5,208 articles
Downside Abbey
Downside Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Somerset, founded at Douai in 1606 and holding the largest monastic library and archive in the UK.
Dragados
Dragados is a Spanish construction company founded in 1941, known for underground works with over 550 projects in 20 countries, and part of the ACS Group since 2003.
Drain cleaner
Drain cleaner, also known as drain opener, is a corrosive or enzymatic product that clears drain blockages with sulfuric acid, sodium hydroxide, oxidizers, or slow-acting enzymes, and is among the most dangerous products in households.
Drain-waste-vent system
The drain-waste-vent system, or DWV, is the gravity-fed pipe network that carries a building's wastewater to the sewer while venting drains to protect fixture traps.
Drainage
Drainage is the natural or engineered removal of surface water and excess groundwater from land and buildings, becoming urban drainage systems of gutters, sewers, and ponds in cities.
Drainage canal
Drainage canal: open artificial channel (open channel drainage, ICID) conveying excess water and storm runoff by gravity. Key facts: silting is the main maintenance problem, 2-3 year cleaning intervals, 70 cm/s self-cleansing velocity, debris blockage raises flood levels.
Drainage ditch
Drainage ditch: an open channel conveying excess water from farmland, roads, and development. Also called a swale when vegetated. Ancient origins in Mesopotamia; central to US farm drainage, erosion control, water quality, and ditch biodiversity.
Drainage law
Drainage law, also called land drainage law, is the body of property law governing landowners' rights over surface water flowing between parcels, resolved in the United States under three rules.
Drainage of the Fens
The drainage of the Fens transformed the Great Level of East Anglian fenland into farmland, financed by aristocratic Adventurers, engineered by Cornelius Vermuyden, and resisted by fen commoners.
Drainage water
Drainage water, or agricultural drainage, is excess water removed from farmland by surface or subsurface drains. It is normally saltier than irrigation supply, is reused for salt-tolerant crops, and carries nitrogen and selenium pollution.
Drake Hotel (Chicago)
The Drake Hotel is a historic luxury hotel on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago's Gold Coast, opened in 1920 and operated as a Hilton hotel today.
Dravidian architecture
Dravidian architecture, also called South Indian temple architecture, is the Hindu temple style of southern India, defined by the pyramidal vimana tower and gopuram gateways.
Drawbridge
A drawbridge is a movable bridge whose span opens to let boats and ships pass, most often meaning a bascule bridge; the term also covers swing and vertical lift bridges.
Drawing room
A drawing room, short for "withdrawing room", is a house room where visitors are received and entertained; it was the principal reception room in 18th- and 19th-century Britain.
Drayton Hall
Drayton Hall is a historic Palladian plantation house on the Ashley River near Charleston, South Carolina, built between 1738 and 1742 for John Drayton, a National Historic Landmark.
Dredging
Dredging, also called dregging, is the excavation and removal of sediment from the bottom of rivers, harbors, lakes, and channels, mainly to keep waterways navigable for shipping.
Drepung Monastery
Drepung Monastery is a Gelug Tibetan Buddhist monastery founded in 1416 west of Lhasa, once the largest monastery in Tibet and residence of the early Dalai Lamas.
Dried mineral water salt
Dried mineral water salt, marketed as Saltwell by Sweden's Salinity, is a natural salt crystallized from Atacama Desert brine at 65% NaCl and 35% KCl, giving 35% less sodium; GRAS in the US via GRN 577 (2015).
Drilling and blasting
Drilling and blasting, also called drill and blast, is a rock excavation method that fragments rock with explosives in boreholes, used widely in tunnels and mining.
Drinking water
Drinking water, also called potable water, is water safe enough for human consumption, managed through treatment and regulation; globally, coverage rose from 68% to 74% between 2015 and 2024.
Drinking Water Directive
The Drinking Water Directive is the European Union's binding law on water for human consumption, replacing the 1998 directive and setting enforceable limits for contaminants including lead and PFAS.
Drinking Water Inspectorate
The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) is the drinking water quality regulator for public water supplies in England and Wales, formed in 1990 and employing about 70 staff.
Drinking water quality in the United States
Drinking water quality in the United States is governed by the Safe Drinking Water Act, under which the EPA sets enforceable standards for about 147,000 public water systems.
Drinking water quality standards
Drinking water quality standards define how clean drinking water must be: legally enforceable contaminant limits, treatment rules, and monitoring set by national authorities, with WHO guidelines as the international reference.
Drinking water supply
Drinking water supply: systems of source, treatment, storage, and distribution delivering safe water. 74% of people used safely managed services in 2024; 2.1 billion still lack them, per WHO/UNICEF JMP.
Drinking water treatment
Drinking water treatment: processes (coagulation, filtration, disinfection, GAC, ion exchange, reverse osmosis) that make raw water safe to drink; US routine disinfection began in Jersey City, 1908, cutting typhoid from 100 to 0.1 cases per 100,000.
Driven pile
A driven pile is a preformed foundation element, typically steel, precast concrete, or timber, forced into the ground by an impact hammer or vibratory driver.
Dropped ceiling
A dropped ceiling, also known as a suspended or false ceiling, is a non-structural secondary ceiling hung below the structural slab, creating a void that hides wiring, ducts, and fixtures.
Dry stack tailings
Dry stack tailings, also called filtered tailings, are mine tailings dewatered to a moist, transportable cake and compacted into stable, unsaturated stacks that need no retaining dam or tailings pond.
Dry well
A dry well, also called a soak well or soak pit, is an underground structure that disposes of stormwater runoff by infiltrating it into the soil.