Course Objective

This course will integrate environmental science and management to address sustainable watershed management. First, we will explore the concept of sustainability in the context of watershed management, followed by a brief review of the legal and policy framework in which the management process is done. We then dissect the elements of a watershed management plan, to understand what is needed to create a plan. In additional to the watershed components, we will overview the drivers for change, the competing interests, the stakeholder groups and resources that provide information about the current state. Once we have analyzed the problems, we will overview potential solutions and see how they can be implemented, through a number of case studies. At the end of the course, you will be familiar with the process of developing a watershed management plan that takes into consideration various issues and concerns and that provides some concrete actions to address them.

Textbooks and other readings

The textbook for the course will be:

Watersheds : Processes, Assessment and Management
by Paul A. DeBarry
Publisher: Wiley (July 9, 2004)
ISBN: 0471264237

We will supplement it with other readings (available below) and web materials.

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Meeting Topics

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Lab Sessions

General Information on ESM 224 Lab

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Course Assignment and Evaluation Criteria

There is one assignment in the course, and no exams…! You will develop a “preliminary watershed management plan” for a specific watershed, of your choice. However, to make it easier to keep up with the assignment, there will be deliverables every week starting with week 3. That will focus your initial decision-making to pick a watershed to work on. You can work in teams of 2 (maximum) on a watershed. You can select any watershed you want, although I will give some tips on what to look for in a watershed. If two people/teams select the same watershed, it will be “first come, first serve” in terms of who gets to work on it, to make it fair. You will then search for different pieces of information needed to understand the current state of your watershed, the issues and concerns of various stakeholders, and lots of physical data needed (no worries, most of it is one click away). You will analyze this information and make a preliminary design, using the “toolkit” that we will be overviewing in lecture. You will be getting feedback on your various deliverables throughout the course, and then will put it all together into a final product.

The final grade is based on the written report (60%) and oral presentation (40%). Some of you will be able to go further with the modeling than others, but I don’t want to make the “success” of the modeling effort the major factor. Rather, it will be how well you articulate the situation (current condition) and how creative, professional and thorough you are in coming up with an integrated plan. The model may help, but if it “gets in the way” of making decisions, we can discuss your options at the appropriate time (i.e. Week 9 at the latest…).

The deliverables will be:

• Week 3: Characterization of the selected watershed (general biogeophysical, specific hydrological features, socioeconomic, concerns, issues, stakeholders, etc.) Due Thursday Oct. 18. Example

• Week 4: Watershed delineation (using BASINS). Due Thursday Oct. 25. Example

• Week 5: Population growth, water demand and supply, existing land-use planning. Due Thursday Nov. 1. Example

• Week 6: Point source identification and characterization, preliminary non-point source assessment. Due Thursday Nov. 8.

• Week 7: Existing and proposed monitoring data. Due Thursday Nov. 15.

• Week 8: No deliverable. Thanksgiving... enjoy the holidays.

• Week 9: Existing or already planned water mgmt projects; objectives of the WMP. Due Thursday Nov. 29.

• Week 10: Identification of solutions to problems not addressed or not fully addressed by existing or planned activities. Due Thursday Dec. 6.

• Finals week: Oral presentations (about 20-25 min each, depending on class and team size) on Dec. 11 from 8:30 to noon. Written report due by December 12. Also provide all data files used in the preparation of the report.

• Sample Report

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FAQs

What are the prerequisites?

Most students in this course have taken ESM 202, 203, and possibly 222, 223, 234 or 235, and 225. I would assume you know most of this material. You should also be familiar with GIS, although we'll do a quick introduction to the basic tools needed in the first lab session. Email me if you have any questions.

Schedule

Lectures are M-W (8:30-9:20) in BH 1510 and labs are in the GIS Lab on Wed (3:30-5:20).

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