fog harvesting

Here's an interesting entry to this year's eVolo Skyscraper Design Competition.

Inhabitat writes:

Standing 400 meters tall, Fernández and Ortega’s seaside spire is a cloud catching marvel that stands to harvest airborne water molecules in the Huasco River valley. Its construction as a stacked weave serves to trap and wick moisture into the tower, while its spiraling structure provides a large surface area that funnels water into the basement. Here, trace minerals from the sea are filtered out via a reverse osmosis system, which is much more efficient than processing sea water into potable water via desalination plants. The end result is a water distribution system with a planned performance of 2-20 liters per square meter of vertical surface, producing from 20,000 to 200,000 liters of water per day.

Fog catching technology on a more modest scale has already been deployed in Chile. This area of Chile has no rainfall, but is still rich in vegetation. The fog catchers follow the plant world's lead and take moisture from the air.

[via Inhabitat by way of Leisure Guy]