitation of the scale of Harvey or South Asia floods right now? In other words, how well does the approach scale?

Civil engineering has pretty well quantified the rate at which water is absorbed by certain soils, accounting for groundcover, trees, pavement, local detainment, etc. Berlin's sponge mission is baiscially distributed detainment, working to offset hardscaping (driveways and roofing). In other words, it's a well known and very predictable science, but we (we being US land development industry) has not cared. HOWEVER ra…

[deleted]

Re: Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]

#57
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is relevant because, as anyone knows, Germans spend a significant amount of their salaries on Oktoberfest beer. m(

I can pull up prices for other goods, too if you want. Especially rents (in e.g., Munich where I lived all my life) went up similarly while salaries stagnate. Munich rents are on par with Swiss rents, which is crazy if one looks at the difference in salaries. Luckily, now I live in Zurich, which is prosperous like Germany 30-40 years ago. Full disclaimer: I run a tech recruiting agency that focuses on matching engine…

Do you think the basket of goods used to calculate inflation is wrong? Because the cost of everyday expenses is the definition of inflation.

Re: Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Civil engineering has pretty well quantified the rate at which water is absorbed by certain soils, accounting for groundcover, trees, pavement, local detainment, etc. Berlin's sponge mission is baiscially distributed detainment, working to offset hardscaping (driveways and roofing). In other words, it's a well known and very predictable science, but we (we being US land development industry) has not cared. HOWEVER ra…

Well, that's partly true. A lot of the flooding is due to the fact that the entirety of Texas doesn't care about hydrology, and all that water is ending up downstream, in Houston. There'd still be flooding, and it would still be bad, but a certain degree of flooding was avoidable.

The other thought, I imagine, is that they felt the probability was low that they would see a flood of this scale even within their lifetime; that ended up being a poor bet. Even so, flood insurance is also cheaper when the perceived likelihood of a flood is low.

Re: Berlin Is Becoming a Sponge City [video]

#60
post #14

Nice project, it makes Berlin appear like a progressive, nice place to live. But actually it has so many problems that should be solved first before even thinking about things like this. For instance total failure to integrate the Muslim minority, increasing racism against Jews (Men usually wear a baseball-cap over the Kippah in public due to fear of being beaten up), prices that double each 7-10 years while salaries…

> increasing racism against Jews This is true. > Men usually wear a baseball-cap over the Kippah in public But this is right-wing bullshit. The rise in anti-Semitic crimes is used by Pegida to stir up fear of refugees, Muslims, and Islam, and it's also used by Netanyahu and the Israeli / Jewish right to encourage immigration to Israel. The reality is that the rise in anti-Semitism begins in 2014, prior to the refugee…

There was always a strong anti-semitic vibe in community who migrated from the middle east. But hey, no need to call it out- its part of there culture. Like its part of pegidas culture to squash the left who was idiotic enough to welcome every radical conservative as long as he had exotic flair.
Post reply on HN