ENV 308
Ned J
Knight
Water Resources: Ecology, Management, and Policy
Phone (leave
message): 503-883-2567
Spring 2008
e-mail:
nknight@linfield.edu
Early Assignment! (see
below)
Fax (DCE office): 503-883-2369
"It is not until the well runs dry that we know the worth of water"
- Benjamin Franklin
Course Description: Focus
on the importance of water, the variety of surface and groundwater
sources and the extensive uses we make of them in transportation,
energy, industry, agriculture and municipalities. Impacts on
water resources, including overuse and pollution, along with recent
efforts to improve water quality and conservation, will also be
considered. 3 credits
(NW)
Prerequisites: none
Welcome! Water resources, as you'll soon see, is an enormous
topic that can be approached from a number of angles. Not only is
water essential for all organisms to keep them from drying out, but
also we have for centuries made extensive use of surface and
groundwater supplies for a variety of purposes. Water has been
used as a medium of transportation of people and goods, as a source of
energy, and for industrial, agricultural, and municipal purposes.
But along the way, we have seriously impacted water quality and
quantity, often without regard of these impacts on others. Though
recently there has been awareness and recognition of many of the water
resource problems we have caused, and today there are numerous examples
of preservation, conservation, clean-up, and restoration projects.
We'll examine these and other issues surrounding water resources, from
both historical and contemporary perspectives. We'll consider
many examples as we proceed, from locally to across the country to
around the world.
The first part of the course will provide some general background on
water, including its importance and the variety of aquatic ecosystems
around us. Next we'll consider the myriad of uses we've put much
of that water to. Then we'll examine the major impacts we've had
on those resources, including recent efforts to correct past
indiscretions.
The textbook for the course is Principles of Water Resources
(2nd ed.) by Thomas Cech, a comprehensive, objective, and very
readable treatment of the subject.
OBJECTIVES
After
completing this course, you should be able to
1. Appreciate the
importance of water for all organisms
2.
Understand the major natural sources of water around the world
3. Focus
on the magnitude and variety of uses we make of water
4.
Recognize the impacts we have had on water quality and quantity
5.
Realize numerous efforts to improve water quality and conservation
PARTLY PERSONAL
Interest in the aquatic environment began at an
early age. My parents were boating enthusiasts and we spent years
poking around the bays of the south shore of Long Island, New York and
southern New England. We would be out on the water every weekend
from April through October - fishing, clamming, rowing,
swimming, and lots of R&R!
Then it was off to college at Oregon State
University with aspirations to go into oceanography. But I soon
found out I could get my hands wet a lot sooner across the street in
Fisheries and Wildlife. I graduated from there in 1977 with two
B.S. degrees (fisheries and zoology), and 2 years later with an M.S.
degree (fisheries). Then it was down to the University of
California at Davis for 5 more years and a Ph.D. (ecology) in 1985,
where the summers were way too hot and I couldn't wait to get back up
here!
Since 1986 I've been teaching introductory biology
laboratories at Reed College in Portland, covering a range of subjects
each year.
I started teaching at Linfield on the McMinnville
campus in 1992. I've been teaching environmental science there,
and from one section initially, it's grown to two-three sections and
over
100 students each year! Plus I've been teaching Marine Ecology,
and portions of Principles of Biology.
The DCE program advertised for an instructor at
the Portland campus for the summer of 1994, and after filling that
role, it's built up to several courses each year, including at least
one travel one each summer. So far, I've taught Human Ecosystems,
Ecology of Ecosystems, Environmental Problem Solving
Seminar, Field Zoology, and Shoreline Ecology, at the
Portland, Salem, and McMinnville campuses, plus the wonderful
Oregon coast in the summer! And recent online courses have
included Global Issues, Introduction to Ecology, Environmental Issues
and the Physical Sciences, Water Resources, and Human Ecology.
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
Date
Topics
Assignment Due
Week 1 - Feb 18
1. Water - essential for life
Brief Profile
(Monday)
2. Climate, weather,
tides
Paper Topics (Friday)
Week 2 - Feb 25
3. Water cycling and balances
Chapter 1 (p. 20)
4. Marine
ecosystems
Week 3 - Mar 3
5. Ocean resources
Chapter
2 (p. 52)
6. Freshwater
ecosystems
7. Wetlands -
conversion, preservation, restoration
Week 4 - March 10
8.
