A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Fleeting fame and groundwater: isolation and water in Kings River Valley, Nevada
Abstract This article examines how crop irrigation with groundwater briefly transformed the image of the Kings River Valley, a remote arid valley in northern Nevada, US, and captured state and national attention during a brief period in the mid-twentieth century. The valley’s short time in the limelight reveals the appeal of finding and recovering abundant water in arid places, bringing to light how groundwater use, technology, and regulation may be connected with alternating cycles of remoteness and popularity in a place. Coupled with improvements to infrastructure was the backdrop of a successful place; success, in this case, being associated with the know-how and capacity for massive withdrawals of groundwater and the ability to use this water to enhance agriculture. However, agriculture dependent upon groundwater in an arid place is complicated and uncertain, made more so when isolation is involved. As the technologies that supported large-scale groundwater pumping became more commonplace throughout the country and as groundwater became less readily accessible in the valley, attention to the Kings River dwindled and it slipped back into obscurity. Although groundwater has not completely disappeared, heavy groundwater pumping has altered the Kings River Valley, the place itself changing in the process. There are, however, some who gain advantage from isolation. The economic and political advantage of greater isolation accrued principally to absentee landowners, whose roots in Western cities were removed from daily life in the King River Valley. Isolation allowed less regulatory oversight of existing groundwater users, resulting in financial benefits which accrued primarily to those who supplied the cash and expertise for crops, cows, and groundwater, but did not actually reside in the valley. Absentee ranch owners generally had this capital, having the requisite connections and motivations to operate skillfully in the more structured and regulatory environment. Thus, this article analyzes water history coupling it with questions that are geographic in nature. What is it that makes a place isolated and how does groundwater figure into changes in isolation? How do cycles of isolation fit with changes in water technologies and regulation? And while the consequences of isolation may be apparent, what are the advantages of isolation to those using groundwater?
Fleeting fame and groundwater: isolation and water in Kings River Valley, Nevada
Abstract This article examines how crop irrigation with groundwater briefly transformed the image of the Kings River Valley, a remote arid valley in northern Nevada, US, and captured state and national attention during a brief period in the mid-twentieth century. The valley’s short time in the limelight reveals the appeal of finding and recovering abundant water in arid places, bringing to light how groundwater use, technology, and regulation may be connected with alternating cycles of remoteness and popularity in a place. Coupled with improvements to infrastructure was the backdrop of a successful place; success, in this case, being associated with the know-how and capacity for massive withdrawals of groundwater and the ability to use this water to enhance agriculture. However, agriculture dependent upon groundwater in an arid place is complicated and uncertain, made more so when isolation is involved. As the technologies that supported large-scale groundwater pumping became more commonplace throughout the country and as groundwater became less readily accessible in the valley, attention to the Kings River dwindled and it slipped back into obscurity. Although groundwater has not completely disappeared, heavy groundwater pumping has altered the Kings River Valley, the place itself changing in the process. There are, however, some who gain advantage from isolation. The economic and political advantage of greater isolation accrued principally to absentee landowners, whose roots in Western cities were removed from daily life in the King River Valley. Isolation allowed less regulatory oversight of existing groundwater users, resulting in financial benefits which accrued primarily to those who supplied the cash and expertise for crops, cows, and groundwater, but did not actually reside in the valley. Absentee ranch owners generally had this capital, having the requisite connections and motivations to operate skillfully in the more structured and regulatory environment. Thus, this article analyzes water history coupling it with questions that are geographic in nature. What is it that makes a place isolated and how does groundwater figure into changes in isolation? How do cycles of isolation fit with changes in water technologies and regulation? And while the consequences of isolation may be apparent, what are the advantages of isolation to those using groundwater?
Fleeting fame and groundwater: isolation and water in Kings River Valley, Nevada
Berry, Kate A. (author)
Water History ; 1 ; 59-74
2009-07-01
16 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
The Back Page. Canadian architecture students find fleeting fame in Dublin. Ireland
Online Contents | 1998
| British Library Online Contents | 2004
| Online Contents | 2004
Splash Screens fleeting and light
| Online Contents | 1997