...:: Days of Our Future ::...

Inspired by Frank Herbert’s famous 1965 novel Dune, the futuristic underground city of Sietch Nevada focuses on conserving water in an increasingly arid world.The innovative oasis project, from Matsys Designs, focuses on gathering limited water resources from the earth’s surface while securing communities from water wars in a futuristic American Southwest.

Sietch Nevada makes the storage, use, and collection of water central to urban life in a not so distant future. The city of Sietch Nevada is situated underground among a network of storage canals covered with residential and commercial structures. Energy and water resources are harvested from the earth’s surface while deep under the city are vast aquifers to store the water.

Water shortages will affect many areas of the United States and the world, possibly leading to “water wars” between states and countries if global temperatures continue to rise throughout the next century, as predicted in reports issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

According to a recent study, over the coming century the Southwest will essentially transition into a state of “perpetual drought” due to the effects of global warming. This prediction leads to the questions of whether the worsening arid conditions of the Southwest should be called a drought or whether the regional climate is changing.

the word "sietch" itself is defined thusly by Herbert:
'Fremen: 'Place of assembly in time of danger.' Because the Fremen lived so long in peril, the term came by general usage to designate any cave warren inhabited by one of their tribal communities.

The city of Sietch Nevada also doubles as a secure bunker-like fortress against the inevitable wars over water. (?)

Sources
greenmuze.com
livescience.com