Groundwater resources
Chapter 3 (p. 80)
9. Irrigation
- historical to present
Week 5 - March 17
10. Water for
energy
Chapter 4 (p. 109)
11. Dams -
from construction to removal
12. Water for
transportation
Week 6 - March 24
13.. Case
Study I - Columbia River
Chapter 5 (p. 148)
14. Water use and
overuse
Week 7 - March 31
15. Case
Study II - Colorado River
Chapter 7 (p. 207-208)
16. Increasing water
supplies - potential?
17. Water
conservation
Week 8 - April 7
18. Water treatment - inputs and
outputs
Chapter 12 (p. 378)
19. Aquatic
species - declines, status, protection
20.
Salmon - wild, hatchery, farmed
Week 9 - April 14
21. Aquaculture
Chapter 6 (p. 178)
22. Case
Study III - marine fisheries in trouble
23. Marine
reserves
Week 10 - April 21
24. Aquatic bioinvasions
Interview
25. Case
Study IV - Great Lakes
26. Water
pollution - surface and groundwater
Week 11 - April 28
27. Oil pollution
Chapter 11 (p. 344)
28. Case
Study V - Prince William Sound
Week 12 - May 5
29. Marine pollution
Chapter
13 (p. 392)
30. Coastal
"dead" zones and red tides
31.
Case Study VI - Gulf of Mexico
Week 13 - May 12
32. Coastal erosion - man vs.
nature
Research Paper
33. Water
policy - state issues and players
34. Water
policy - national issues and players
Week 14 - May 19
35. Water policy - international issues and
players
Peer critique
36. Global
warming - water resource impacts?
37. Future
prospects and challenges
Week 15 - May 28
(note this is a Wednesday, since
Monday is Memorial Day)
Final exam
EARLY
ASSIGNMENT!
Profile - this will only take a few minutes. I'd like
to get to know just a little bit more about you. From the Course
Tools, click on Assignments, and you'll see one called Brief
Profile. This can be done any time, but no later than Monday
February 18.
CHAPTER ASSIGNMENTS
At the end of each chapter in the textbook are
several Questions for Discussion. We will cover some of the basic
information at least one week prior to when each assignment is due (see
the schedule above).
For each assignment, read the appropriate chapter,
and choose one (1) of the Questions for Discussion that's of particular
interest to you, to answer according to the simple guidelines here:
1. State the
question at the top of the page.
2. Try to answer the
question in one page or so, if possible.
3. No outside
research is required, but do support your answer with information from
the chapter.
4. Lastly, each
assignment is worth 10 pts and due (submitted into the Assignments
function) by midnight at the end of the corresponding Monday in the
schedule above.
RESEARCH PAPER
A relatively short (5 page maximum, 1.5 or double spaced)
research paper will be required on one of the following topics (in no
particular order):
El Nino - storm and weather patterns
Wetland mitigation
Floodplain management
Sedimentation
Sinkholes
Groundwater mining
Drip irrigation
Solar ponds
Dryland farming
Dam breaching
Water rights
Flood control
Oregon watershed councils
Irrigation districts
Eutrophication
Biological oxygen demand
Biological amplification
US Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
Zebra mussels
Desalinization
Sustainable Maine lobster fishery
Tidal power
Oregon groundfish fishery
Atlantic cod
Atlantic bluefin tuna
International Whaling Commission
Deep ocean manganese nodules
Soil salinization
Spartina - as
an invasive species
Phytoremediation
Oregon Salmon Plan
Offshore wind farms
Pacific halibut fishery
Cloud seeding
Acid deposition
Law of the Sea Conferences
Large woody debris (in streams)
Bayocean, Oregon
Ultraviolet light water treatment
California Aqueduct
System
Navigation locks
Safe Water Drinking Acts
San Fransisco Bay bioinvasions
Jetties
Everglades restoration
Offshore oil drilling
Wave power
Middle East water "wars"
Chesapeake Bay pollution
Three Gorges Dam (China)
Saltwater intrusion
Thermal
pollution
Many, but not all, of these are described in the textbook, but there is
quite a bit of information "out there" on each topic. Therefore,
your paper should include information from a minimum of three (3)
outside sources beyond the text and class notes.
To get this going, which topics interest you?
Choose five (5) potential topics, in your order of preference, from the
list above, and get them to me (again, through the Assignments
function) no later than Friday, February 22. I'll compile a
master list of everyone's topics and let you know which one you can
pursue by the next week.
