1-10) Irrigation season water level changes in municipal Arapahoe Aquifer wells, Douglas
County, Colorado
Niemela, Daniel
Abstracts with Programs Geological Society of America, October 2007, Vol. 39, Issue 6, pp.43
The Arapahoe Aquifer of the Denver Basin aquifer system is one of the primary water sources
used to meet municipal water demands in Douglas County, Colorado. Concentrated pumping
from the Arapahoe Aquifer has resulted in long-term and short-term water level changes. During
the May through September irrigation season, over 150 feet of water level decline has been
observed in non-pumping Arapahoe Aquifer wells, with a corresponding water level rebound
during winter months. Reduced late-summer aquifer water levels result in lower Arapahoe
Aquifer well yields. Lawn irrigation accounts for roughly 50-percent of annual municipal water
demand and irrigation season water level declines are the result of cumulative well-to-well
interference during this high-demand period. Late in the irrigation season, public water supply
systems that rely on the Arapahoe aquifer are confronted with meeting peak water demands while
suffering a loss in Arapahoe Aquifer well yield. Water storage, alternative water supplies,
additional well drilling, demand management and other strategies may be implemented to address
this challenge.
2-16) Opportunities for conservation with precision irrigation. (Technology application).
Author(s):E.J. Sadler, R.G. Evans, K.C. Stone and C.R. Camp. Source: Journal of Soil and
Water Conservation 60.6 (Nov-Dec 2005): p371 (9). (7760 words) Document Type:
Magazine/Journal Bookmark: Bookmark this Document Library Links:
Agriculture has vaulted into the space age using remote sensing, geographic information systems
(GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS) into what is being referred to as precision agriculture
or site specific crop management. Precision agriculture involves aspects of remote sensing, crop
protection, field sampling, precision planting, precision tillage, precision fertilizer placement,
precision irrigation, on-the-go yield monitoring and other emerging applications. It has the
potential to increase certain economic efficiencies of the operations by optimally matching inputs
to yields in each area of a field and reducing costs. The potential economic benefit of precision
farming lies in reducing the cost of inputs, but precision agriculture could increase risk. When the
farmer's management tolerance for risk is low, the potential economic benefit would be smaller.
Beyond economic benefits, most expect some improved environmental stewardship. Analysis of
observed spatial variability and the performance of equipment indicate that methods to increase
yield or reduce inputs may include variable rate herbicide application, management zones for
nitrogen application based on soil characteristics, yield maps, and growers' assessment of
productivity, use of multi-spectral remote sensing technology to assess nitrogen stress of the crop,
and site-specific pest management. Innovative application of statistical methods and analytical
methods using new or existing simulation models may prove beneficial.
3-9) Water from Power: Water Supply and Regional Growth in the Santa Clara Valley
Author(s): Richard A. Walker and Matthew J. Williams Source: Economic Geography, Vol.
58, No. 2 (Apr., 1982), pp. 95-119 Published by: Clark University Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/143791 Accessed: 29/09/2008 16:28
WATER FROM POWER: WATER SUPPLY AND REGIONAL GROWTH IN THE SANTA
CLARA VALLEY
RICHARD A. WALKER and MATTHEW J. WILLIAMS
The principal task is to uncover the origins of water development in a major urban area. The
major thesis examined is that the demand for water arising from agricultural and urban growth is
the dominant variable and that a political growth coalition has operated to see that water
shortages and costs do not stand in the way of local development. The present study is directed at
three important gaps in the water resources literature. Our principal task is to uncover the origins
of water development and overdevelopment in a major urban area. Most attention in the field of
water resources has been focused on the economic efficiency of water projects [2; 16] or the
bureaucratic and legislative politics behind them [19; 30; 32]. Little attempt has been made to go
beyond the most readily apparent "institutional" or economic causes of water supply to the
political economy of regional growth. A notable exception is LeVeen [28]. Our thesis is that the
demand for water arising from agricultural and urban growth is the dominant variable and that a
political growth coalition, backed by class power, operates to see that water shortages and costs
do not stand in the way of local development. A second goal is to shed light on the relation
between water supply and regional development. Studies of industrial location and regional
growth occasionally deal with the causal role of water but have come to no consensus [10; 17; 24;
31; 36]. Because these inquiries treat water supply in isolation from politicaleconomic forces,
however, they ask the wrong questions. It is not how water predetermines development, but how
water supply is created in the development process. Finally, we relate the history of water
development in San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley. Many water histories of the other great
cities of California exist [8; 15; 22; 26; 57]. Yet San Jose has never had an adequate coverage,
despite being the fourth largest city in the state, the world center of microlectronics, and a
textbook case of rapid growth. In the first three sections of this paper we lay out a descriptive
history of regional development and water supply.
