Water resources Terms

scientific methods

cycle of hypothesis testing to generate conclusions

Water Quantity

amount of water present

Water Quality

Total Global Water

About 8.4 million Liters

Total Global Freshwater

2.5% of total water

Plagiarism

using someone else’s words as your own work

Hypothesis

A proposed explanation for a phenomenon made as a starting point for further investigation

Theory

Sustained explanation acquired through the scientific method and repeatedly tested and confirmed through observation and experimentation

Socio-ecological System

Water Budget

water entering and leaving a watershed or basin, how much is there and how much can you use?

Hydrologic Unit Code

HUC, ranges from 2 to 12, Region, Subregion, basin, sub-basin, watershed, subwatershed

Internal Basin

Water is stuck inland, never makes it to the ocean

Continental Divide

defined by ridgeline, which way water goes

Watershed

land area that separates waters flowing to different rivers, basins or seas

Orographic Precipitation

rain and snow fall

Dependent Variable

y- axis, relies on the x-axis

Independent Variable

x-axis, doesn’t necessarily rely on the y-axis

Dewpoint

temperature where relative humidity is at 100%

Relative Humidity

amount of moisture in the air vs. the air can “hold” at that temp

Vapor Pressure

how much water vapor is in the air

Leaf Stomata

opening in leaf that cointrols water intake

Transpiration

uptake of water through vegetation and evaporated through their leaves

Evapotrasnpiration

precipitation and transpiration, water + heat,

100 year flood

1 percent AEP, 1 in 100 chance of being equaled or exceeded in 1-year, average recurrence interval of 100 years (IS NOT ALWAYS 100 YEARS BETWEEN)

bed load

rolling sand and gravel from high energy areas

dissolved load

dissolved components, solids that are dissolved in the water then carried fro a long time

ephemeral stream

only flow in response to storms

erosion

Hydraulic Action, force of water moving against bends and breaking off rocks

floodplain

geomorphically, overland maginitude of the floods, where the rivers move back and forth

gaining stream

hydrograph

graph that shows discharge(y) over time(x)

intermittent stream

flows seasonally, fed by groundwater

recurrence interval

1. Find Maximum daily average

2. list every year

3. Rank (m) them across the period of record (n)

4. calculate the exceedance probability (%)

n= number of years

m/(n+1)

suspended load

fine particles and particulate sediment

water year

Novemebr 1st to October 31st

delta

4 dimensions of a river

Longitudinal- Down Stream, Lateral- in and out of floodplain, Vertical- into the hyporheic and groundwater, Temporal- change over time and movement within the channel migration zone

alluvation

the cut and fill of a river and the land around it

alluvium

round rocks, deposited sand and silt

colluvium

angular not tumbled rocks

avulsion

creation of oxbow lakes

stream order

variable source area

small portions of the landscape, can contribute disproportionately to runoff and peak flow during storm events

losing stream

lake stratification

the separation of layers by temperature and chemical differences

lake turnover

hypolimnion grows and the wind blows causing the lake to turnover, the oxygen levels change densities

wetland

where the water table is at the surface

lake

very slow moving body of water in a depression of ground, not in contact with the ocean

pond

same as lake but not as deep, don’t have limnetic zones

limnetic zone

area greater than 2m deep

littoral zone

zone of aquatic plants

lacustrine

lakes

palustrine

freshwater wetlands

epilimnion

top layer of the lake around 20°C with typically more oxygen

hypolinion

lower layer of lake with typically less oxygen around 5°C

seiche

the rocking of the Epilimnion and the Hypolimnion when the wind blows, can sometimes cause a flip

dimictic

Turnover of lakes that happens twice a year in the Spring and Fall

cirque lakes

a lake formed in a gouged out area (by glaciers) at a high elevation

sinkhole lake

forms in the remains of a sinkhole

facultative

FAC, oxygen levels, aerobic vs. anaerobic bacteria

riverine wetland

driven by flood conditions

lacustrine fringe wetland

overbank flow from lake

wetland function

happen whether they have value or not, remove contaminants, remove sediments, ecosystems, setting for cultural activities, store surface waters, reduce energy of surface water, recharge groundwater, discharge groundwater, stabilize soils, remove and transform nutrients

wetland value

large

aquitard

a restrictive layer

aquifer

a geologic formation that can store and transmit water in amounts useful to humans. All of the pore spaces or fractures are filled with water

artesian aquifer

water is confined between impermeable earth and rock layers, under pressure because it’s connected to a distant recharge area

cone of depression

conical depression of the water table that can extend beyond the well itself, created by pumping well

confined aquifer

same as artesian

consolidated rock

sedimentary rock

crystalline rock

basalt, granite, other igneous and metamorphic rock, veyr dense, cannot host groundwater unless it’s fractured

Darcy’s law

Q= KiA, Q is flow(volume/time) K

Drawdown

induced by piping well

Groundwater

exists in and moves through geologic material, but not all is equal

Groundwater discharge

to springs, beds of gaining streams, wetlands

Groundwater mining

consumptively using groundwater at a rate exceeding the recharge rate

Groundwater recharge

by infiltration of rain/snowfall and possibly from losing streams

hydraulic conductivity

the volume of water flowing through a given a cross-section of geologic media in a given period of time

hydraulic gradient

change in head per length (head = elevation of water in a well casing)

Limestone

easily dissolves in water

Permeability

ability of porous material to transmit water

Porosity

volume of the void space as a proportion of the total volume, porosity is the highest when grains are all the same size

Sandstone

Sedimentary rock

consolidated by heat and pressure from overlying rock over the ages, shale, limestone, sandstone, coal, siltstone, conglomerate, expect for shale can store and transport groundwater

shale

spring

points where aquifers intercept ground surface and discharge to the land, if aquifer is confined water may jet into the air (artesian spring)

unconfined aquifer

aquifer above an aquitard

unconsolidated rock

clay, silt, sand, gravel, cobble

unsaturated zone

vadose- infiltration area

water table

surface, not volume of water, often changes with the seasons

well yield

the volume of water per unit of time achieved by pumping at stable drawdown

consumer

something that eats something else to survive

decomposer

an organism that decomposes organic material

ecosystem

organisms interacting with their physical environment

eutrophication

change in the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems in response to excess nutrients

food web

the way diffrent food chains interact with eachother

habitat

invasive species

oligotrophic

organism