The format of the paper is up to you, but one
general approach is the following:
historical background
current
situation
future
prospects
Guidelines for your paper:
1. If using the Internet, choose reputable sources (not just
someone's opinions!) and cite in your text where appropriate. See
the Citations and References section at the end of this syllabus for
appropriate formats (CSE style here) for in-text citations and
reference listings at the end.
Addendum: Professor Notes -
An increasing number of college professors across the country are
putting their notes online,
and they frequently show up in the major
search engines. It is much
more preferable to use primary
sources
(i.e. articles, agency websites, etc.), so
these topic summaries should be avoided for our purposes
here.
You can tell that type of information if part
of the web address contains ".edu" For example,
".../und.edu/eco101/wetlands.html" is lecture
notes from a professor at the University of North Dakota, and
is not
to be used as one of your sources. Also, Transparency S.1 shows
an actual example and in the fine print
web address at the bottom, it's from the
University of Michigan.
Research tip: For a wealth of more focused material
on many of the topics, click on "Linfield Library" on
the right side of the initial log-in page,
then
click on Library Class Pages (in the Quick Links box), then click on
BIO 108 Ecology of Ecosystems.
That's
for a class I teach on the McMinnville campus, but you may find it has
several helpful links for your topic as well.
2. Due date: Monday May 12 and worth 50 pts.
3. When done, post it in the Research Papers topic in the
Discussion function. Also, later on, if you're interested in what
others have found out on their topic, you'll have easy access to them
there.
4. Lastly, I'm a firm believer in providing as much feedback as
reasonably possible, but another good way for you to get feedback is
from someone else in class. So, for the following week's
assignment, write a short peer review critique on the posted paper of
the next person in
the class list (to find one version of the list, in the Mail
function, click on "Create Message," then "Browse"). Consider
this as constructive criticism - what you liked and what
and/or how something could be improved (2-3 paragraphs is fine).
You can initially click on "Forward" below the posted paper, and either
type in your
review
directly, copy and paste it in, or upload a file to attach. When
done, send it to both
the author and to me.
- due date for this: Monday May 19 and worth 10 pts.
INTERVIEW
Here's your chance to find out what's going on in
one aspect of a water-related issue in your community. Choose one
(1) of the following:
1. Water treatment facility, for municipal water supplies
2. Wastewater treatment facility
3. Dam operation (if nearby)
4. Local landfill - surface and groundwater
protection measures, plus leachate treatment
5. Natural Resources Conservation Service - a federal
agency (used to be called the Soil Conservation Service) that provides
technical assistance to landowners for resoration or habitat
improvement projects, with an office in nearly every county
6. Soil and Water Conservation Districts - also with
an office in nearly every county, and very helpful to property owners
with water and/or soil related issues
7. Oregon Department of Environmental Quality -
monitors many environmental outputs, issues permits, and oversees
clean-up projects (or equivalent in your state)
8. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - has some
regional offices
9. Oregon Department of Fisheries and Wildlife - main
office in Salem, and several regional offices (or equivalent in your
state)
10. U.S. Forest Service - has an office for each
national forest in the state - also very involved with
stream protection and enhancement issues
11. Or...? (not usually a problem, but do check with me
first)
For this assignment, call up (or stop by) to make an appointment for a
personal interview with one of the experts at the site of your
choice. Then, focus your interview around the following, where
appropriate:
a. A brief description of the
operation (or involvement), as related to water quantity or quality
b. What else would or could be
done if there were not budgetary constraints (that is, any projects
planned, awaiting funding)?
c. Are there any back-up or
contingency plans in place if we're facing a drought situation this
summer (or in general for any drier than normal summer)?
d. What is planned to accommodate
anticipated population growth in your community in the next 20 years?
In your write-up for this, it's important to include the person's name,
their position, and the date of your interview. See the Personal
Communication description in the Citations and References section at
the end.
This assignment will be worth 20 pts and is due
Monday April 21.
LATE ASSIGNMENTS
We all dislike late assignments, particularly those of us who
put forth the extra effort to get them in on time. Therefore, I
feel compelled to deduct 10% of the point value for each day an
assignment is submitted late, without a valid reason. Then again,
for your assignments, surely that won't be a problem!