4-18) Title: The application of GIS to irrigation water resource management in England
and Wales.(geographic information systems). Author(s):J.W. Knox and E.K. Weatherfield.
Source: The Geographical Journal 165.1 (March 1999): p90(9). (4172 words) Document
Type:Magazine/
Abstract:
This paper reviews the nature of agricultural spray irrigation in England and Wales, and the
emerging role of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a modelling and decision-making tool
to irrigation water resource management. Agricultural demand for water accounts for only two
per cent of the total water use in the UK, but forms a significant component of direct abstraction
in certain catchments in dry summers and in dry years. The temporal and spatial variations in
demand (as well as supply) cause acute problems for managing existing water supplies and
planning future needs. Water resource managers need to base their catchment strategies on
predicted irrigation demands and growth rates which take into account the local variations in
climate, soil type, land use and irrigation practice. A GIS approach is particularly well suited to
this. The availability of appropriate data sources, together with some recent example applications,
are reported.
KEY WORDS: England and Wales, agriculture, GIS, irrigation, maps, planning, water resources
5-2) Water Transfers: Must the American West Be Won Again? Author(s): Frank Quinn
Source: Geographical Review, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Jan., 1968), pp. 108-132 Published by:
American Geographical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/212834 Accessed:
29/09/2008 14:18
WATER TRANSFERS* MUST THE AMERICAN WEST BE WON AGAIN?
FRANK QUINN
THE nineteenth-century American West' was won largely through the adjustment of rural
communities to the limitations of local water availability. Today's West may still be a land of
wide open spaces; its population, however, lives mainly in cities. It is, moreover, a population
that seems determined to overcome, rather than adjust to, local environmental handicaps. The
search for water supplies now extends beyond the nearest river basin. Some of the reasons for this
outward shift are already apparent. On the one hand, the reallocation of locally developed water
rights from agriculture to higher-value municipal, industrial, and recreational uses is inhibited by
legal and political traditions. And on the other, less painful alternatives, such as seawater
desalinization and weather modification, appear too remote for widespread hope. Instead, a more
immediate technological possibility is indictated. This is the physical transfer of water, often over
long distances, from the undeveloped supplies of better-watered parts of the West to the
expanding urban centers of the dry lands. That it now falls within man's ability to manipulate
what in the past have always been considered "fixed" features of the natural environment, namely
the drainage divides between major river basins, is both remarkable and disturbing. Intense
political conflicts between areas of "surplus" and "deficient" water supplies have already reached
the international level. These follow the vastly increased scale of recent proposals, which include
distribution systems in thousands of miles and estimated direct costs in billions of dollars. So far
as water transfers can effect a redistribution of water-related development throughout the West,
their significance will not be lost on students of geography and regional development.
6-13) Title: Soil property changes after four decades of wastewater irrigation; a landscape
perspective Authors: Walker, C.; Lin, H. S.; Source: Catena Giessen, March 15, 2008, Vol.
73, Issue 1, pp. 63-74 Publication Date: March 15, 2008; Collation: 12 p. 63-74
For over 40 years, The Pennsylvania State University (PSU) has irrigated its wastewater onto
both cropped and forested lands. Despite local weather conditions, approximately 50 mm/week of
wastewater have been spray-irrigated onto the land since 1962. This irrigation, combined with the
natural precipitation, amounts to approximately 3550 mm of water per year. The objective of this
study was to investigate the morphological and functional changes in soils of this area as a result
of this significantly-increased water load. The research area has a karst geology and is dominated
by rolling hills with many small depressions that act as sinks for water and sediments. Together
with six soil trenches, 47 soil cores were taken across a 6.5-ha field. Previous studies conducted
at this site provided a reference for interpreting the changes in soil properties over time. Soil
morphological properties, including structure, horizonation, and redoximorphic features, were
evaluated from the soil cores and in situ soil pits. In addition, soil functional parameters,
including saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat), bulk density, organic matter content, and soil
pH, were evaluated to determine the soil functional changes. Results indicate that the soils have
experienced periods of local saturation and soil transport, which are reflected by the distribution
of redoximorphic features and A-horizon thickness across the study area. Sample locations were
grouped into three landscape positions (summit, midslope, and depression) that exhibited similar
soil properties. The depth of the A-horizon was significantly greater in the depressions, while the
midslope position had the highest manganese oxide coating percentage, and the summit position
had the highest bulk density. This reflects the likely hydrologic path from the summit to the
depression. The depression areas had the highest mean surface Ksat (10.2 cm/h), while the
summit areas had the lowest mean surface Ksat (1.2 cm/h). Both organic matter content and soil
pH have increased considerably since 1971. Overall, although soil properties have changed
through the decades of irrigation, the wastewater spray irrigation system remains functional in
this area and the soils are still performing reasonably well; however, some concerns about
reduced soil functionality need to be addressed from a landscape perspective in order to sustain
this system.
