waterfloods,droughtsandwildfires-brown.docVIP

Water: Floods and Droughts; Landslides and Wildfires Extremes of Water Excess and Deficiency Geological Sciences 4 Provisional Syllabus for Proposed Course Fall ’05 Synopsis: Water, the ultimate source of life, is often mankinds greatest killer during the cataclysms of tsunamis, mudslides, killer storms, droughts and wildfires. This course provides a common forum for science and humanities students to collaboratively analyze the physical processes and consequences of the distribution and movement of water throughout the environment. No prerequisites. No exams.? Semester I; 2005-06 John F. Hermance Professor of Environmental Geophysics/Hydrology Department of Geological Sciences Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Tel.: 401-863-3830 Office: Room 167, Geochem Building 324 Brook Street (Corner Brook and George Streets) e-mail: John_Hermance@Brown.Edu Course Description The distribution and behavior of water in the global environment has a multitude of intersecting facets. Fundamentally, of course, is the need to protect and supply clean drinking water for the world’s population. However, throughout human history water has not only been the ultimate source of life, it has often been mankinds greatest killer, impacting entire cultures through the cataclysms of killer storms, floods, droughts, mud slides and wildfires. Which is the worst of these catastrophes? It clearly depends on where you are standing! Californians are beset with mudslides one season, wildfires the next, while a sudden tsunami seizes the public’s attention worldwide. However, far more insidious killers are droughts. In Bengal, India, from the early British colonial era (circa 1750) to 1900, famines either from the failure of the monsoons to bring sufficient rain, or from crop damage resulting from too much rain, have killed more than 13 million people. In 1921-22, in the breadbasket of the newly-formed Soviet Union, a drought in southern Russia and the Ukraine led to a famine