InTeGrate Modules and Courses >Water Sustainability in Cities > Student Materials > Unit 2: Water Budget
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These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
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These student materials complement the Water Sustainability in Cities Instructor Materials. If you would like your students to have access to the student materials, we suggest you either point them at the Student Version which omits the framing pages with information designed for faculty (and this box). Or you can download these pages in several formats that you can include in your course website or local Learning Managment System. Learn more about using, modifying, and sharing InTeGrate teaching materials.

Unit 2: Water Budget

Unit 2 covers the basics of water cycle, both from natural and urban system perspectives, spatial and temporal variability, water budget calculation, and the impacts of urbanization on surface water.

Pre-class Activity

Read the following article: "The Urban Water Budget" by Claire Welty (search the web for a pdf version)

View the videos:

  1. Hydrologic Cycle from CoCoRaHS HQ (7:14 min)
  2. Urban water cycle by BioTechGuru (7:40 min)
Complete the pre-class work and quiz (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 30kB Aug13 24).

In-class Activity

Come ready to discuss the following topics in the class:

1. Natural hydrologic cycle vs. urban water cycle. Discussion questions:

  • What are major hydrologic processes? Name at least five of them.
  • What are the major hydrologic processes which are affected by urban infrastructures? What do you think are the most affected process(s) and why?

2. Water budget analysis: basics and an example problem

3. Impact of urbanization on surface runoff. Discussion question:

  • What are the approaches of water management to reduce peak runoff for sustainable urban development? How do they help?

Assignment

A group assignment will be due in a week:

These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
Explore the Collection »