7-12) Title: Completion Report Colorado Water Resources Research Institute
Urban landscape irrigation with recycled wastewater
Authors: Qian, Yaling
Corporate Authors: U. S. Geological Survey, United States, sponsor
Source: Completion Report Colorado Water Resources Research Institute, March 2006
Publication Date: March 2006
As the population of Colorado's Front Range continues to grow, increased use of recycled
wastewater (RWW) is viewed as one approach to maximize the existing water resource and
stretch Colorado's urban water supplies. Understanding the responses of urban landscape plants
and soils to recycled wastewater irrigation and identifying proper management practices are
critical to the long-term success of this practice. From 2003-2005, research was conducted to
assess variability of chemical properties of recycled wastewater in the Front Range of Colorado
and to evaluate landscape soils and plants that are currently under recycled wastewater irrigation.
Survey data indicated that, rather than cost savings, the availability and reliability of the water
were the main reason for using RWW for irrigation. Recycled wastewater samples were collected
from irrigation ponds and sprinkler outlets on landscape sites. Results indicated that there were
variations in water quality between wastewater treatment facilities. In all cases, the water samples
met or exceeded the regulations in regard to of E. coli count as defined in the state Regulation 84,
therefore the water is suitable for landscape irrigation. Nevertheless, RWW does contain varying
quantities of soluble ions, with an average electrical conductivity (EC) value of 0.84 dS m (super
1) . The chemical constituents of recycled wastewater were dominated by sulfate, bicarbonate,
chloride, and sodium. The average sodium and chloride concentrations of 37 water samples
collected from all the sites were 99 mg/L and 95 mg/L, respectively. Adjusted sodium absorption
ratio (SAR) of RWW samples ranged from 1.6 to 8.3. To assess recycled wastewater irrigation on
the long-term changes of soil, we compiled soil test data from landscape sites that were near
metropolitan Denver, CO. Among these sites, six had been irrigated exclusively with domestic
RWW for 4, 5, 13, 14, 19, and 33 years, respectively. The other six with similar turf species, age
ranges, and soil textures had used surface water (average EC = 0.23 dS m (super -1) ) for
irrigation. Our results indicated that soils (sampled to 11.4 cm) from sites where RWW was used
for at least four years exhibited 0.3 units of higher pH and 200 percent, 40 percent, and 30 percent
higher concentrations of extractable Na, B, and P, respectively. Compared to sites irrigated with
surface water, sites irrigated with RWW exhibited 187 percent higher EC and 481 percent higher
sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) of saturated paste extract. However, extractable Mg was reduced
by 15 percent (P < 0.005). Comparison of soil chemical properties before and 4 or 5 years after
RWW irrigation on two golf courses also revealed the following findings: a) 89-95 percent
increase in Na content; b) 28-50 percent increase in B content; and c) 89 -117 percent increase in
P content at the surface depth. Generally, turfgrasses had a good appearance, showing salinity
damage only on a few sites with poor drainage, heavy soil structure, or shallow water table.
However, chronic decline of conifer trees were often observed under RWW irrigation. Ponderosa
pines grown on sites irrigated with RWW for 5-33 years exhibited 10 times higher needle burn
symptoms than those grown on sites irrigated with surface water (33 percent vs. 3 percent).
