Wednesday Week Five

Some questions...

1. What is Bloom's (revised) Taxonomy and what does it have to do with what we are doing here?

2. What happens when water falls from the sky? Why to we have to define some period of time in order to effectively address this question? What is a runoff ratio (or for that matter, what is an evaporation ratio?) Why doesn't the runoff ratio consider rainfall that infiltrates into the ground? What are some of the factors that favor evaporation?

3. What are the four potential sources for water resources? Is moisture farming science fiction?

4. Why are water rights laws different in different parts of the USA? What does it mean to "waste" water? Who regulates water rights in the USA?

5. What are the characteristics of water rights laws as defined under riparian doctrine? Where would you expect to find riparian doctrine areas? What are the climate characteristics of these areas? What is reasonable use? How are water rights transferred? How are shared water resources managed during a drought?

6. What is the doctrine of prior appropriation? What is beneficial use? What happens if you don't put your appropriation to beneficial use? How are water rights transferred? Why is it called the "Colorado Doctrine"? How are shared water resources managed during a drought? What is the difference between paper water and wet water?

7. What is  "California Doctrine"? How are water rights managed on tribal lands?

8. What is a water table? What governs the flow of water under the water table? What governs flow of underground water above the water table? What is a cone of depression (not to be confused with the cone of shame)? How are rights to groundwater "generally" regulated in the USA? What is the "law of the biggest pump"?

Slides from today are on Sakai. Your assigned reading is a really good look at water rights in a "California Doctrine" state A Texan's Guide to Water & Water Rights Marketing (.pdf) by the Texas Water Development Board (state government agency). I am pretty sure that you do not have to be Texan to read it. Our midterm exam review session will be 7:00 pm somewhere in the Science Center- I will figure it out and make an announcement on Friday in class.