GLG 110     Exam 3

 

Name: ____________                                          Date: _______________

 

 

Instructions: Read all the questions. Answer only 5 questions! Each answer is worth 20 points; total number of points is 100. Exam is due back on 11-28-08, no later, no exceptions! Good luck!

 

  1. You have been hired by a consulting company to evaluate the water resources of the region in which you live. Your first task is to develop a rough water budget. How would you go about doing this? What sorts of data would you need? How would the data be used to evaluate your water-resources situation?
  2. Find out what (if any) management principles are being used for the water resources of your community. How could some of the suggestions put forth by Lund Leopold be applied to your specific water-management needs? Pay particular attention to those times when water shortages might occur.
  3. What sort of wetlands are found in your region? Outline a plan to inventory the wetlands and make an assessment of how much of the resource has been lost or damaged. Is wetlands restoration possible in your region, and what would you need to do to make it successful?
  4. For your community, develop an inventory of point and non-point sources of water pollution. Carefully consider how each of these might be eliminated or minimized as part of a pollution abatement strategy?
  5. Visit a water treatment plant (in theory!). What are the processes utilized at the plant, and could the concept of resource-recovery or wastewater renovation cycle be utilized? What could be the advantages and disadvantages of using the biologic system, such as plants, as part of the wastewater treatment procedures?
  6. How save do you think your water supply is? If you drink bottled water, how save is it? Upon what are you basing your answers? What do you need to know to give informed answers?
  7. How do you think future change is likely to affect you, particularly considering the environmental problems we may be facing as a result of increased world pollution?
  8. A friend of yours comments that environmental problems such as overpopulation, global warming, ozone depletion, and acid rain are simply being trumped up by overzealous environmentalists and that we should be more concerned with the pressing problems related to economics and a rising crime rate. How would you respond to your friend?