Engineers design and implement many creative techniques for managing stormwater at its sources in order to improve and restore the hydrology and water quality of developed sites to pre-development conditions. Through the two lessons in this unit, students are introduced to green infrastructure (GI) and low-impact development (LID) technologies, including green roofs and vegetative walls, bioretention or rain gardens, bioswales, planter boxes, permeable pavement, urban tree canopies, rainwater harvesting, downspout disconnection, green streets and alleys, and green parking. Student teams take on the role of stormwater engineers through five associated activities. They first model the water cycle, and then measure transpiration rates and compare native plant species. They investigate the differences in infiltration rates and storage capacities between several types of planting media before designing their own media mixes to meet design criteria. Then they design and test their own pervious pavement mix combinations. In the culminating activity, teams bring together all the concepts as well as many of the materials from the previous activities in order to create and install personal rain gardens. The unit prepares the students and teachers to take on the design and installation of bigger rain garden projects to manage stormwater at their school campuses, homes and communities.

In an out-of-class assignment, students receive background information for the site and the pump test performed, including the aquifer properties determined. Through a series of questions, students are asked to evaluate the pump test method, results, interpretations made by the consultant that performed the test, and the significance of a rain event that occurred during the test.

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In 1978, the Egyptians constructed a canal known as the Toshka Spillway from Lake Nasser into a low area to the west to allow spillover of Lake Nasser water. Despite the fact that the spillway was created in 1978, it wasn't until the late 1990s that Lake Nasser actually filled up to the level of the spillway canal and the overflow lakes began to form. In November of 1998, US astronauts orbiting in the Space Shuttle noticed the lakes filling for the first time, and they have had water in them ever since.

Egypt has embarked on a long-term and far-reaching irrigation plan to create habitable land away from the Nile River Valley. The Toshka Lakes are not, however, a formal part of the project. One of the main points of the exercise is to have students use both their knowledge of Saharan hydrogeology and GIS analyses to evaluate whether the Egyptians are wise not to use the lakes as part of the proposed system of water distribution.

In this exercise, students download and prepare their own SRTM DEMs and learn how to determine areas and volumes using ArcGIS. They can then ask questions and use ArcGIS to determine the answers. How much water is in the Toshka Lakes? What happens if Lake Nasser rises and more water flows down the canal? Will more lakes form, or will the lakes that are there just get bigger? How much water might be evaporating from the lake surfaces? How much water has to flow down the canal to keep the lakes at a particular level? What might happen as the annual Nile flood fluctuates from year to year?

The document posted for downloading contains two homework assignments, two in-class activities, and a wrap-up assignment.
You can also download a GIS Primer (Acrobat (PDF) PRIVATE FILE 1.2MB Mar30 10) that we have written, which is a simple GIS "how-to" manual for tasks including those used in this exercise.

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This module looks at the feasibility of using deeper wells as a source of low As water. The data sets are described in detail by van Geen et al. (van Geen et al., 2003; van Geen et al., 2002).

Students are being introduced to background information about the Arsenic problem in Bangladesh in lecture format. This includes health aspects and the history of the issue. They also have been using the sand tank groundwater model distributed by the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point (https://www.uwsp.edu/cnr-ap/watershed/Pages/GroundwaterModelWorkshop.aspx) to develop an intuitive understanding of groundwater flow and transport and are familiar with basic hydrogeological concepts. They inject a dye into the shallow aquifer of the model and study how pumping effects the migration of the Arsenic plume (Fig 1).

Students get an Excel spreadsheet that contains the longitude, latitude, and depth of 6000 wells and a satellite image that shows the area of investigation. They use Arc GIS software to plot data on the satellite image (Fig. 2), or alternatively plot the data as a function of longitude and latitude as a bubble plot in Excel. They find that the distribution of As in many regions is very heterogeneous. They then select sub-regions and look at the depth distribution and find that often there is a gap in the depth population of wells which turns out to be due to a clay layer varying in thickness that separates the shallow aquifer from the deep aquifer. The depth distribution (Fig. 3) of As also shows a characteristic pattern with most of the elevated As concentrated in the top 30 meters.
Students then discuss remediation options, in particular the possibility of switching to neighboring wells and using deeper groundwater as an alternative source of drinking water. They find that in many regions there are safe wells within a few hundred m of the high As well. However, it is not clear how long these wells will remain low in dissolved As and there are social barriers as well to use the neighbors well. They then determine a depth below which As concentrations are low in their region and elevate the risk of using deeper groundwater for drinking water and irrigation. They find that personal use is resulting in only ~1cm year-1 of water use, while irrigation (~1 m year-1) would considerably lower the water table and potentially could contaminate the deeper aquifer as well. The conclusion is that if deeper groundwater is utilized its use should be limited to personal use.

