For the Instructor
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.Welcome Students!
We are very happy that you have decided to join us this semester. Before we begin our semester of study together, it is important that you review all of the material in the syllabus. These two resources will prepare you to be successful in this course and will make the journey over the next 16 weeks significantly easier for you. Below are links to the readings for the course.
Course Outline
1. Fresh Water: Scarcity or Surfeit? (2 Units over 2 weeks)
- Module 1: Freshwater Resources – A Global Perspective (1 week)
- Water usage – what and where?
- Demand for water
- Pricing water
- Module 2: Climatology of Water (1 week)
- Water distribution on Earth
- Relative humidity
2. Physical Hydrology (4 Units over 5 weeks)
- Module 3: Rivers and Watersheds (1 week)
- Water moves through the landscape
- River flow changes over time
- Rivers come in many shapes and sizes
- Module 4: Flood and Drought (1 week)
- Making sense of hydrologic variability
- Normal vs. extreme hydrologic events
- Floods
- Droughts
- Human need for water resource reliability
- Module 5: Dam it All (1 week)
- Introduction to dams
- Impacts of dams
- Bringing down the dams
- The future of dams: developing nations
- Module 6: Groundwater Hydrology (2 weeks)
- Aquifers and properties
- Aquifer processes and dynamics
3. Social Science of Water (4 Units over 5 weeks)
- Module 7: What Is in Your Water(1 week)
- Units of water chemistry
- Drinking water regulation
- The chemistry of natural waters
- Examples: arsenic, nutrient runoff
- Module 8: Cities in Peril: Dealing with Water Scarcity (2 weeks)
- Surface water allocation and management
- Examples: Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Colorado River
- Module 9: Water and Politics (1 week)
- Middle East
- India
- US/Mexico (Colorado River Compact)
- Module 10: Solving the Water Crisis? (1 week)
- Desalination
- Recycling (The "Yuck" Factor)
- Privatization Issues
- Required reading/textbook: The Big Thirst (C. Fishman)
- Capstone Project