MECHANICS
Let's go through some of the basics in the course functions, as they
appear in the Course Tools main menu:
1. Course Content
- click on the down arrows to the right, and important subtopics
open up:
a. Weekly
Topics - the "meat and potatoes" of the
course! essentially weekly lectures, available
weekly and cumulatively as the course progresses. As they become
visible, click on the icon (i.e. link) to the specific topics in
the schedule above. Then click on that specific topic to get to
the notes. Once there, maximize the width of the window on your
screen, to reduce the number of those hard-to-read "wrap-around" lines.
b. Welcome
- just a brief initial introduction
c. Biography
- if you can get past the blinding reflection of that bald guy
there, you'll see some background and where I'm from.
2. Assignments
- these correspond to the schedule above. You can compose
your answers on your own terminal, upload them there, and they'll be
directed my way immediately. I'll also be able to make comments
about your work and send it back your way. Later, when it says
"Graded," click on that word, and the comments from me should pop
up.
3. Discussions
- several features here. There's one called
Announcements, where I'll post any new ones . Also, if you have
any general questions about the course (i.e. set-up, mechanics, etc.),
you can "Create Message" within the General topic. Also, there
will be topics called Interviews, and Presentations, for
your postings later on. Lastly is an Out-of-Town topic
- if you know of an upcoming vacation or business trip during the
course, please let me know there.
4. Mail
- this software package has its own internal e-mail system, which
allows you to send and/or receive messages from others in the class
(including me). It is separate from your own e-mail address,
though if you like, under My Settings (upper right after you first log
in), then My Tool Options is an option to forward all
incoming e-mails from here to your own.
Whenever you click on "Forward" to any
posting in the Discussion, your message or response goes into this
e-mail system, to that specific person (or persons) only.
5. My Grades
- this will show your progress in the course. Column
headings are set up automatically from the Assignments function, and
I'll manually set up ones for the interviews, presentations, and peer
reviews. Please check this periodically - if there's
no number recorded within a few days after you've submitted an
assignment, please let me know!
Note: You may see a few generic
blank columns that seem to stay empty. Not to worry -
those are default columns set up for every online course, that are
sometimes used in other courses. Here, focus on the specific
familiar labelled columns.
FINAL
EXAM
There will be a "take-home" final exam, available
Monday May 19 and due by midnight Wednesday May 28 (since that Monday
is Memorial Day). It will be five
open-ended essay-type questions, and worth 50 pts.
OUTCOMES
The course will be worth a total of 240 pts,
derived from the following: profile (5 pts), paper topics
selection (5 pts), ten chapter asssignments (100 pts), research paper
(50 pts), peer critique (10 pts), interview (20 pts), and final exam
(50 pts). At this point, I anticipate the typical 90%, 80% and
70% cut-off levels for A, B, and C (though certainly there can be A-,
B+, etc.).
INCOMPLETES
A grade of Incomplete (I) is given only in
emergency situations. Should that arise, you'll need to submit a
request in writing and obtain my permission. All uncompleted work
must be completed by a stated deadline within the next semester.
If a final exam or assignment is simply not turned in, it will be
counted as 0 points, and does not warrant an Incomplete grade.
ACADEMIC
HONESTY
It's unfortunate that a section on this is needed at
all, and this should be abundantly clear, but cheating and/or
plagiarism in any portion of the course (including buying a research
paper) will not be tolerated and will seriously jeopardize your
grade. A very simple way to avoid this is to write your
assignments and papers in your own words and cite your sources (see
below) after specific details or examples.
CITATIONS
AND REFERENCES - The Science Way
(adapted
from the Council of Science Editors (CSE) Style Manual.
P.S. Condensed down from their 700 pages!)
In-Text Citations
These could be direct citations:
Smith and Wesson (1991) lobbied against
gun control.
or indirect citations:
There was an active lobby against gun
control (Smith and Wesson, 1991).
General Rules:
1. Cite your source for specific details, examples, etc. and for any direct quotes
(though direct quotes are seldom
used in scientific papers)
2. General format: (author, year)
a. No author? Use
(Anonymous, year)
The Forest Dragons have been drawing small
crowds to the Coliseum (Anonymous, 1999).
b. If two (or more)
articles by the same author in the same year, use a and
b after the year in the text and
reference listing
at the end,
to keep them distinct.
Last year's movies are back again for the
Oscars (Mahar, 2004b).
c. Internet source?
Use (author, year the site was last updated), or if no author, use
(Anonymous, year updated)
Methyl chloroform levels have declined in
the stratosphere (Anonymous, 2003).