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An extreme precipitation event in 2008 cost one town more than a million dollars in infrastructure repairs. Now, other municipalities can simulate how their homes, businesses, and facilities might fare if they experienced a similar event.

This exercise is part of a sequence of exercises to help students understand single and multiple aquifer tests. In class, students will receive data from pumping tests at University of Minnesota's hydrogeology field site. Instead of using commercial software, students will create interactive modeling tools to facilitate curve matching and to collaborate on understanding aquifer tests at different scales using different methods. The approaches used in this exercise can be extended to develop models to compare single and multiple aquifer tests using different approaches.

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This computer-based assignment forces students to compare and contrast integral and differential forms of the conservation of mass equation, as well as analytical and numerical approaches to solution. Students are given a text description of a simple environmental problem (a conservative tracer diffusing in a one-dimensional system with no-flux boundaries) and are then required to first write equations that describe the system and then implement these equations in an Excel spreadsheet or Matlab m-file. Students then use their spreadsheets/m-files to compare different solution methods and must communicate these results in short text answers.

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This exercise is done in a computer lab using ESRI ArcMap software with both the Spatial Analyst and 3D Analyst extensions. Students are given a copy of the Lakeside Nebraska 15 minute topographic map and a shapefile containing all the lake elevation data. They are given instructions on how to rasterize the point data to create a contour map of the water table surface and are then shown how to create flow lines. Their task is to create a flow net that they will use to determine areas of groundwater recharge and discharge. They will then generate hypotheses to explain what controls the groundwater flow system in this area.

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This activity uses field measurements and GIS to estimate the volume of water in the form of snow in a field site.

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This activity is an inquiry based field investigation where students measure and map a small stream and then develop an understanding of the formation of a variety of small stream features.

In this resource, students learn about freshwater resources, how NASA uses satellites to measure precipitation, and how that data can be used in agricultural practices. Students use data from the NASA Global Precipitation Measurement satellite to explore precipitation patterns in two parts of the world and then make recommendations for how to reduce water use in agriculture and in their own lives.

Students are trained to use the Visual MODFLOW computer program (Waterloo Hydrogeologic, Inc.) and they learn first-hand how to apply the Dupuit Approximation to groundwater flow and transport problems in unconfined aquifers. The students apply the Dupuit Approximation (Fetter, 2001) to a case study developed from Anderson and Woessner (1992) in which they are given system dimensions, aquifer properties, and well water levels. Learning objectives include (1) prediction of groundwater flow and transport and (2) model calibration (e.g., getting the model output to match well water level data). Students also learn how to solve the equations using a computer spreadsheet program, further expanding their ability to understand and work with the equations.

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Wetlands provide an ideal field hydrology laboratory because the water table is so close to the land surface. Eight field exercises, in which students generate their own data, are presented that demonstrate surface-water, vadose-zone, and groundwater hydrology concepts. Standard field equipment and methods are used to conduct investigations including measuring stream discharge, estimating groundwater seepage to a stream and/or pond, preparing a topographic profile showing the water-table configuration, measuring infiltration rates and estimating constant infiltration capacity, measuring field-saturated hydraulic conductivity, estimating hydraulic conductivity from slug tests, and determining the direction, hydraulic gradient, and specific discharge of groundwater. These labs compliment lecture material commonly covered in a first semester hydrology course.

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The assignment will begin with teaching proper water collection and use of equipment for hydrochemical field work. Once the class is familiar with sample collecting technques, the class takes a field trip to several springs within the Madera Limestone, Sandia Mountains New Mexico. Collecting waters and obtaining hydrochemical field parameters for each spring location as well as collecting groundwater from one well in the same aquifer. Returning to the lab and preparing and running samples for ion analysis.

