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The Future of Long Island: New York
The Future of Long Island: New York
The Future of Long Island: New York
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Native Americans called Long Island Paumonauk, or ‘fish-shapedisland’. Twenty thousand years ago, recessional deposits of theWisconsinian glacier created its permeable top layer. Underneath,the melting glacier entrusted great wealth: a crystal lens of purewater held in stasis by raritan clay below and the pressure ofsurrounding salt water. The Magothy aquifer is replenished only by rain percolating into its localised aquicludes.1 Like earth, LongIsland is a closed hydrogeological system. It is a living laboratorywhere we could find hope for humane urbanism or presage ofdifficult times to come.
People have introduced hostile ecologies to this body of land.Rapidly settled in the mid-20th century as a bedroom communityto New York City, Long Island is a mature suburb. The savings of itsageing population, once invested in land, now provide sustenancefor rampant, continual development. Financing mechanismspulverise the island into bits of speculative profit that lure peopleunwittingly to participate in the destruction of their habitat.2 Builtwith federal funds and underwritten by the price of oil,
expressways are enlarged to feed evolving species of sprawl.In the centre of the island, drainage routes to the cavity-riven Magothy, smothered by suburban viscera andcontaminated by postindustrial secretions (runoff fromparking lots, road salts and radioactive plumes), becomehidden pockets of death.
On Long Island, an emerging terrain of mobile electro-communications and digital information technologychallenges this alien landscape.
Notes1 An aquifer is a water-bearing rock. An aquiclude is a body of water thatcan occur in between impermeable rock. My layperson's understanding of the structure of the Magothy is that it is an aquifer with intermittentaquicludes.2 Michele Bertomen, ‘Commodification of Land’, unpublished paper, 2004.
Map of Long Island showing surface altitudes of the Magothy aquiferLong Island is 120 miles long and 15 miles wide. It is the site of one of thefirst American suburbs, Levittown, built in central Long Island in the1940s. Its inhabitants, now totalling three million, depend on the Magothyaquifer for water. Data is unknown for the developed area of the Nassauhub, the geographic centre of Long Island. Illustration from: Ronald
Section through Long Island showing simplified aquifer strataThe Magothy aquifer is replenished solely by rainfall, primarily from the centralspine of the island. Water taken from the Magothy must be replaced to maintainhydrostatic pressure so as to prevent salt-water intrusion. This is a globalproblem, even deep inland.
The Future of Long Island: New York
Busciolano, Water-Table and Potentiometric-Surface Altitudes of the Upper Glacial,Magothy, and Lloyd Aquifers on Long Island, New York, in March–April 2000, US Geological Survey, Water Resources Investigation Report 01-4165, plates 2a,b.
Michele Bertomen
Michele Bertomen
Michele Bertomen
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Michele Bertomen
Documented incidents of pollution in the Nassau hub as reported to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Maps of potential pollution sites are rapidly being disseminated via theInternet, as are maps and documentation of the history of land use andownership. Illustration from www.toxicstargeting.com, composited byMichele Bertomen.
Pulverisation of land into speculative bits of profit via financing and value-addingstrategies of a typical real-estate investment trustThe invisibility of these tactics allows Long Islanders to participate unwittingly inthe destruction of their land. However, the complex relationships between land use,capital flows and survival are increasingly evident to Long Islanders who have themeans to make full use of digital information and communications technology.
Representational collage of an emerginglandscape of mobility and digitalcommunicationsPatterns of electrocommunications overlayvehicular routes. The convergence ofwireless communications and mobilitycreates new terrain and perceived space,the geography and boundaries of whichhave yet to be explored. Does this newrealm hold hope for Long Island’s future?
Engaging the new terrainLong Islander David Schieren in his Prius, using a mobile phone with BlueTooth technology and a global-positioning system to engage the new terrain in time of his making. Permeable strata in the digital landscape offeralternative routes to comprehend/conquer this emerging territory.
