Watershed and Waterside Development Planning and Design

This course concentrates on how different land processes (natural) and activities (anthropogenic) affect aquatic systems. b(Part 1 is based on empirical cross-system comparisons to examine patterns that transcend idiosyncrasies of particular localized areas/problems. Consideration will be fostered in broad terms about how design projects may potentially influence aquatic systems. Selected topics include: lakes and rivers in a landscape continuum, reliance on external (terrestrial) energy sources, the effects of urban salinization, toxic chemicals and sewage wastes, agricultural runoff, riparian forest clearcutting, GIS analysis of nonpoint source pollution, and watershed population development models. Part 2 examines individual, site-specific development projects selected for their ability to be illustrative of land-water interactions in general. Every case study has had or will have significant design ramifications or implications. For most of the selected cases, this is explicit (the process will be followed from conception to fruition). For several examples, the design component is only implicit (here various strategies will be proposed based on knowledge about land-water codependencies). Selected topics include: cottage development, industrial waterfronts, lake eutrophication, forest clearcutting, mining reclamation, and river urbanization.