Tissue analysis indicated that ponderosa pine needles collected from sites receiving RWW
exhibited 11 times greater Na (super +) concentration, two times greater Cl (super -) , and 50
percent greater B concentrations than samples collected from the control sites. Stepwise
regression analysis revealed that the level of needle burn was largely influenced by leaf tissue Na
(super +) concentration. Tissue Ca level and K/Na ratio were negatively associated with needle
burn symptoms, suggesting that calcium amendment and K addition may help mitigate the needle
burn syndrome in ponderosa pine caused by high Na (super +) in the tissue. The project indicated
that both problems and opportunities exist in using RWW for landscape irrigation. The use of
recycled wastewater for irrigation in urban landscapes is a powerful means of water conservation
8-5) Patenting an Arid Frontier: Use and Abuse of the Public Land Laws in Owens Valley,
California Author(s): Robert A. Sauder Source: Annals of the Association of American
Geographers, Vol. 79, No. 4 (Dec., 1989), pp. 544-569 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
on behalf of the Association of American Geographers Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2563647 Accessed: 29/09/2008 14:27
Abstract. Five nineteenth-century policies for alienating the federal public domain only partially
fulfilled their objectives when applied in the arid setting of Owens Valley, California. The
Homestead Law was most successful in advancing the family farm ideal, to judge by the
persistence of small holdings several decades after land entry. Preemption claims, coincident in
time and space with homesteading, were more often consolidated into larger farm units. The
Desert Land Act, though designed to encourage irrigated farming in the arid West, tended to
attract nonresident speculative entries on marginal lands, most of which were eventually
consolidated into large grazing units. State Land Grants also contributed to large-scale holdings,
whereas the Timber Culture Act, though used for entry in the 1880s, had little relevance to final
settlement.
Public land policies were generally adequate for settling the well-watered north end of Owens
Valley, but they were unsuccessful in reclaiming most of the irrigable lands of the vast arid
stretches of the valley's southern townships. Federal land measures failed to account for the
environmental diversity which prevails in the arid West and made no provision for the
cooperative reclamation of desert lands. Unsound land alienation policies for the arid public
domain resulted in the urban use of Owens Valley's water resources.
DEFICIENT rainfall and rugged terrain in the American intermountain West brought to a halt the
continuous wave of westward migration occupying contiguous stretches of agricultural land
which characterized settlement of the western prairies and sub humid plains. As a result, the Far
West became a detached frontier requiring a new set of adjustments to environmental problems
(Hornbeck 1987, 279). The initial concern of most pioneer settlers was how to colonize a region
so isolated and so different from the areas from which they had originally migrated (Hornbeck
1987, 290). In the 1850s, federal surveyors offered some assistance as they began mapping the
agricultural potential of the western public domain. Townships were surveyed and sectionalized,
and land surface, soil, vegetation and water supply characteristics for each parcel were recorded.
Later, as mining activities expanded beyond California's Mother Lode into the arid intermountain
West, the demand for farm products in the region increased (Paul 1963). The stage was now set
for pioneers to settle and improve the rectangular units which had been imposed on a land
encompassing a complex mosaic of environmental features. The patenting, or disposal, of these
western public lands involved, for the most part, use of public land measures which had been
designed for settling the more humid regions farther east.
Past research by geographers on the patterns and processes of public land disposal has generally
been conducted within the regional context for which the land measures were originally intended.
A variety of interrelated approaches have been employed: Some studies focus on the
chronological pattern of public land disposal to reflect cultural perception and the progress of
settlement in unfamiliar environments (Bowen 1970, 1976; Kiefer 1969, 24¬42; McIntosh 1976;
McManis 1964, 62-72); others emphasize the manner in which public land laws were used to
adjust to environmental variability and location (McIntosh 1974, 1975, 1981…
9-11) Title: Effects of urbanization of groundwater resources, recharge rates, and flow
patterns
Authors: Sharp, John M.; Garcia-Fresca, Beatriz
Monograph Title: Geological Society of America, 2003 annual meeting.
