GEOG210

An overview of water issues, both regional and global, based on the physical and cultural geography of fresh water. Physical aspects include the hydrologic cycle, regional water budgets, stream flow processes, and groundwater aquifers. Resource management issues include examination of drinking water and sewage treatment, floods and floor mitigation approaches, the pros and cons of dams, lake management, freshwater fisheries, and water pollution. Case studies will be drawn from the local area and from other parts of the world. Several classes are held in the field, and there will be guest speakers who have worked on water issues in thus region. This course fulfills the General Education category Systems Sustainability and Society. This category is intended to include mostly science and social science courses that take either a qualitative or quantitative approach to the scientific method. (Water Resources includes both qualitative and quantitative approaches, and incorporates both science and social science.) The category recognizes that there are different approaches to, and debates over, scientific inquiry (science or social science), scientific methods, and scientific paradigms. It takes a pluralistic approach to addressing the pressing problems of sustainability through a systems approach.