ID students at the Savannah College of Art & Design are currently engaged in a hands-on project with local relevance: Helping a nearby vacation destination, Tybee Island, reduce its water consumption to preserve a local aquifer. Vacationers flocking to Tybee's beaches have already found their beachside showers turned off, as the island undergoes a government-mandated reduction of water usage by 44,000 gallons a day.

To that end, SCAD students are devising systems to meet Tybee's needs using rainwater, bamboo, and even Astroturf:

Casper Krouse, a senior in industrial design, showed off a waterless sand-removal system Thursday. He and his classmates had lashed together a mat of bamboo poles wrapped intermittently with reclaimed artificial grass. "It's a passive way to clean your feet," he said.

...The students have identified methods to collect, filter and store enough rainwater to serve the showers at North Beach. Some of their ideas are tried and true, such as using the roof of the existing bathroom facility to collect rainwater. Others are new, at least to this area, such as a living filtration system that uses large planters filled with sand, gravel, peat moss and live plants to clean up gray water from sinks and showers for re-use in toilets or landscaping.

Students are due to publicly present their designs today, with Tybee City Council reviews slated for the near future. Read all about it here.

via savannah now