Chapter 372 - 370: Location Confirmed
The team of geological experts that came to support Chen Xin did not disappoint him, nor did they break their promise.
Professor Zhang, along with his three students, and the staff of Lin City, determined the location of the return water well in about half a day’s work.
"The distribution area of this aquifer is quite broad, generally spread from the train station as the central point, northwest towards the Seventh Middle School, and southeast to this hospital. You could say the area is indeed quite extensive." Professor Zhang spread out a map in front of Chen Xin, on which he had carefully marked the distribution range of the aquifer where Chen Xin and his team had drilled an extraction well at the train station square.
Chen Xin looked closely at the map. Although he didn’t understand much about geological science, he could clearly see the range marked with colored pencils by Old Zhang on this map.
Looking at the area covered by the shaded colors on the map, which included the former shopping plaza where the rescue station was located, he pointed at this spot on the map with his finger and asked Professor Zhang, "Professor Zhang, this shopping plaza is currently a refuge location in Lin City. The rescue teams from the city have also set up a rescue station here. Is this spot suitable for a return water well? Can we drill a return well here?"
"Here?" Professor Zhang looked at the position Chen Xin pointed to on the map, thought carefully, and responded, "This is indeed within the aquifer range, and the rock layer distribution is relatively even, so drilling a well wouldn’t be a problem."
Professor Zhang’s words made Chen Xin quite elated. If a well could be drilled at the rescue station’s location, he could place the return water well next to the rescue station and build the corresponding heating hub here to provide heating and power for the rescue station and the underground refuge.
This would be very useful and effective in aiding the survivors suffering from disaster in Lin City.
Although Professor Zhang didn’t deeply understand Chen Xin’s plans, he knew the impact and role a completed heating hub would have, and he also hoped that each heating hub could perform its best, being built in its most efficient position.
Given that multiple well sites had been determined during previous explorations, he added to Chen Xin, "In fact, aside from this point, Lin City’s Seventh Middle School and Xiangbei Hospital are also places where you can drill wells and establish the heating hubs you designed."
"Seventh Middle School? Xiangbei Hospital?" Chen Xin looked at the two points Professor Zhang indicated on the map, examined them closely, and asked Professor Zhang, "Professor Zhang, are these two points also suitable for well drilling? Are they for return wells or extraction wells?"
Faced with Chen Xin’s inquiry, Professor Zhang pointed to Lin City’s Seventh Middle School position on the map and introduced it to Chen Xin, "Lin City’s Seventh Middle School is located at the mountain’s base, at a higher altitude than the train station square, surrounded by what used to be farmland. Drilling a return well here is suitable, and it’s not far from your current extraction well at the train station square.
As for Xiangbei Hospital, the elevation here doesn’t differ much from the refuge and rescue station at the shopping plaza, so it doesn’t matter much which is the return well and which is the extraction well. If a distinction must be made, I suggest drilling the return well at the shopping plaza since, as you mentioned, there is a higher demand for heating there."
"Since you say so, Professor Zhang, let’s go with your suggestion. You’re the expert in geology, I’ll listen to you." Chen Xin readily agreed, finalizing the upcoming plan based on Professor Zhang’s advice.
Seeing that Chen Xin had determined the subsequent construction plan, Professor Zhang felt he had completed a task.
Yet, as he celebrated the task’s completion, Professor Zhang also inquired with some concern to Chen Xin, "Comrade Chen Xin, do you only plan for these four heating hubs? What about other sites in Lin City? How have you arranged them?"
"Other sites?" Chen Xin hesitated for a moment but quickly responded, "I’m not very clear about the situations elsewhere. The extraction well at the train station square was drilled purely to clear the train station, and it wasn’t selected by geological survey, they just dug a well here arbitrarily.
It’s only because you’ve come that we can properly select sites, but now we’ve only surveyed this aquifer, and the four places within its range are where heating hubs can be built. Other areas in Lin City are not on this aquifer, so even if I want to build heating hubs elsewhere, we need to first survey the underground geothermal resource distribution to be accurate!"
Hearing Chen Xin’s explanation, Professor Zhang, appearing well-prepared, pulled out another map and spread it out in front of Chen Xin, grinning as he said, "Young comrade, you can’t be sloppy in your work! How could you forget other places? This is a map drawn during the provincial geological bureau’s survey of geothermal resources across the province. Although it’s old, the general geography hasn’t changed.
Comrade Chen Xin, turn on your projector device and project Lin City’s current map onto this. Then, you can see whether Lin City’s current important positions have geothermal resource distribution, so you can know if heating hubs can be built."
This method clearly amazed Chen Xin. He raised his eyebrows in surprise and complied as Professor Zhang requested, activating the projection equipment on his Power Armor, and projected the city map of Lin City onto the existing map, aligning them.
"Now this is clear! Comrade Chen Xin, look at this; this is Lin City’s municipal government and the First People’s Hospital. This spot is right above an underground aquifer! I remember this aquifer is above a sulfur hot spring, which doesn’t meet the standards for medical-grade hot springs and has no tourism development value, but the water temperature is over sixty degrees, so it should be enough for your heating hub, right?" Professor Zhang cheerfully asked Chen Xin, looking at the map.
Chen Xin also nodded, pointing on the map, "It’s not just the city government and the First People’s Hospital, but also here, Lin City’s Sixth Middle School, Second People’s Hospital, and this First Middle School, all of these places can be used to build heating hubs, and these sites overlap with some of the planned refuges for Lin City. Constructing heating hubs here would cover these refuges!"
Saying this, Chen Xin adjusted the projection, also projecting the locations of several refuges in Lin City onto the map.
Seeing the projected refugee locations on the map, Professor Zhang nodded excitedly and happily said to Chen Xin, "This way, more than half of Lin City’s refuges would fall within the coverage of heating hubs!"