Water in the WorldEmpowering global water citizens

Jim Perry

Context• Water quality: an applied ecology approach

to understanding the relationships between land management and aquatic ecosystems

• The goal: advance informed decision making by individuals and institutions at a landscape scale

• Operationally: there are aquatic ecosystems in landscapes; as we manage landscapes, that changes the qualities of, or the benefits we receive from the water

Water quality as an ecosystem service

• Expressed as beneficial uses• Controlled by the landscape• Represents the end product of water quality

management

http://www.olympiancares.com/images/water-quality.gif

Our objectives today

• Google Earth: locate and explore specific locations• See places at various scales; become familiar with

each of 5 sites• Identify attributes at each site• Increasingly quantitative and analytical approach

moving through the series• Quantify land cover; express land cover with

histograms. Assess water quality-land use relationships from data

• Express all as an adaptable, pedagogical tool that uses inquiry and active learning

Methods

• Interrupted case• Today we will model that• You get everything on Moodle to take away

and adapt as you see fit

Phase I How this works

• Set up– Every pair of people needs a computer with Google

Earth 5.0– Each computer has been set up with required

options initialized– In your own classrooms, you will not be so lucky– Your students will each need a “field journal”

• Move to Google Earth; we’ll visit one location and demonstrate several tools

• When we return, we’ll visit our first site

Phase II Victoria Falls• Fly to Zimbabwe, East Africa• Zoom so Scale legend reads about 10 km• In your field journal, describe the landscape• Zoom so Scale legend reads about 1000 m• In your field journal, describe ways animals

and people in this landscape are constrained by water

Phase II, cont.

• Zoom so the Scale legend reads about 100 m• How does your impression of the landscape

differ now?• Fly NW to Victoria Falls• Zoom to about 1500 m– What are the vertical lines?– How is this landscape different?– How would water vary through 100 km from this

site, and at this site through 12 months?

Phase III The Pantanal, Corumba, Brazil• Fly to Corumba, Brazil• Zoom to about 10 km• Examine the photos and describe the

landscape north of the city

Corumba

• Zoom to 1000 m; keep southern edge of the river just on the screen

• What can you say about water resources here? How are animals and people constrained by water in this landscape?

• Zoom to 250 m• Identify at least 3 benefical uses people

derive from the river in Corumba

Pantanal

• Zoom out to 5 km • Pan north to the Paraguay River• This is the Pantanal; the world’s largest

wetland. What would make this good wildlife habitat?

• How would water vary along a 100 km radius from this site, and at this site through 12 months?

Phase IV SE Asia

• Fly to Dhaka, Bangladesh• Zoom to 1000 m• Show Ruler and draw a 2 km line• Identify the land covers intersected by that

line• Draw six lines: ¼, ½ and ¾ from top and from

left edge• Estimate land cover in those 16 cells

Bangladesh• Pan 35 km south to the island• Measure the island as max length and width• What is the white area on the left end?•Zoom to 250 m•What are the dark squares and surrounding white patches?

A monsoonal climate• Zoom to 1500 m• Describe the pattern you see in land cover;

interpreting that as land use, discuss why that pattern occurs

Phase V South-central Minnesota

• Fly to Iowa Lake, Martin County Minnesota• Zoom to 15 km• Draw a line across the screen, through the

middle of Iowa Lake• How wide is the screen image?

Excel: Iowa Lake

• Create an Excel spreadsheet with the following columns

• Location• Scale• Water• Agriculture• Trees• Developed• Bare soil• Other

Google Earth : Iowa Lake• Create 16 cells (lines @ ¼ and ½, ¾; save to

retain the lines)• Estimate % land cover at the following scales

and record them in your spreadsheet• 15 km• 5 km• 2 km• 1 km• 500 m• 150 m• It might look like this

Lake Finder: Iowa Lake

• Open Minnesota Lake Finder• http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/index.html • Get lake data for Iowa Lake

• How big is it?• What is the maximum depth?• What is the water clarity?

Lake finder: Iowa Lake• Does Iowa Lake stratify?• Are the algal populations high or low?• What can you infer, based on what you have

seen to date, about the effects of land uses on Iowa Lake?

