Preventing Flooding

By: Ethan Burke

Question

Which barrier will prevent fooding better

Hypothesis

I hypothesize that the concrete barrier will work the best.

Procedure

• 1. Gather material

  2. Build 5 designs in a pan

  3. Let everything dry overnight

  4. Slowly pour the water into the five designs

  5. Put a lid over the designs

  6. Let the pans sit there for 24 hours

  7. Pour the water on the sponges side into a measuring cup

1. Repeat steps 4-7 3 times

Conclusion

All in all, the concrete and clay walls did the best. The two barriers let no water through and saved the town. My data shows that my hypothesis was correct. With everything factored in I would build the barriers out of concrete because it is the most reasonable and cost effective. There are numerous ways I could make my project better. I could have tested more barriers such as dirt, sand, or plastic. Another way I could have improved my project is to test it out more times than three. Clearly, if Wildwood Crest was to build a seawall along the bay, concrete would be the best choice for the material.

Abstract

Our town has numerous problems when it comes to flooding. For my science fair project I decided to find a way to prevent flooding in Wildwood Crest. I built 4 different barriers and one control. I hypothesized that the concrete barrier would work the best because countless other islands erect sea walls made of concrete around the town and this usually prevents flooding. I also think the natural clay would work decently because it is often used to make pottery that holds water. I am curious though to see if it erodes away do to the water.

After thinking of numerous ways I could conduct this experiment, I settled on the following way on how to go through with my project. I decided to build a barrier that is 3 inches thick and as long as the container. I did this 3 times for each different barrier. On one side of the barrier I hot glued a sponge that represents Wildwood Crest’s drains to make the buildings even more accurate. Then, I poured two cups of water on the opposite end of the drains. This water represents an over flowing body of water. Then I left the water in the pan for one day. When I came back the next day, I poured the water on the side of the sponge into a measuring cup. I repeated these steps for three days and started to analyze my data.

The control was just the drain. The drain soaked up half a cup of water on average. This made the drain come in last place for my data. Second to last was the barrier made of popsicle sticks. This held an average of 1.17 cups of water. Coming in at second place was the wall of sponges. They soaked up an average of .58 cups of water. The concrete barrier and the clay barrier both were tied for first place. They both let no water through over the three days.

In conclusion, concrete and clay work the best. My data supports this. The concrete and clay both did not let any water through. The second place let about 6/10 of a cup of water through, which doesn’t sound like much but on a city scale that makes a huge amount of water going through. It’s now clear that the clay and concrete work the best. I could have made my project better by testing more designs and/or testing the designs more times in a real life event. However, I think concrete would be the best because clay will get mushy when it is wet. The wall would eventually get deformed and while it's wet people may mess around with the huge clay wall. So all in all, if Wildwood Crest were to build a wall to prevent flooding it should be made of concrete.