5. Passive Designs part of Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability
Randolph Chambers, College of William and Mary
In this module, we consider how the actual design and placement of buildings can be important considerations for energy efficiency, thereby optimizing winter heating and summer cooling needs. One of the simplest ...

Unit 5.2 - Water Balance Impacts part of Critical Zone Science
Martha Conklin, University of California-Merced
This is the second module of a two week-long unit on hydrology in an upper-level undergraduate course on the Critical Zone. After Unit 5.1, students should have a basic understanding of the fluxes and reservoirs in ...

Unit 7.1 - Model My Watershed part of Critical Zone Science
Susan Gill, Stroud Water Research Center; Jim Washburne, The University of Arizona
Humans are agents of change in the Critical Zone. This unit focuses on the land/water connection and on how human-induced land use change affects local hydrology. Students will apply what they learned in the ...

Unit 2.1: Hydrologic Impact of Land-Use Change part of An Ecosystem Services Approach to Water Resources
John Ritter, Wittenberg University; Meghann Jarchow, University of South Dakota; Ed Barbanell, University of Utah
In this activity, students model the impact of land-cover changes on stormwater runoff using the EPA's National Stormwater Calculator (Calculator). The students are introduced to the Calculator through a ...

Unit 3. Urban Water - Atmospheric Environment Interactions part of Water Sustainability in Cities
Marshall Shepherd, University of Georgia
Unit 3 addresses concepts related to urban-atmosphere interactions. The content explores how urban landscapes and atmospheric constituents modify or interact with the atmosphere to affect temperature, clouds, ...

Unit 4. Urban Landscapes and Water Use part of Water Sustainability in Cities
Gigi Richard, Fort Lewis College
Students are introduced to evapotranspiration (ET) and how ET varies with meteorological factors and plant factors. A pre-class video and worksheet introduce students to estimating landscape water needs from ET and ...

Community Flood Risk Assessment from Rising/Surging Seas Project part of CUREnet:Institutes:Other Institutes (2019-2020):Examples
Kevin Kupietz, Elizabeth City State University
Globally 634 million people, 10% of the world's population, live in coastal areas less than 10 meters above sea level. According to 2010 census data, 123 million people, 39% of the United States population, live in coastal counties with an estimated increase to this number by 8% in the 2020 census. As natural disasters have been seen to increase in frequency and severity in the past five years coupled with expected sea rises from climate change it is important that anyone involved with the safety and resiliency planning of their organization/community have an understanding of how to scientifically assess risk from flooding in order to mitigate and recover from the effects. This project allows students the ability to develop skills to utilize computer modeling systems and to apply the data to real world communities in examining risk to structures as well as different groups in the community.

Prairie Eco Services part of Project EDDIE:Teaching Materials:Modules
Kelly Knight, Houston Community College System
As densely populated urban areas continue to expand, human activity is removing much-needed greenspaces from our communities; in turn, we are also removing critical buffers that are needed to combat air and water ...

Unit 2.3: Modeling Land-Use Change and Mitigation Strategies part of An Ecosystem Services Approach to Water Resources
John Ritter, Wittenberg University; Meghann Jarchow, University of South Dakota; Ed Barbanell, University of Utah
In this activity, students model the impact of a proposed land-use change for a local site using the EPA's National Stormwater Calculator (Calculator). Given a description of the proposed land-use change, ...

Unit 1.3: Understanding Perturbations to Hydrologic Systems part of An Ecosystem Services Approach to Water Resources
Ed Barbanell, University of Utah; Meghann Jarchow, University of South Dakota; John Ritter, Wittenberg University
In this activity, students examine the impact of land use on runoff. Using rainfall-runoff data for two small watersheds in Ohio, one dominated by agricultural land uses and the other dominated by urban land uses, ...