Important Exception:
If your Internet source is from a published format (newspaper,
magazine, etc.), cite the
published source instead,
using the year of publication.
d. Multiple authors? If
two, cite both
names: if more, use "and others" after the first author.
Mexico City has had the worst air
pollution in the last decade (Talbot and others, 2002)
e. Personal interview (or
communication). Format: (Person, year date, position, city.
Personal communication).
According to DW anderson (1999 Oct 28,
Architect, Knob Hill Designers, Beaverton, OR. Personal communication),
the 30-ft high sculpture was an appropriate entrance to the Silicon
Forest.
Note: These go in your text only, not in the reference
listing at the end.
References (or Bibliography)
This should appear at the end of your paper, and should be a complete listing of every
source cited in your text (except Personal communications).
A. General formats:
1. Journal or magazine
articles: Author(s). Year. Title. Source.
Volume:Pages.
Smith IM, Wesson UR.
1991. Gun control is not for everyone. Rifleman 54:32-36.
2. Books: Author(s).
Year. Title. City published: Publisher.
Brown LR. 1997.
Tough choices: facing the challenges of food scarcity.
Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Institute.
3. Article within a book:
Author(s). Year. Title. Pages in book editor.
Title. CIty published: Publisher.
Wilson EO. 2003. What is nature
worth? Pages 121-130 in
Allen JL ed. Annual editions: environment 03/04.
Guilford, CT: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin.
4. Newspaper articles:
Author(s). Year date. Title. Newspaper; Section pages.
Eggers K, Jaynes D. 1998 Mar
29. Trailblazers have a decent season after all. Oregonian;
Section E1-E2.
5. Internet:
Author(s). Year date last updated. Title. <web
site address> Date you accessed.
Papadopoulos G. 2001 Mar 15. Aquaculture
in Greece expands rapidly. <www.grfishaq.html>
Accessed 2003 Aug 29.
Important Exception:
Again, if it's a published
source, use that
information here instead
of the web address, That is,
don't assume every reader has
Internet access.
B. Multiple authors? List them all, in the same order they
appear in the source.
Talbot GM, Svoboda PR, Payne SW,
Enfield KS. 2002. Mexico City: air pollution
nightmare. Environmental Science and
Toxicology 17: 433-440.
C. No authors? Start with [Anonymous]
[Anonymous]. 1999 May 28.
Forest Dragons vie for recognition in Portland. Oregonian;
Section E3.
D. Same author with two or more articles in the same year?
Use, a, b, c, etc. after the year, to correspond with your in-text
citations.
Mahar T. 2002a. Apr 1. Oscars
yield few surprises. Oregonian; Section D1-D2.
Mahar T. 2002b Apr
4. Oscar winner movies see attendance rise. Oregonian;
Section D5.
E. Let's put it all together:
References
[Anonymous]. 1999 May 28. Forest Dragons vie for
recognition in Portland. Oregonian; Section E3.
Brown LR. 1997. Tough choices: facing the challenges
of food scarcity. Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Institutte.
Eggers K, Jaynes D. 1998 Mar 29. Trailblazers have a decent
season after all. Oregonian; Section E1-E2.
Mahar T. 2002a Apr 1. Oscars yield few surprises.
Oregonian; Section D1-D2.
Mahar T. 2002b Apr 4. Oscar winner movies see attendance
rise. Oregonian; Section D5.
Papadopoulos G. 2001 Mar 15. Aquaculature in Greece expands
rapidly. <www.grfishaq.html> Accessed 2003 Aug 29.
Smith IM, Wesson UR. 1991. Gun conrol is not for
everyone. Rifleman 54:32-36.
Talbot GM, Svoboda PR, Payne SW, Enfield KS. 2000. Mexico
City: air pollution nightmare. Environmental Science and
Toxicology 17:433-440.
Wilson EO. 2003. What is nature worth? Pages 121-130 in Allen JL, ed.
Annual editions: environment 03/04.
Guilford, CT: McGraw-Hill/Dishkin.
Notice the overall listing is alphabetized, by the first
author's last name (or word, like Anonymous)
F. Now that you have all the "Do's", just a few brief "Don'ts":
1. Don't use footnotes in your
text for sources.
2. Don't cite more than (author,
year) in your text (except Personal communications).
3. Don't include complete
references at the end for sources you did not cite in your text.
4. Don't cite sources in your
text without giving the complete listing at the end (again, except for
Personal communications).
Note:
The italics used above are
just for clarity - they're not needed in your papers.