Spring waters will then be compared to well water and average precipitation data available from the USGS. Geochemical modeling will then be completed to understand the proportion of aquifer, precipitation and possible deeply sourced waters found in the spring waters.

The outcomes include 1) teaching proper sampling techniques 2) proper preparation of samples for ion analysis 3) Geochemical modeling to understand mixing

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To prepare for this project / assignment, students could view the 'A Civil Action' movie, the instructor could read to them excerpts from the book and/or the trial testimony, and show them images from Woburn, wells G and H, the subsurface geologic materials, geologic cross sections, the trial participants, and the federal courtroom in Boston (see below). The materials in Bair (2001) about scientists in the courtroom, specific (excerpted) testimony presented by the three expert witnesses in the 'A Civil Action' trial, a chart summarizing the differences in their testimony, and the views of a federal judge on the goal of science versus the goal of a civil trial may also be worthwhile reading by the class prior to the assignment.

The instructor could show students the large plates included in the USGS report by Myette and others (1987) that display potentiometric data and contours before and after the critically important aquifer test performed in December 1985 and January 1986, just before the trial, and discuss the significance of the stream discharge measurement made by the USGS upstream and downstream of municipal wells G and H to the experts' testimony and the outcome of the trial.

The instructor could also show the animations of TCE movement from 1960 to 1986 from the five known sources of TCE contamination at the Woburn Wells G & H Superfund Site (W.R. Grace, UniFirst dry cleaners, Olympia Trucking, Beatrice Foods, and New England Plastics) and the animation showing temporal changes in induced infiltration from the Aberjona River to wells G and H that were created by Martin van Oort (M.S., 2005) based on the research of Maura Metheny (M.S., 1998; Ph.D., 2004) at Ohio State University.

The article by Bair and Metheny (2002) concerning the remediation activities subsequent to the famous trial at the Wells G & H Superfund Site could be used to show how groundwater contamination is cleaned up, why different remediation schemes needed to be used in different hydrogeologic settings, and why cleanup to U.S. EPA standards can take decades.

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Infrastructure, Indigeneity & the Western Water Archives

Short Description:
Wading Through the Past is a collection of essays based on the 2021 Western Water Symposium, sponsored by The Claremont Colleges Library. An assortment of scholars, librarians, and advocates have virtually gathered to discuss the process of digitizing, making accessible, and using the Western Water Archives in the hope that we might better understand and improve our relationship to water.

Long Description:
In 2017, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) funded a three-year collaborative project to digitize and make available California water documents from seven participating institutions: the A.K. Smiley Public Library; the University Library at California State University, Northridge; the Water Resources Institute at California State University, San Bernardino; The Claremont Colleges Library; the National Archives at Riverside; the Ontario City Library; and the Upland Public Library. That project resulted in the Western Water Archives, an online repository of 19th and 20th century materials documenting the development, management, and exploitation of water in Southern California. The collections contain a rich assortment of blueprints, correspondence, ephemera, ledgers, legal papers, maps, pamphlets, photographs, plans, reports, scrapbooks, and technical documents.

In 2021 The Claremont Colleges Library hosted a virtual symposium to promote the Western Water Archives, featuring a range of librarians involved in the digitization process and scholars who have made use of the collections. This collection of essays is based on the symposium presentations.

Western Americana Manuscripts Librarian Lisa Crane outlines the logistics of a collaborative digitization project, from material selection and establishing metadata templates to hiring and training student workers. Drawing from these sources, politics professor Heather Williams provides an account of the rise and fall of the Bear Valley Irrigation Company, whose environmental miscalculations reflect contemporary water management decision making. Engineering professor Sami Maalouf considers the declining availability of water in Southern California and ways of improving sustainability. Teri Red Owl, Executive Director of the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission, provides a history of the Bishop Paiute Tribe and its irrigation methods in their Payahǖǖnadǖ homelands. Finally, data librarian Jeanine Finn and project manager Catalina Lopez discuss computational accessibility in the Bending Water Project, whose goal is to expand the reach and use of digitized California water documents.

Together, these essays reveal new ways of thinking about and improving water usage in Southern California.

Word Count: 21163

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This video is an introduction to the global issue of water. It examines questions like "How can there be a water shortage when we are surrounded by water?". This video is part of the Sustainability Learning Suites, made possible in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation. See 'Learn more about this resource' for Learning Objectives and Activities.