EARTHSCI 3411 – Water Security for the 21st Century

 



Description

Examines the major issues that are contributing to the decline in quantity and quality of global freshwater resources and the resultant environmental and societal impacts.

Course objectives

The overall objective of this course is to introduce students to and foster discussion on the many scientific and political facets of the world’s leading freshwater issues. Additionally, upon successful completion of the course, students will have developed an understanding of fundamental climatological and hydrological principles.

Content

This course will provide a broad introduction to the critical issues relating to the world’s freshwater resources. A wide range of freshwater resource issues and water policy topics will be presented in a combination of lecture and an interactive seminar, group or individual project, and exercise problems. Current and past scientific articles and website information focusing on water issues will be assigned each week for class review and discussion. Students will develop an awareness and fundamental understanding of the interrelations between freshwater resources a with past, present, and projected environmental, socio-economic, and political conditions. Following an introduction to basic principles and concepts of the hydrological cycle, subsequent lectures will address a range of problems from drought and climate change to competition for and contamination of scarce freshwater supplies.

Prerequisite

Earth Sci 2245 (Earth Sci 245) or other GEC or GE data analysis course, and Soph standing and above.

Topical Outline

The following is a tentative, chronological outline of course lecture and associated group or individual
project and exercise topics:

1. Course overview
• Introduction to principles and concepts of the hydrological cycle
• Concepts and case studies in water balance
• Principles of ground water and surface water hydrology
• Hydrological basins and watersheds
• Global distribution of freshwater resources and demographics
• Virtual water budget

2. Introduction to climatic influences on the hydrologic cycle
• Greenhouse gases, melting of polar ice caps and glaciers, rising sea levels
• ENSO, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, SST
• Droughts and floods in the Colorado River Basin; climatic connections

3. Competition over water resources
• Jordan River (Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan)
• Nile River (Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt)
• Colorado River (western states, USA, Mexico)
• GAP project (Turkey, Syria, and Iraq competition for Tigris-Euphrates)

4. Reshaping the hydrosphere
• River diversions – China’s water problems
• Draining wetlands
• Groundwater mining – Case study of the High Plains Aquifer
• Urbanization

5. Water uses and abuses
• Irrigation & agricultural pollution – Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico hypoxia;
Chesapeake Bay
• Industry & industrial pollution – Hudson River and PCBs

6. Water and Health
• Drinking water supply and sanitation: historical and global perspective
• Water-borne pathogens
◦ Bacterial: Recent cholera outbreaks in South & Central America; typhoid fever,
E. coli
◦ Protozoan: Giardia lamblia, Cryptosporidium
◦ Viral: Hepatitis A, poliomyelitis
• Water and vector-borne diseases
◦ Mosquito: malaria, yellow and dengue fevers, and West Nile virus
◦ Snail: Schistosomiasis or snail fever
• Chemical contaminants in drinking water
◦ Synthetic organic pollutants: THMs, chloroform, benzene
◦ Arsenic (Bangladesh water well issues)
◦ Lead, nitrates

7. Water Conflicts – Hydroterrorism
• Destruction of marsh wetlands of southern Iraq

8. Solutions for sustainable freshwater resources
• Conservation and reuse
• Rational water pricing
• Integrated water resources management
• Water as a commodity – trading water rights
• Population control
• Desalination

Required Text/Reading List

A textbook is not required for the class; literature readings and website information will be provided or placed on reserve in the Orton Library Database.



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