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Fieldguide to Data Center Ecologies
Chilled Infrastructures
How are data centers cooled, and how do these cooling systems affect their surrounding environment?
Electrical and IT Connectivity
What does it take for Netflix to stream its videos 24/7 nonstop at instant speed? Through both electrical and IT Connectivity Infrastructure, we see that data centers are designed to be a resilient structure. These systems are designed to prevent failures, ...
History of Telecommunication
We explore the prevailing technologies that developed from late 1800's to the present: an always-on, connected world.
Morphologies
Landscapes
Cataloging Data Centers along I-10
Social Ecologies
Who bears the cost of the “digital cloud”?
Galena Park
Components
Data Center Cooling Types
Impacts of Cooling
Case Studies
Appendix
History
Innovations
Case Studies
Sources
Pollution by Design - Memphis, TN
Depleting Water - Stanton Springs, GA
Powering the Cloud - Ashburn, VA
Appendix
Development Trends in Texas and Florida
Urban Comparison
Case Studies & Anomalous Data Centers
the types of data storage
This chapter discusses the various methods of containing internet data
The Data Center Field Guide
Mapping Ashburn: infrastructural park
Featuring Greebles, Kitbashing, Suburbia, Sprawl, and the Archipelago
Tactics
Electrical System History
The Current War 2017 Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon Workmen burying Edison DC power lines under the streets in New York City in 1882. This costly practice played to Edison's favor in public perceptions after several deaths were caused by overhead h...
Regional Overview: I-10 Corridor
Data centers are one of the most rapidly emerging building typologies in North America. These facilities store data servers and equipment necessary for supporting digital services and cloud computing, varying greatly in size, placement, and construction...
Flows of Info
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Glossary
acre-foot A unit of volume used to measure water; the amount of water needed to cover one acre of land (43,560 square feet) to a depth of one foot. One acre-foot is equivalent to about 1,233 m³. air cooling A data center cooling method that uses air conditi...
References
https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/08/28/the-great-lakes-could-be-at-risk-due-to-data-centers-powering-ai-study-warns https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/analysis/recycled-buildings https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x/data-centers-resource? https://www.dat...
Air Cooling
Air cooling is a data center cooling method that uses fans and air conditioning units (often within the computer room in the form of CRAHs) to circulate cool air between IT racks, expelling the hot air from computing equipment. Considered the most traditio...
Liquid Cooling
Liquid cooling is a data center cooling method that uses liquid coolants (often water) to absorb heat from computing equipment. This method can appear in a variety of ways. One type of liquid cooling, illustrated above, is called evaporative cooling, and u...
Immersion Cooling
Immersion cooling is a data center cooling method where IT equipment is directly submerged in a thermally conductive but electrically non-conductive fluid (known as dielectric fluid). Heat generated by the servers is absorbed by the fluid and then tran...
Visualizing Water Consumption: US Data Centers
In 2023 alone, US data centers consumed an estimated 17 billion gallons of water. That's 52,171 acre-feet of water, enough to cover a 10.2-mile-wide circle in a foot of water! Estimating the average cross-sectional area of a bayou channel at 2,400 square ...
Comparing Impacts by Cooling Type
Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) = Facility power (kWh)/IT equipment power (kWh) Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) = Water usage (L)/IT equipment power (kWh) Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) are ratios used to describe how e...
Data Centers in Hot, Dry Climates
In hot, dry climates, the high water demand from data centers can put immense pressure on the local water supply, exacerbating the effects of drought conditions. Because data centers mostly use potable water, this puts them in direct competition with local c...
Marseille, France
In Marseille, France, a European data center company called Interxion uses a form of liquid-based free cooling to decrease the energy required to cool its data centers. The facilities pipe water from 'La Galierie de la Mer,' a tunnel that runs from inland mi...
Mesa, Arizona
Image: Apple's data center in Mesa, Arizona In 2021, the City Council of Mesa, Arizona approved the construction of a new hyperscale data center that would require 1.25 million gallons of water per day, exacerbating the concerns of Mesa residents growing in...
Chicago, Illinois
Image: QTS is seeking to build a second data center at the property located at 2800 S. Ashland Ave. in McKinley Park. (By Lake Michigan) Chicago’s proximity to Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes basin makes it appear water-abundant, but new pressures from ...
Free Cooling
Free cooling is a data center cooling method that takes advantage of local climate or geologic features to reduce reliance on mechanical refrigeration. Some data centers located in cool climates circulate ambient cool air to cool equipment, saving energy and w...
Elements
Landscape elements: SurfaceFlat landIrregular terrainModified topographyVolume CompactedElevatedCompactedFlattenDispersed Cooling units/Power generatorParkingFacadeCamouflageShellBoundarySpacial Lawn Water canalRoad VisualTree (row)Tree (singular)Physical Tr...
Eras of Innovation & Historical Context
DatesEraInventionsHistorical ContextImage1880's - 1910Telegraphs & TelephonesThe world's first commercial telephone exchange on January 28, 1878. The operator would use a cord to physically connect the caller's line to the desired party's line on the switchboa...
Graphic
Material of Data and Optimization of Cables
1816 - Copper wires were first used underground to relay a telegraph; copper is good electric conductor 1881 - UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) is the most common & inexpensive cable used in LANs (local area networks); used in ethernet & telephone lines. 1929...
Satellite & GPS
This timeline of events is prefaced by the 1896 invention of the Radio. It used electromagnetic waves to transmit signals without wires. All wireless system we use — Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, satellite communication, GPS, and even your smartphone — is built on the p...