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

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

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.

This video looks at how water is provided for our use through the hydrologic cycle. It also explains how global climate change disturbs the storage of water in the various global compartments. 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.

How do we account for water use? What is the difference between water consumed and water withdrawn? What is the water footprint tool? This video examines these questions. 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.

This video looks at how water use and energy use are connected when industrial era technologies are used as the primary means of supplying process energy. 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.

We will go below the surface and learn how water chemistry plays an important role in the Rain Shadow Effect. First, check out the Watershed Council Director video to learn how the Powder Basin Watershed Council is supporting efforts to restore their rivers, streams, and lakes in an arid part of Eastern Oregon. In the Discovery Challenge video, explore and learn how water chemistry plays a role in the rain shadow effect causing Eastern Oregon to not get nearly as much rain as Western Oregon.

This lesson introduces NGSS standards, and those standards are listed in the lesson and is part of the Explore Science Club series, an online Career Connected Learning program developed by the Greater Oregon STEM Hub. To learn more find us at: www.go-stem.org.

This video segment adapted from Last Oasis explores the use of new dams as a way to provide or store water. In the 1990s, the city of Denver was looking for a new source of water for its growing population, and its plan to build a new dam suddenly became highly controversial.

This activity was developed to give participants an understanding of Earth's water cycle by completing a WebQuest and building a model of the water cycle.

This visualization, from the US Geological Survey, provides a simple schematic of the various pathways that water can take as it cycles through ocean, lakes, atmosphere, surface and ground.

The water cycle game helps you learn how water molecules move through various places including rivers, the ocean, the earth’s surface, the atmosphere and clouds. Actions such as evaporation, runoff, condensation, precipitation, soil absorption and ground water expansion move water from one zone to another.