GEOG 1 SJSU Physical Geography The Hydrosphere Task
Description
Topic: The Hydrosphere
I worked for a couple of years for the National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center (NOHRSC) (https://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov ) which is NOAA’s “source for snow information” and other hydrological data products and models. Every winter day, several satellite datasets are downloaded to this facility and analyzed, and by evening a variety of maps and graphs are generated and uploaded onto the Internet for use by regional hydrological agencies, businesses, and others to inform their own work and decisions. One important variable that has to be mapped and used to forecast springtime flooding is called ‘snow water equivalent’, or SWE, which gauges the volume of liquid water that would result from melting a given area of snow cover. This can be checked manually on the ground at various points using automated ‘snow pillows’ and other devices, but it can also be checked from above. NOAA pilots run low altitude flight-lines over snow with instruments that estimate SWE by measuring the degree to which the natural radioactivity of the ground beneath is dampened, or attenuated. These NOAA Corps pilots travel all over the world gathering data and assisting researchers; one in our office had once overwintered at the South Pole.
Fresh water is likely to become an increasingly contentious issue worldwide, as water availability and distribution is inevitably tied to issues of food production, industry, and social justice.
Watch: The Water Cycle [National Science Foundation]
Watch: Is the world’s fresh water supply running out? [PBS NewsHour]
Recommended: Inside Story – What can be done to stop global water scarcity? [Al Jazeera English]
Watch: Water Resource Management
Take a look at our closest reservoir, the Calaveras:
Watch: Calaveras Reservoir [Gary Pereira]
Recommended: The Three Gorges Dam [Gary Pereira]
Recommended: The Three Gorges [Gary Pereira]
Task:Is the world’s fresh water supply running out? Try to be geographically specific.
What is an aquifer? What is the current state of aquifers around the world?
Describe some of the tasks involved in water resources management.
Where does our local water come from? Why do you think the new Calaveras Reservoir Dam was designed to hold up to four times as much water as it is currently holding?
Access the text Fundamentals of Physical Geography
http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/contents.html
Essay Questions 1, 3, 4, 7, 10, 12
8.1. What is streamflow? How can it be expressed in a mathematical model? Describe the effect of an intense 1 hour storm on streamflow over 24 hours using a hydrograph.
8.3. Discuss the movement of water into soils. How and why does infiltration vary with time?
8.4. Why does runoff occur?
8.7. Describe the mathematical equation used to model stream discharge.
8.10. What is potential evapotranspiration and how does it differ from actual evapotranspiration? What factors control the rate at which water leaves the Earth’s surface by way of evaporation and transpiration?
8.12. Explain how relative humidity is measured.
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