Source: Geological Society of America, November 2003, Vol. 35, Issue 6, pp. 158
Publication Date: November 2003
Collation:1 p. 158
Over half of the world's population lives in cities and this percentage is growing. Urban sprawl is
also progressing at high rates. Urban areas have profound effects on groundwater systems
because they require water resources; produce sources of pollution; may alter local climate
systems; change the geomorphology; alter the permeability field; and, generally, increase
recharge. Where groundwater supplies the cities, problems of subsidence, salt-water intrusion,
aquifer overexploitation, and loss of wetlands can occur. Where surface water is used, problems
of rising water tables can occur along with the other problems involved in water transfer and
reservoirs. In addition, the protection of environmentally sensitive aquatic ecosystems has
become a sensitive issue. Future urban water resources must utilize both surface and
groundwater. The latter is underutilized in some settings because of management issues, economy
of scale, scientific uncertainties, and public policy. Recharge is inhibited in urban areas where
impervious cover impedes infiltration and promotes runoff, but urbanization also creates
additional recharge: leakage from water and wastewater systems, leaks from storm sewers, and
irrigation return flow from lawns, parks, and golf courses. The more efficient cities report a 10%
water loss from the water distribution system. Typical values range between 20 to 30%, in
developed countries and between 30 to 60% in the less developed countries. Loss from sewer
systems may approach similar amounts. World-wide data demonstrate that increased recharge to
the groundwater is the rule. This creates an important local resource. Some streams in Austin,
Texas are now fed primarily by leakage from water and sewer mains. In addition, urbanization
hides existing fluvial systems and the utility systems form networks of hyper-permeability
pathways. Where situated beneath the water table, utility systems collect flow similar to a karstic
system. When above the water table, they act as line and points sources of recharge and
contamination. Urban development should be designed protect future water resources and
environmentally sensitive areas. This requires detailed hydrogeological maps, data, and analyses
and continuous monitoring of local hydrogeological systems is necessary.
10-19) Title: Applications of geographic information systems for municipal planning
management in India. Author(s):Matthias Saladin, David Butler and Jonathan Parkinson.
Source: Journal of Environment & Development 11.4 (Dec 2002): p430(440).
Abstract:
A case study of the municipal Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Mirzapur highlights the
potential of GIS as a multipurpose planning tool and constraints to its implication. GIS can be
used for the planning, monitoring and improvement of the tax collection, the solid waste
management and water supply network, management of the municipal rental properties.
11-3) Center Pivot Irrigation in California Author(s): Tom L. McKnight Source:
Geographical Review, Vol. 73, No. 1 (Jan., 1983), pp. 1-14 Published by: American
Geographical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/214391 Accessed: 29/09/2008
14:22
CENTER PIVOT IRRIGATION IN CALIFORNIA
TOM L. McKNIGHT
CALIFORNIA has ranked as the state with the largest acreage of irrigated land in every year,
except 1977, since statistics on irrigation were first collected systematically.' In 1981, for
example, California had 10,024,000 acres in irrigation, a total that was 22 percent more than that
of Texas, the second-ranking irrigation state.2 Irrigation enterprises are largely responsible for the
preeminence of California as an agricultural state. With only 3 percent of the cultivated land in
the United States, California produces 10 percent of the country's agricultural cash receipts.:' The
vast majority of the crops and products comes from irrigated fields. One reason that the state is so
prominent in American agriculture is that California farmers characteristically have been among
the first to acquire and apply new technologies. Their well-deserved reputation for ready adoption
of agricultural innovations has been sustained by the availability of capital for investment in
agricultural development.4
Given this scenario, it seems reasonable to expect that center pivot irrigation, which has been
widely and rapidly adopted in other areas of the United States and in parts of Canada, would have
at least equal success in California. However, when this technology was tried by relatively few
California farmers, the result was often total failure. Installations of center pivot irrigation have
been scarce in California; it is one of only two important irrigation states without a large acreage
under center pivots. In 1982 approximately 25,000 acres, or less than 0.3 percent of the irrigated
lands in the state, used this system. During the past decade the countrywide growth rate for center
pivot usage was twelve times that of all other forms of irrigation, and more than 15 percent of all
irrigated acreage in the United States is now watered by these circular machines. Yet California
ranks only twenty-seventh among the states in total
12-7) HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES Hydrol. Process. 21, 2174–2188 (2007) Published
online 12 October 2006 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI:
10.1002/hyp.6482
Hydrologic processes at the urban residential scale.
Q. Xiao, E. G. McPherson, J. R. Simpson and S. L. Ustin
Abstract:
In the face of increasing urbanization, there is growing interest in application of microscale
hydrologic solutions to minimize storm runoff and conserve water at the source. In this study, a
physically based numerical model was developed to understand hydrologic processes better at the
urban residential scale and the interaction of these processes among different best management
practices (BMPs). This model simulates hydrologic processes using an hourly interval for over a
full year or for specific storm events. The model was applied to treatment and control singlefamily residential parcels in Los Angeles, California. Data collected from the control and
treatment sites over 2 years were used to calibrate and validate the model. Annual storm runoff to
the street was eliminated by 97% with installation of rain gutters, a driveway interceptor, and
lawn retention basin. Evaluated individually, the driveway interceptor was the most effective
BMP for storm runoff reduction (65%), followed by the rain gutter installation (28%), and lawn
converted to retention basin (12%). An 11 m3 cistern did not substantially reduce runoff, but
provided 9% of annual landscape irrigation demand. Simulated landscape irrigation water use
was reduced 53% by increasing irrigation system efficiency, and adjusting application rates
monthly based on plant water demand. The model showed that infiltration and surface runoff
processes were particularly sensitive to the soil’s physical properties and its effective depth.
