lesson four the effectsof land useon watershedssimulation（第四课对当地土地useon watershedssimulation）.doc

Lesson Four: The Effects of Land Use on Watersheds simulation Warm Up: Relate what you know about Burtonsville with regard for how the land used to look if you go back 100 years ago. Objectives: Students will investigate land use over the past hundred years as it relates to water use, pollution, contamination, and watersheds. Students will describe how vegetation is an essential part of the natural system. Materials: Copies of Maps A, B, and C, Area of Land Coverage and Volume of Rain and Volume of Runoff all from Project WET Colored pencils Calculator Background: Resource managers and policy makers use maps to monitor land use changes that could contribute to increased amounts of runoff flowing into a river or stream. Land use changes can have significant impact on the water resources of a region. Streams, lakes, and other bodies of water collect water drained from the surrounding land area, called a watershed of drainage basin. After period of precipitation, surface water is captured by the soil and vegetation or stored in groundwater and slowly released into these bodies of water. Resource managers are developing and using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to generate land use maps. These maps can be compared with historic information to examine changes that have occurred in the watershed. By using this information land managers can carefully assess land use changes and set development policy accordingly. Procedure: Hand out maps for the three different times (100 years ago, 50 years ago, present) and have students color the coded areas making sure the same colors are used for each sheet. Compare the sizes of the various areas over time. Observe what has happened to the amount of forested land and the amount of settled land? Think about the effect on the surrounding area? On wildlife? On the water supply? Determine the land area of each map. Each unit in the grid represents 1 square kilometer; there are 360 square kilometers on