InTeGrate Modules and Courses >Water Science and Society > Student Materials > Section 1: Fresh Water: Scarcity or Surfeit? > Module 2: Climatology of Water > Water Distribution on Earth
InTeGrate's Earth-focused Modules and Courses for the Undergraduate Classroom
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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 Science and Society 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.
Initial Publication Date: March 31, 2017

Water Distribution on Earth

Where is water distributed on Earth?

Earth is often called the "Blue Planet", because of its abundance of liquid water. As we've already covered in Module #1, this water is distributed in the oceans, ice caps and glaciers, surface water (streams, lakes, and rivers), groundwater, soil moisture, the atmosphere, and in biomass. However, these reservoirs of Earth's water are not static; water is constantly fluxing between them. We see this transport of water every day, for example in the form of flowing rivers, rain and snow, and groundwater springs.


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 »