Replacing the existing loam soil with clay soil increased annual runoff discharge to the street by
63% when climate and landscape features remained unchanged.
INTRODUCTION
Population and economic growth have increased urbanization and conversion of rural
areas into urban landscapes, and this has given rise to urban water resource management
problems. The conversion of landscapes from pervious to impervious surfaces, including
buildings, roads, and parking lots, has significantly changed the ecosystem hydrologic regime
(Thom et al., 2001). These changes reduce infiltration rates and surface water retention
storage capacities, and increase runoff rates and total runoff water volumes. These factors
are, in turn, associated with flooding that threatens people, wildlife, and property. In addition,
surface runoff generated in an urban landscape is more likely to contribute to nonpointsource pollution because it picks up a variety of pollutants (e.g. turf fertilizers,
herbicides, insecticides, atmospheric dust, bird/animal faeces, asphalt-associated automotive
discharges, bacteria and metals) (Stein and Tiefenthaler, 2005).
In California, polluted runoff, winter flooding and summer water shortages are
critical problems that challenge planners and managers. For example, in Los Angeles,
polluted runoff flows into local watersheds and then into the scenic coastal recreation areas of
Los Angeles’ beaches and bays giving rise to health concerns from contaminated water
(Haile, 1996; Haile et al., 1999). Urban runoff is considered to be one of the largest sources
of pollution to waterway and coastal areas (LACWS Management, 2000). Furthermore, as
excess water brought by winter storms runs off from urban areas to the ocean, it also makes
these water resources unavailable during the summer peak water-use period. Pollution
transported through watersheds contributes to other ecological problems, such as
bioaccumulation and eutrophication. Residential housing units and associated forms of
landscaping and irrigation are a significant drain on the municipal potable water supply,
contributing to local droughts and controversial demands for importing fresh water from
elsewhere. Summer water deficits in Los Angeles result in the city importing
13-14) Title: Storm-water management implementation through modeling and GIS.
(geographic information system). Author(s):Uzair M. Shamsi. Source: Journal of Water
Resources Planning and Management 122.n2 (March-April 1996): pp. 114(14).
This paper presents an integration of a lumped parameter hydrologic model (Penn State Runoff
Model) with a planning level geographic information system (GIS) in implementing a watershedwide storm-water management plan. The integration is used to estimate physical input parameters
of the model. The model is used to simulate runoff hydrographs for various durations and
frequencies and process the hydrographs to create peak flow presentation and release rate tables.
These tables provide information to create a watershed release rate map that is a practical tool for
implementing a storm-water management plan. It is demonstrated that the Penn State Runoff
Model integration successfully implements the requirements of the Stormwater Management Act
of Pennsylvania. An innovative GIS integration approach is presented that employs both the
vector and the raster GIS formats to take advantage of the best features of each. Cost
effectiveness of GIS integration is discussed and recommendations are made for future research.
The proposed approach is illustrated for one small and one large watershed in Pennsylvania.
14-6) Irrigation Agrosystems in Eastern Spain: Roman or Islamic Origins? Author(s): Karl
W. Butzer, Juan F. Mateu, Elisabeth K. Butzer, Pavel Kraus Source: Annals of the
Association of American Geographers, Vol. 75, No. 4 (Dec., 1985), pp. 479-509 Published
by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of American Geographers Stable
URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2563108 Accessed: 29/09/2008 14:55
15-17) Title: Optimal water management for reservoir based irrigation projects using
geographic information system.(Abstract). Author(s):Hazrat Ali, Lee Teang Shui and W.R.
