Did you know World Water Day is today? Annually held on March 22nd, the theme this year is water and urbanization, so in obersvance The Waterkeeper Alliance has set up a Fickr photo sharing group that focuses exclusively on the subject of water and cities. The Spokane Riverkeeper is inviting you to participate:

Do you have a camera? Do you live in or near a city? Do you love clean water? If you answered yes, then Spokane Riverkeeper and Waterkeeper Alliance need your help!

With United Nation’s World Water Day upon us, we’re taking some time (a week or more!) to explore the theme of this year’s observance: What happens when water meets city? Waterkeeper Alliance has set up a group on the photo?sharing service Flickr. The group’s name is Water & Urbanization and it is located at http://www.flickr.com/groups/urbanwater/. We need your help to grow the pool of photos there that show all the complexities, complications and emotions we experience when each of us encounters water and water infrastructure in an urban context.

If you want to get an idea of the types of photos they're looking for, check out the Water & Urbanization home page at http://www.flickr.com/groups/urbanwater/ for examples and a project introduction. Remember: You do not need a Flickr account to view the photo collection. More information after the jump.

There’s a more detailed description of our photo project goals if you want to read about them at http://www.waterkeeper.org/urbanwaterphotos. If you have a Flickr account already, the concept is simple:

1. Go out and take some shots, or look through your photo collection for images you think represent or demonstrate the special challenges of protecting and managing water in the city (think of all those dams on the Spokane River)

2. Once you’ve got your shots, sign on to your Flickr account, visit our group (“Water & Urbanization”), give each of your photos short descriptions and click the Upload button. That’s it!

If you want to participate but do not have a Flickr account already, you can create a free account by visiting http://www.flickr.com/ and clicking the Create Your Account button. (You can sign in using a Yahoo ID, a Google account or a Facebook account if you have one.) But, remember, you are creating this third?party account at your own risk, and any questions you might have about using Flickr must be directed to Flickr’s help desk at http://www.flickr.com/help/. You are under no obligation to create an account, or participate in this project.


Below are two of my possible submissions that fall under the theme: Lincoln Street between West 29th Ave. and West 17th. I took these in August 2010 during the final touches of the reconstruction project designed to slow and filter storm water before it reaches the Spokane River. Curb extensions planted with drought tolerant plants capture rain water and filter it on its way down the hill. Excess water is then diverted to the Cannon Hill Pond, designed to save the city money processing stormwater and will mitigate wastewater overflow into the Spokane River.



 

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