Sense of Place
Tucson’s Waterways
Unit 1
Assessment 2
Skill assessment – students review concepts to demonstrate their mapping skills to
themselves and their instructor. To be done individually within one time period and
considered a test or a serious exercise. Students need not know any facts going into
this exercise, but need to be comfortable with the mapping and surface water concepts.
Materials
1. Map with river course, scale, North arrow, (elevation/contours)
2. UTM coordinates, discharge data (and elevations – or students could find
elevations from map) for 2 gaging stations.
3. Ruler
4. Calculator.
Exercise
1. Plot the two gaging stations on the map.
2. Determine the distance between the stations.
3. Calculate the gradient of the river between the stations.
4. Draw an arrow marking the direction of water flow through the channel.
5. For each gaging station, outline the drainage basin.
6. Which gaging station receives a greater maximum discharge? Even without the
discharge data you could have predicted this result, how would you have done it?