undergraduate geomorphology course

Students must be familiar with the concepts of drainage density, runoff production, and orographic rainfall.
Students must understand how to interpret slope, contour, and hillshade maps and blue lines on maps.
Students must know how to use ARC GIS to make slope, contour, and hillshade maps and to create river shape files with different drainage area thresholds.

The activity is the final part in a series of map and GIS exercises.

Interpreting maps
Runoff production

Synthesizing multiple data sets

The students are asked to identify the drainage area at which channels begin on the island of Hawaii. Using ARC GIS, they are asked to create a slope, contour, and hillshade map. They use these maps as a guide to create river shape files with different drainage area thresholds in order to identify the proper threshold or thresholds. They are then given a map of the actual river locations and a precipitation map. The students must hand in their maps along with a write-up that describes how they used the slope, contour and hillshade maps to determine the location of rivers. They must also report on what drainage area threshold(s) they chose and why. They are also asked to explain why the map of the actual river locations looks different from any of river maps that they created. This activity gives students practice at interpreting and synthesizing multiple data sets.
Designed for a geomorphology course
Uses online and/or real-time data

I looked for the following concepts in the student's write-ups:
1. Channels are in the locations where contours point uphill
2. Steep slopes on either side of a flat area illustrates a canyon
3. Canyons are often shaded on one side and illuminated on the other in a hillshade map
4. Precipitation patterns affect drainage density