Civilizations Past And Present

[Desiderato Merriwether]

Dredgingis a process that removes sediments and artificial debris from the bottom of freshwater bodies and shallow seawater. Various industries use dredging to excavate materials from the bottom of waterways, including rocks, refuse, contaminants, building debris and plants. The process makes water navigable, creates an adequate environment for building dams and constructing bridges and even makes it possible to recover minerals and marine life where they have commercial uses.

Dredging is steeped in humble beginnings and has come a long way when we compare it to current processes. Most early civilizations established themselves on rivers, making it crucial for them to be able to navigate these bodies of water. Ancient peoples from around the world developed unique, innovative solutions to contend with the environment.

Archeological evidence suggests dredging dates back to the Mesopotamians and ancient Egyptians. These civilizations had large river-based communities that used a rudimentary irrigation tool called a shadoof or shaduf. The shadoof suspends a long pole with a bucket or basket on the end from a frame. Inhabitants would lower the bucket into water, lift it and place it in another water source or on land.

Furthermore, archeologists have found evidence of dredging in ancient Roman harbors. Romans, known for their advanced engineering projects like the aqueduct, likely used dredging to build canal gates to control water traffic and flow.

Renowned Renaissance artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci drew a design for a type of drag dredger around the 16th century. A few hundred years later, the Industrial Revolution began and marked noteworthy advancements in dredging techniques, including the beginning of motorized dredging. The invention of the steam engine in the 18th and 19th centuries led to the use of motorized steamboats. This new technology made dredging easier and far more effective than at any other time in dredging history. From there, dredging took off and was pivotal in land development and building and expanding ports and canals.

In the early 20th century, dredging was also crucial for land reclamation, or constructing new land in the sea. For example, in 1932 the Dutch government drained the Zuiderzee, a shallow part of the North Sea bordering the Netherlands. Cutting this off from the North Sea made it possible to reclaim the shallow wetlands and led to the creation of the Flevopolderin, an island polder and one of its surrounding lakes, the IJsselmeer.

The dredging industry today is one of continued innovation. Many present industrial developments highlight new and renewed interest in environmental considerations. This spurred further innovation as developers found ways to make dredging safer and more sustainable.

Today, a branch of dredging known as environmental dredging removes contaminated sediment from underwater. The process is also used to treat these waters or to place the contaminated sediments in a new location. Environmental dredging helps reduce the risks associated with underwater contaminants for human and ecological health.

Technological advancements continue to make dredging operations as accurate as possible. We now have software for real-time monitoring and improved surveying and mapping techniques. These resources are crucial as they minimize the chances of environmental impact all while making dredging as efficient as possible.

Dredging is now a significant part of an extensive industry. Governments, corporations and individual pioneers use state-of-the-art dredging equipment in large-scale projects, including offshore energy initiatives, land reclamation and the development and maintenance of ports and canals.

There is a rise in demand for highly specialized dredging equipment and techniques following an increase in dredging activities commercially and environmentally. Governments have more contracts for various infrastructure projects in place and bidding for these tenders is competitive.

For example, a recent study analyzing dredging practices on the Gulf Coast shows the beneficial use of dredged sediment to correct land and habitat loss. The study reports that large amounts of sediment is dredged from the Gulf Coast annually to maintain safe waterways. This sediment is a valuable resource in restoring coastal marsh habitats and has led to the creation of 800 hectares of new land in the Mississippi River Delta.

Dredging is the perfect example of how simple ideas and solutions can grow into revolutionary industries. The rudimentary technique of a bucket suspended from a pole has transformed into a billion-dollar market that requires expert engineering and a mind for the future commercially and environmentally. GeoForm International Inc. envelops this ethos and we provide you with premium dredging equipment for your industry needs.

Our Dino 6 Sediment Removal System is a portable hydraulic dredge packed with power. The system is equipped with a 6-inch submersible pump and 66-inch-wide cutterhead, while a four-cylinder diesel engine powers the craft. At slightly over 22 feet long, 6 feet wide and less than 6 feet tall, this small boat is perfectly portable.

The Dino 6 is ideal for projects that are inaccessible with bigger equipment. You can use the Dino 6 for maintaining golf courses and small marinas. It is also a powerful tool for homeowners associations. Our high-quality submersible pumps are proudly made in the USA.

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During the processes of human population dispersal around the world over the past 50 000-100 000 years, along with associated cultural evolution and inter-population contact and conflict, there have been several major transitions in the relationships of Homo sapiens with the natural world, animate and inanimate. Each of these transitions has resulted in the emergence of new or unfamiliar infectious diseases. The three great historical transitions since the initial advent of agriculture and livestock herding, from ca. 10 000 years ago, occurred when: (i) early agrarian-based settlements enabled sylvatic enzootic microbes to make contact with Homo sapiens; (ii) early Eurasian civilizations (such as the Greek and Roman empires, China and south Asia) came into military and commercial contact, ca. 3000-2000 years ago, swapping their dominant infections; and (iii) European expansionism, over the past five centuries, caused the transoceanic spread of often lethal infectious diseases. This latter transition is best known in relation to the conquest of the Americas by Spanish conquistadores, when the inadvertent spread of measles, smallpox and influenza devastated the Amerindian populations.Today, we are living through the fourth of these great transitional periods. The contemporary spread and increased lability of various infectious diseases, new and old, reflect the combined and increasingly widespread impacts of demographic, environmental, behavioural, technological and other rapid changes in human ecology. Modern clinical medicine has, via blood transfusion, organ transplantation, and the use of hypodermic syringes, created new opportunities for microbes. These have contributed to the rising iatrogenic problems of hepatitis C, HIV/AIDS and several other viral infections. Meanwhile, the injudicious use of antibiotics has been a rare instance of human action actually increasing 'biodiversity'. Another aspect of this fourth transition is that modern hyper-hygienic living restricts microbial exposure in early life. This, in the 1950s, may have contributed to an epidemic of more serious, disabling, poliomyelitis, affecting older children than those affected in earlier, more endemic decades. As with previous human-microbe transitions, a new equilibrial state may lie ahead. However, it certainly will not entail a world free of infectious diseases. Any mature, sustainable, human ecology must come to terms with both the need for, and the needs of, the microbial species that help to make up the interdependent system of life on Earth. Humans and microbes are not "at war"; rather, both parties are engaged in amoral, self-interested, coevolutionary struggle. We need to understand better, and therefore anticipate, the dynamics of that process.

The Center for Western Civilization, Thought & Policy seeks to encourage critical reflection on the distinctive traditions, languages and issues that characterize the cultures of Western civilization, in order to help the citizens of Colorado and the United States understand and appreciate their past in itself and as the basis of a free and creative future.

The study of Western Civilization covers many subjects and many ages, including all the fields that study or are influenced by the history, culture and languages of most of the traditional areas of the Humane, Physical and Social Sciences. These include, but are not limited to, Greek and Latin languages and cultures, science, history, literature, the arts, law and government in their ancient, medieval and modern forms. American civilization is part of a continuum of past, present and future and can be best appreciated by those who seek to understand the lively interactions of past, present and future.

The Center sponsors faculty and student research on topics related to the history of Western civilization. It aims to promote the university's already strong contributions in these areas, and to provide the resources for the university to become even more active in pursuing such research. Calls for proposals will be made annually.

The Certificate in Western Civilization is offered for undergraduates interested in pursuing an interdisciplinary track on the foundations of Western thought and society. Its emphasis is coursework focusing on languages and cultures, science, the arts, philosophy, law and government in their ancient, medieval, and modern forms.

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