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Final remarks – GIS and Water Quality AP Environmental Science Mr. Johnston, Fall 2012 Bob Jones High School, Madison, AL Eric R. Anderson M.S. Candidate, Earth System Science Department of Atmospheric Science University of Alabama in Huntsville GPS land cover mapping Goal: map water, trees, grass and impervious surfaces on Bob Jones HS campus. Use control points to improve location accuracy Results 10/10 GPS units recorded data! Success! Challenges with “water” – scale Challenges with grass vs. impervious surfaces – scale / overlap Trees looked good for the most part Control points – needed more time (> 5 min / point!) 2 Explore the GPS points online Demo: http://www.arcgis.com/home/ 1. Control points 2. Grass 3. Impervious Surfaces 4. Water 5. Trees Change basemap… Imagery vs. Bing… What’s going on? 3 Bringing GPS into more advanced analysis with GIS and remote sensing Maps of elevation, slope Group land cover points into blocks Use to “train” data from satellite images so that we can classify land cover much more efficiently Remote sensing allows us to identify not only broad categories like trees, grass, concrete, water, but we can also… Detect materials based on their chemical compositions, such as hydrocarbons in paints, precious minerals Distinguish “fake” green from real green 4 grass grass ??? Water quality field sampling 1. Chemical and biological assessments of water 2. 3. 4. 5. quality (use GPS to keep track of the sites) What were your DO, pH, nitrate measurements? Do these agree with what you might expect? What are some explanations for these observations? Determine the area of influence or drainage basin for these points (using GIS) 7 Which way does the water flow? 2. What were your DO, pH, nitrate measurements? 3. Do these agree with what you might expect? 4. What are some explanations for these observations? 8 Which way does the water flow? 9 Which way does the water flow? Flow direction Note the change in resolution! 10 Volunteers to trace flow paths… 11 Lab: Determine the area of influence (drainage basin) Explore GPS points in ArcGIS online and draw flow paths using given starting points and flow direction arrows Measure the area of influence and land cover types We’ll use a remote sensing product that required field validation points that were taken in a similar manner that we gathered GPS points of land cover types around campus… just on a bigger scale! http://nsstc.uah.edu/~anderse/gisinapes.html 12 Estimate croplands in this drainage basin 13 Estimate croplands in this drainage basin 2008 14 Estimate croplands in this drainage basin 2008 15 Estimate croplands in this drainage basin 2011 16 Estimate croplands in this drainage basin 2011 17 Lago Enriquillo, Dominican Republic 18 Reviewing… My goals Introduce you to GIS, GPS and remote sensing Enable you to explore how these tools can help you understand environmental science Focus on water resources, water pollution, and related topics, while also recognizing the interdisciplinarity of geography and environment Stimulate critical thinking on environmental data, analysis methods and social-ecological systems Help prepare you to get a 5 on your AP test! 19 How these modules are organized 1. Introduction to GIS & remote sensing (10 Oct) 2. Lab 1 – Hands-on intro to GIS tools (11 Oct) 3. GPS Day – mapping riparian zones around BJHS campus (12 Oct) 4. Lab 2 – Bringing your data into GIS (17 Oct) 5. Lab 3 – Remote sensing (18 Oct) (Lab 2 & 3 combined) 20 Considerations GIS as a tool Key water concepts Water resources/pollution issues at home and abroad The many applications of GIS and remote sensing 21 Why GIS? A tool that is used extensively not only in the environmental field but also business, defense / intelligence, education, government, health and human services, natural resources, public safety, transportation, utilities, communications Job market “the big picture” and making spatial decisions 22 Important concepts 23 What is a watershed? Watershed boundary Drainage network Watershed Unconfined Aquifer Recharge Area Evaporation and transpiration Evaporation Precipitation Confined Recharge Area Runoff Flowing artesian well Recharge Unconfined Aquifer Infiltration Water table Stream Well requiring a Lake Infiltration pump Fig. 14-3, p. 308 Water Pollution Problems in Streams Dilution and decay of degradable, oxygen-demanding wastes and heat in a stream. Fig. 21-4, p. 497 Returning to… Human-environment interactions 27 Initial MM5 simulation (Oglesby et al. In Press) results show that a deforested Maya landscape causes large decreases in rainfall and increases in temperature. MM5 Simulated July Temperature Difference The Maya Agriculture-Deforestation Model links in greater detail, simulations of land-use practices with their climatic effects. MM5 Simulated July Rainfall Difference (from Gill et al. 2007) Water Conflicts in the Middle East - A Preview of the Future Many countries in the Middle East, which has one of the world’s highest population growth rates, face water shortages. Figure 14-1 Water Conflicts in the Middle East - A Preview of the Future Human-environment interactions Wisdom Connectedness Ancient vs. contemporary Knowledge Try to compare availability of data and information then and now Understanding principles Understanding Information patterns Understanding patterns and principles then and now Data Understanding relations Understanding “Plowed fields have replaced forests, domesticated animals have dispersed wildlife. Trees are plowed, mountains smoothed, and swamps drained. There are as many cities as in former years there were dwellings… Everywhere there are buildings, everywhere people, everywhere communities. Proof of this crowding is the density of human beings. We weigh upon the world; its resources hardly suffice to support us. As our needs grow larger, so do our protests that already nature does not sustain us.” Tertullian A.D. 200 (Carthage) Human-environment interactions Ancient vs. contemporary As Tertullian postulated, many societies have not been sustained Thousands of cultures have existed… 99% have collapsed Can we appreciate our new perspective? 33 Resources GIS in APES materials http://nsstc.uah.edu/~anderse/gisinapes.html Earth System Science degree at UAHuntsville http://nsstc.uah.edu/ess NASA DEVELOP [paid!] internships http://develop.larc.nasa.gov/ 34