Walker. Source: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering 129.1 (Jan-Feb 2003):
p1(10). Document Type: Magazine/Journal
Abstract:
The shortage of reservoir water is the main constraint in establishing stable water management
programs in the Muda Irrigation Project, Malaysia. In this study, a water balance equation was
derived to evaluate the performance of the project. The water balance components were modeled
without calibration, and compared with measured data, whenever possible. The overall project
efficiencies for the main and off seasons were also obtained. A reservoir simulation model was
developed from which simulated storage capacities compared satisfactorily with the observed
storage capacities. An optimization model was also developed to solve the water resources
management of the project in a computationally satisfactory manner. The optimal reservoir
storage, optimal irrigation demand, and optimal reservoir release (i.e., optimal reservoir operating
policy) were computed. The mean (1987-1997) optimized total water requirements for the dry
and wet seasons were also computed as were the optimal contributions by rainfall, reservoir,
uncontrolled river flow, and recycled water. The optimized water requirements were compared
with other authors' computed water requirements and found to be satisfactory. The mean water
balance components results for different months were stored in Geographic Information System
(GIS) databases, analyzed, and displayed as the monthly crop water requirements maps. The
integration of the water balance model together with the models for reservoir simulation,
efficiency, optimization, and GIS holds much promise in the analysis of optimal allocation of
water resources of a project.
16-4) Irrigation as a Menace to Health in California: A Nineteenth Century View Author(s):
Kenneth Thompson Source: Geographical Review, Vol. 59, No. 2 (Apr., 1969), pp. 195-214
Published by: American Geographical Society Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/213454 Accessed: 29/09/2008 14:25
IRRIGATION AS A MENACE TO HEALTH IN CALIFORNIA A NINETEENTH CENTURY
VIEW
KENNETH THOMPSON
All the M.D.'s in the State are in favor of irrigation; [they feel] that it would increase their
business one hundred per cent. .. -Dr. H. C. Crowder, 18861
AVERSION to wet places has a long history for western man, and it is probably rooted in the
ancient Greek etiology of disease. Wet, poorly drained places with abundant surface water,
especially if they are also low-lying, have generally been avoided as permanent sites for
settlement, and even their proximity has sometimes been shunned. Such avoidance is in large part
rational, deriving from direct limitations of the environment, but avoidance of wet places for less
direct, and often less rational, reasons has occurred. Intermingled with purely superstitious
reasons for avoidance is the discouraging and perplexing association of disease with damp
locations. Many kinds of disease are involved, including a number linked with impure water
supplies. But by far the most important disease connected with wet places is malaria. It was an
imperfect comprehension of this disease that gave rise to concern in California in the nineteenth
century. Apprehensions arose that the vaunted salubrity of the California climate might suffer
from the harmful side effects of irrigation agriculture.
THE NATURE OF MALARIA
As we now know, malaria is an infectious disease of an intermittent type, caused by the presence
of parasitic protozoa of the genus Plasmodium in the red corpuscles. The periodicity of the
attacks depends on the species of
17-1) Land and Water Policies in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Author(s): Martin D.
Mitchell Source: Geographical Review, Vol. 84, No. 4 (Oct., 1994), pp. 411-423 Published
by: American Geographical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/215756
Accessed: 29/09/2008 14:16
ABSTRACT. Land and water policies applied in the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta before 1933
were instrumental in its becoming a node for the statewide water-supply and -conveyance
systems that emerged. For the period from 1850 to 1933 this article examines three aspects of the
policies: role of wetlands and state-federal jurisdictional disputes, origin of the policy schism
between northern and southern California, and use of waterways to convey mining debris and its
effect on agriculture and navigation. The Caminetti Act of 1893 was benchmark legislation for
later state-federal cooperation in altering the delta landscape.
RIVERS can serve as regional bonds (Ullman 1951). This concept is illustrated by the role of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin delta as the node of a vast water-distribution system in California. The
delta has a series of aqueducts associated with the federal Central Valley Project, which was
authorized in 1933, and the California State Water Project, which was authorized in 1959. They
constitute the physical means or imprints on the land by which portions of southern California,
the Central Valley, and the San Francisco Bay area are connected to the delta to form a huge
functional region (Fig. 1). The water-distribution system serves approximately 18 million people
and 2.7 million acres of farmland. Important in the evolution of this region was environmental
legislation that progressively laid the policy foundations for use of the land and water resources.
Other factors are the characteristics of the physical environment and regional economic and
political interests. The analysis of this context centers on an examination of state and federal
policies for reclamation of wetlands, land drainage, inland navigation, and mining-debris and
flood control prior to 1933 and on an assessment of the regional conflict among northern and
southern California, the gold-mining counties of the Sierra Nevada, and the agricultural counties
of the Sacramento valley.
