Water, a diminishing heritage

Note:

• Presented in 1972 as a 6-week public Spring series at McMaster University with field trips and on-line computer demos;
• Updated Spring 1998 as five 90-minute presentations at an Elder Hostel at Crieff Hills, Ontario;
• Last updated 1998-04-29;
• email comments to me please

outline only

Module 1
1. Discuss global need for water and inter-dependence of human population growth.
   • regions of water scarcity and how folks live there
   • various uses and expectations of water, esp. here in Ontario
   • St. Lawrence Seaway and how it is managed
   • Niagara Falls power developments and how they work

2. Define "Hydrology"
• Discuss the misnomer and fallacy of the "hydrological cycle"
• Sketch an illustration of the water budget
• Write out the continuity equation.
3. Water budget for various problems, geo-spatial and time- scales, and control volumes:
   • roofs
   • parking lots
   • neighborhood (subcatchment)
   • field
   • City
   • larger river catchment
   • Globe
   • ponds and dams
   • Great Lakes

4. Concept of "your hydrological address"
• Describe our drainage system:
  Canada, St. Lawrence River, L. Ontario, Niagara River, L. Erie, Grand R., Speed R., local stormwater drains from the campus,
  whereas at Morriston the drainage goes down the Spencer River through Valens and Christie dams, Beverly Swamp, Dundas, Coote's Paradise and Hamilton Harbour to L. Ontario.
• Map of the climatic regions of S. Ontario,
• Map of the Grand River catchment,
• Map of the Speed River catchment,
• Map of the Guelph lake and dam,
• So we all pee in other folks' drinking water (e.g. Brantford)
5. Video "We all live downstream".

   Module 2

6. Generalized schematic for hydrological processes

7. Demonstrate a tipping bucket rain gage

8. Show slides of hydrological instruments and field stations

   Module 3

9. Typical engineering hydrology design problems:
• culverts and conveyances
• floodplains
• pond and dam storage
10. Show slides of world dams and their details

11. Show slides of floods and their details

    Module 4

12. Concept of a hydrological time series and geospatial data:
    • Hydrological year
    • AM, FM, GIS, AutoCad
    • Use of computer models

13. Generalized schematic for hydrological models
    • Identify main processes
    • Time series
    • Field parameters
    • Status parameters
    • Input, output and interface files

14. Video "Urban stormwater management - a quality of life issue".

15. Video "A tour of the Market Avenue retention basin".

    Module 5

16. Audio-slide show "Hamilton's Old Pumphouse"

17. Further sources of info
    • Reference books:
      • Bedient and Huber;
      • Handbook of Applied Hydrology;
      • Geiger and Diesielt;
      CDROM and computer-based resources at UoG, U Waterloo and elsewhere:
      • Current contents on disk;
      • Science Citation Index;
      • EICompendex Plus.
    • Review Internet and WWW sites:
      • UNWIN
      • USGS, sources of info
      • Water Resources Abstracts (USGS home page)
    • Other sources of info, agencies:
      • EC, NWRI
      • EC, WSC
      • EC, AES
      • best weather info
      • best source of info