Date of Award

6-8-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Santa Clara University

Department

Civil Engineering

First Advisor

Steve Chiesa

Abstract

The Homeless Garden Project, a non-profit organization in Santa Cruz, California, was given 15-acres to expand in 1998 by the City of Santa Cruz. The main reason they have not moved to this area is that there is no readily available water to irrigate with. In this paper, we used GPS data and WaterCAD modeling to design a gravity water distribution system in order to irrigate this new land for the Homeless Garden Project. This system used two mountain springs as a water supply in which spring diversion box retrofits were designed. Multiple 2-inch high-density polyurethane (HDPE) pipelines were used to convey this water from the springs to a storage system and then to the proposed farm location. We have identified that the average spring water supply during the growing season and this system will be able to support 8.25-acres of farmland. Consequently, if the Homeless Garden Project wants to expand beyond this acreage, extra measures will need to be taken in order to have a greater water supply. In order for this system to be implemented, it will need to be approved by both the Homeless Garden Project and the City of Santa Cruz.

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