Geography 549
Water and Watersheds
Home Page (Spring 2018)
TTH 11:40 - 12:55 pm
Callcott Building, Room 202
Instructor: Dr. Allan James (777-6117; AJames@sc.edu); Rm 206 Callcott
Course web page: \\cocasrwebsrv2.ds.sc.edu\people\ajames\549\index.html
Most course-related documents and Power Point slides for past lectures are on Blackboard in the Course Documents folder, where new materials will be added as we go along.
Brief Course Description
- This course examines watersheds from a geographic perspective. The focus is on physical aspects of environmental systems that generate and receive water and sediment, and on how humans interact with these systems. Topics are divided into four areas: physical hydrology, erosion and sedimentation, water-related hazards, and spatial analysis of watersheds.
- Physical Hydrology emphasizes surface-water processes, runoff generation, and flow conveyance (infiltration, runoff, channels, lakes, etc.). Hillslope flow processes such as Hortonian vs. saturated overland flow, shallow subsurface storm flows, and the variable source-area model are examined. The spatial nature of these processes is emphasized and how geographic analyses can be used to simulate them.
- Water Quality begins with a review of concepts, including basic constituents in water, sampling and measurement methods, and the sources of nutrients and toxins.
- Geospatial Analytical Techniques will be applied to the other topics. Among other things, we will examine the use of LiDAR technology for drainage divide mapping (swatershed boundary) and modeling watersheds with GIS.
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- Course Outcomes: This course is recommended for Earth science students and environmental resources managers who want to develop a broad, intuitive, and analytical understanding of processes interacting at the watershed scale. Grades will be determined separately for undergraduate and graduate students.
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Page maintained by Allan James. Last Updated Nov. 28, 2017.
