An Introduction to GIS on the Web

Teachers: Please modify and re-format this worksheet to meet your needs. This worksheet has been formatted to minimize paper use. Students are instructed to write their answers on a separate sheet of paper. However it can easily be modified in MS Word to accommodate student answers.

Sacramento Delta Directions: Answer the questions below on a separate sheet of paper. Home Page Go http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/geography/applications/Delta/Module2/home.html and read the introduction to the unit 1. Two-thirds of the state’s population relies on what source for drinking water?

Importance of the Water Supply 2. Compare the location of the majority of California’s population with the sources of the State’s water supply. Is the supply of water close to, or far away from the major cities in the state? 3. Look at where agriculture is located in California. Compare this to the location of population. When the canals that transport water in California were built, do you think that they were built with a water supply to cities or agriculture in mind? Why? Cite examples from the web GIS.

Click on the TASK link at the bottom of the page Task: Map of the Delta Use the web GIS to identify the following places on the map San Francisco Bay San Pablo Bay Suisun Bay Sacramento River San Joaquin River San Luis Reservoir California Aqueduct Zoom into the Delta region. 4. What does the delta region look like? 5. What is the land use type in Delta? 6. Why was that particular use developed? 7. Can you find any towns? 8. Is water in the Delta fresh or salty?

Importance: Environment Read the summary of each animal and answer the following questions: 9. Which animal’s habitat is open grasslands and low rolling hills? 10. Which animal’s habitat is wetlands? 11. Which animal is considered the ‘canary in the coal mine’ Why?

Problems: Fragile Levee 12. Describe in your own words how a levee is formed 13. Based on the USGS fact sheet, how are the Delta and the Everglades similar? How are they different?

Task: Fragile Levee 14. What does the color blue mean in left map? Funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation DUE 0603455 1

Using a Web-based GIS to Teach Problem-based Science In High School and College http://www.foothill.edu/fac/klenkeit/nsf/ 15. What does the color red mean in the left map? 16. What does the color orange mean in the left map? 17. Would you say that more of the land in the delta is above sea level or below sea level? Why?

Problem: Delta Smelt Decrease 18. Consider the maps of delta smelt population. Which year had the greatest number of fish? Which had the least?

Task: Water Pumping Click on the markers on the map to answer the following questions. 19. For the Banks Pump, what month had the most fish entrainment? What month had the least pumping? 20. For the Tracy Pump, what month had the most fish entrainment? What month had the least pumping? 21. Based on the graphs, do you believe the amount of pumping or the time of pumping contributes greater to fish decline?

Problem: Water Pollution 1 22. What are the number 1 and 2 pollutants in the delta? Where would they be coming from? 23. Number 3 pollutant is toxicity. Toxicity means that there is somehing in the water that is toxic to life...it can kill it. What could be introducing toxics into the delta water 24. Number 4 pollutant is pathogens. Pathogens are disease-causing organisms. What would have introduced this large amount of pathogens into the water

Problem: Water Pollution 2 Using the information from the pie chart on this page, modify your answers from the previous page.

25. What are the number 1 and 2 pollutants in the delta? Where would they be coming from? 26. Number 3 pollutant is toxicity. Toxicity means that there is somehing in the water that is toxic to life...it can kill it. What could be introducing toxics into the delta water? 27. Number 4 pollutant is pathogens. Pathogens are disease-causing organisms. What would have introduced this large amount of pathogens into the water?

Task: Water Pollution and Land Use 28. Identify the color or symbol that is associated with the following land use types: Agriculture ______Forest ______Grass Land ______Urban ______Wetland ______29. What types of Landuse are causing water pollution? 30. How does it affect our drinking water?

Problem: Geology Suggestions for how additional functionality or data could be added to this page to make it easier to use.

Task: Geology 31. Are there any fault lines that run beneath or near the delta? If yes, what's it called? 32. How can the underlining geology be a hazard to the delta? 33. Specifically how does the fault lines and the rock potentially affect the delta? 34. If an earthquake was to occur, how would Southern California be affected if the levees break?

Funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation DUE 0603455 2

Using a Web-based GIS to Teach Problem-based Science In High School and College http://www.foothill.edu/fac/klenkeit/nsf/