Department of Applied Environmental Science
Fog Collection Project
The collection of water from fog offers a unique opportunity to engage with an environmental feature endemic to the Monterey area (fog). Worldwide, numerous countries capitalize upon the presence of fog to produce potable water in regions that receive little rainfall. In some cases entire communities utilize fog water to meet their basic needs (Henderson et al. and Edwards et al.). Indeed, such deployments exist in Chile, Guatemala, Israel, Yemen, Eritrea, Morocco, Spain, and many other countries throughout the world. A simple mesh mounted properly on a square frame provides a surface for the fog water to coalesce. Once the droplets reach a suitable size, their weight causes them to fall off and collect in a trough below. From a single square meter of vertically-mounted mesh up to several gallons of water have been produced in a single day under foggy conditions with sufficient wind. Actual amounts collected are very location dependent and under foggy conditions are more typically about a liter.
Besides potentially providing a means of capture of usable water, which can serve multiple purposes, this technique provides a much more quantitative in situ means of assessing the presence of fog. The fog collected is a function both of the density of water in the air as well as the wind speed and direction. When the wind directs fog into the mesh, maximal fog water accrues. As wind speed increases, typically so does the amount of fog water collected.
FOGNET
For additional information from the Fog Water Collection Network in Coastal California, please visit FOGNET
Student Researchers
Check out the Student Researchers web page to learn more about our Student Research Assistants.
Partnerships
The Fernandez Lab partners with other institutions in the area to work the Fog Collection Project. Learn More!