Lake Browser: Iowa Lake• From Lake Finder, Go to Lake clarity by

satellite, click on go for Iowa Lake• In the new window, click on Continue on to

Lake Browser (Ctl-click may be necessary)• Review and interpret historical water quality

of Iowa Lake and Upper Silver Lake

History of Humboldt and Lake Nokomis

• Fly to Humboldt Iowa• Zoom to about 3000 m• Click on the clock in the menu bar to see

Historical imagery• Compare the landscape around Lake

Nokomis in 1990 and 2003• What changes do you see and what might

they mean for water quality?

Green Castle, Jamaica• Fly to Water Valley, Jamaica• Zoom to 2000 m• Position Water Valley about 2 km from the

left edge of the screen, with the blue photo box of Robins’ Bay in the upper right corner

• Measure the distance to the photo of Robins’ Bay in the NE corner of the image

• Measure the distance to Anotto Bay, in the SE corner of the image

Green Castle watershed• Zoom to 1200 m• Pan so the small reservoir is in the upper left and

the Wagwater river is in the lower right• This is the watershed of Green Castle Tropical

Study Center• A small stream, the Calabash drains the center of

the valley• Spend several minutes becoming familiar with the

area

Land cover• Identify and name what you feel to be the

predominant land covers in this image• As a class, we will agree on classes to use• Each pair will quantify land use by coloring and

counting cells•Enter the data into Excel and create a histogram of land use•Share histograms class-wide

Land cover-finer scale• Zoom to 600 m• Review the landscape• In what ways does it look different at this scale?• Use the second printed image to quantify land

cover and develop a second histogram

Going deeper• You have access to 12 data sets from this Jamaican

landscape (printed and following these slides)• Those data sets express the relationship between land use

and water quality• The resources represented are varied, as are the time

frames, methods and uncertainties• They simulate a situation where you are asked to become

familiar with a landscape, examine data and draw conclusions

Jamaica land use: what does it mean?• Based on our analyses, your review of the

landscape and the data available, develop a 5-page paper addressing the question What beneficial uses of the water are constrained by land use practices in this landscape, and how certain are you of your conclusions?

Beach use, hrs/wk, last 20 yrs

Jan Dec

1995

19852005

60

2

Means of 20 interviews per month

Exemplary slide

Data source

CertaintyMy estimate of

uncertainty is offered for perspective

Left & right bank riparian condition by river km; mean of 3 years, optimal =50

030

3.545

River km

Reservoir

Reef fish capture, kg/yr, last 30 yrs1400 kg

1980 2009

3

Stream chemistry

Water chemistry as mean of last 5 years. Stations are every 5 km; all variables normalized to most upstream condition, so first point is always 100%.

4.5

River km River km

River kmRiver km

Reef health over last 5 yrs; best is 100

100

Shore 50 m

Nine, 50 m transects, perpendicular to shore

4.5

Calabash river fish over last 5 yrs

1980

2009

2000

7.00

Electrofishing data; fish diversity in 10 m reach by river Km

20 km Mouth

3

Wetland ecology over last 30 years

6.00

Mean of four transects per year

20091980

2

Stream habitat over last 20 yrs

Mean of three Habitat Measures per year, per site; 50 is optimal

1995

1985

2005

4.5

20 km MouthRiver km

Reef sedimentation rates over 25 yrsMean of 100 measures per site per year, as % of reef covered. Transects run downstream from the Wagwater River.

5 km0 (Wagwater)

1995

1990

20092000

2005

3

Calabash river invertebrate diversity over 30 yrs

1980

2009

2000

7.00

Benthic diversity in 1 m2 plots by river KM

20 0

1990

5

River km

Marine chemistry over last 10 yrs2 year intervals; monthly grab samples 10 m off the center of the beach

4

20081998 1998

19981998 20082008

2008

Stream discharge, cms, last 5 yrs

4.5Mean of 5 years, bi weekly samples

1 Dec1 Jan

5

Reservoir chemistry over last 5 yrs5-yr mean of monthly grab samples from the dam

Jan Dec

Turbidity

Nitrate

DO

Ortho P

4.5

Fishing pressure, hrs/mo over 20 yrs

Jan Dec

1985

19952005

90

1.5

Means of 20 interviews per month

Fishing success, kg/10 hrs, over last 20 yrs

Jan Dec

1985

1995

2005

120

1

Means of 20 interviews per month

So, we have arrived: what does it mean?• What would make this exercise (more) useful to

your students?• What aspects are most and least actionable, and

how does that depend on grade level?