INTRODUCTION
Rooftop water towers are a crucial part of regulating water for the people of New York City. For buildings with more than 6 floors, water towers store water pumped in from city sources for distribution among inhabitants. The pumps are often located on the rooftops of buildings due to the fact that earth’s natural gravity pulls the water downward saving energy, time, and related costs. However in a New York Times article titled, “Inside City’s Water Tanks, Layers of Neglect” written in 2014, journalist’s Ray Rivera, Frank G. Runyeon and Russ Buettner did a scathing expose’ on the terrible conditions of the cities water towers, as well as bacteria and health concerns for the citizens that use them everyday.
The conditions of the tanks determine how clean and efficiently regulated the water is for New York and as a result are supposed to undergo inspection once every calendar year. However, many do not perform them as directed — so it is hard to definitively prove that all towers are represented within their inspection data. Nevertheless, I thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at the water vessels many of us take for granted above our heads. The dataset analyzed in this report is available via New York City’s open data policy and are listed according to a variety of different variables ranging from biological growth, rodent/insect debris, tank infrastructure, and accessibility.
MAIN QUESTION
Are certain areas affected more by these different hazards, and does tank condition correlate with the reported income of census blocks? How about the age of the buildings and areas in general? Is the natural age of the blocks contributing to these findings?
METHODOLOGY
Below is a complete breakdown of the different components of this map. It is grouped by essential layers as well as the workflow that carried them into the next larger phase within QGIS. A vast majority of the issues I was confronted with were due to how the data was formatted and organized. I recommend spending time really getting to know the dataset and how QGIS might use the columns as categorical and numeric signifiers. I propose a number of solutions that worked for me, however, I acknowledge that it is only one of numerous ways to break apart this dataset. Most of the materials can be located via the U.S American Factfinder portal or through NYC’s data page.
MATERIALS
● QGIS
● 2018 Water Tower Inspection Data
https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Health/Rooftop-Drinking-Water-Tank-Inspection-Results/gj m4-k24g
● (B19301) ACS 5 year estimates of Aggregate Average Income for Block level
County- RICHMOND, BRONX, MANHATTAN, KINGS, QUEENS)
● (B25034) ACS 5 year estimates of Building age in 10 year increments
County- RICHMOND, BRONX, MANHATTAN, KINGS, QUEENS)
● NY CENSUS BLOCK SHAPEFILE (tiger)
https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/tiger-line-file.html
● Borough Boundary Shapefile
https://data.cityofnewyork.us/City-Government/Borough-Boundaries/tqmj-j8zm
● JS OSM BASEMAP
● Text Editor
● Open Refine or Excel or R
INTERPRETATION
The map analysis seem to point to the biggest problem areas being along Park, Madison, and 5th Avenues in Eastern Midtown Manhattan. Although the other graduated maps add some clarity to the characterized of those areas in relation to age, and money there is more room for expanded research theories among areas of heavy development, and investment.
There is a definite correlation in the expense of living and specific neighborhoods in New York that can’t seem to maintain an appropriate amount of healthy water towers relative to the populations they house. In regards to age, this question proved to be a bit harder and although there are specific cases which fit the contention –there is clearly not enough evidence to conclusively state ‘yes’ or ‘no’. This is a potential pathway for further research if not a separate analysis entirely. Perhaps the biggest intention of this project was to help New Yorker understand a key aspect of their water distribution, and quality they may overlook.
For the future I would hope to see this project updated annually and routinely available in a friendly format for city tax payers. For the sake of transparency and better understanding of our communities and neighborhoods integrating many different variables of change along with infrastructure updates will hold entities accountable and people well informed.