WETLAND RECLAMATION
The first major set of policies directly bearing on the delta related to swamp and flooded-land
reclamation, which is hereafter referred to as swampland reclamation. At statehood in 1850
California was granted all of the 2.1 million acres of swamp and flooded lands by the federal
government on the condition that receipts from land sales be used to build levees and drains for
reclamation (United States 1850). Approximately 500,000 acres of
18-8) Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 75, No. 1, pages 119–140. ISSN 0030-8684
©2006 by the Pacific Coast Branch, American Historical Association.
Water Use, Ethnic Conflict, and Infrastructure in Nineteenth-Century Los Angeles
DAVID S. TORRES-ROUFF
Beginning in 1873, Los Angeles replaced zanjas, or open canals, with pipes for irrigation and
sewage. From the city’s founding, the zanjas had carried irrigation and waste waters between the
Los Angeles River and the citizens. Whereas Mexican public philosophy supported maintaining
the zanjas for open access and maximal use, European American newcomers championed
enclosed pipes as a means to improve sanitation and enhance opportunities for revenue. Yet city
governors did not distribute sewer services equally, denying sewerage to Mexican and Chinese
Angelenos. In doing so, they established new relationships of institutional, infrastructural, and
environmental inequality between brown residents and the city government.
Infrastructure development is a useful historical process within which to explore the relationship
between the environment and ethnic conflict. Sewers, pipes for potable water, and roadways not
only constitute a city’s physical foundation, they also determine the layout of its built space.
Because such spaces are homes, businesses, and gathering places, they in turn shape a city’s
social life and economy.2 Consequently, sewers, in both their construction and their location,
play a critical role in defining the physical and cul
19-15) Title: GIS-based nonpoint source pollution modeling: considerations for wetlands.
(geographic information system)(Special Wetlands Issue). Author(s): Karen A. Poiani and
Barbara L. Bedford. Source: Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 50.n6 (Nov-Dec
1995): pp613 (7). (6205 words)
Abstract: Water conservation models using the coupled-model geographic information system
approach must incorporate the existence of nonpoint source pollutants (NPS) when applied to
wetlands. The incidence of NPS in wetlands has increased over time, leading to adverse effects
on ecosystems. Because of the importance of groundwater in wetlands formation, NPS models
must address factors such as dilution and denitrification.
Over the past several years, a coupled model-GIS approach has been used extensively to identify
areas with a high pollution potential and to estimate loading rates for a variety of pollutants
(Table 1). Studies have assessed surface water movement of sediments and nutrients (e.g., DeRoo
et al. 1989; Sivertun et al. 1988; Walker et al. 1992; Levine et al. 1993) and subsurface leaching
of pesticides and nitrogen (e.g., Halliday and Wolfe 1991; Petach et al. 1991; Wylie et al. 1994).
Various aquatic systems have been examined including lakes, streams, reservoirs, and
groundwater aquifers (Table 1). Wetland ecosystems often occupy transition zones in a
landscape, frequently occurring between terrestrial land uses and surface water bodies such as
streams and lakes (Brinson 1993). Because of their intermediate position and their dependence on
water originating from upland areas, these systems are highly vulnerable to inputs of nonpoint
source (NPS) pollutants. Wetlands located in human-dominated landscapes now receive
sediments, nutrients, and other NPS pollutants in excess of historical inputs (Neely and Baker
1989), and studies have shown negative effects on wetland species and ecosystem functioning
with such impacts (Ehrenfeld 1983; Morgan and Philipp 1986; Moore et al. 1989; Ehrenfeld and
Schneider 1991). Studies of NPS pollution and wetlands currently are limited by methods used to
derive pollutant loading rates. Loading rates typically are estimated by site-specific measurement
of all incoming water and nutrients, usually for 1 or 2 years (e.g., Koerselman et al. 1990; Hill
1991). This approach is notoriously difficult given the diffuse nature of water and pollutant inputs
(Winter 1981; Nixon and Lee 1986). In addition, it is not possible to evaluate alternative land
management practices by direct measurement of pollutants until decisions are made and
management strategies have been implemented. The use of a coupled model-GIS approach has
the potential to provide a general method for estimating NPS pollution potential or loading rates
to wetlands and to link such information to the spatial characteristics in a watershed. Such an
approach also would allow for the consideration of many more wetlands than site-specific
nutrient budget studies. The objective of this paper is to outline more formally the issues
pertaining to the application of such a coupled approach to wetlands. We first present a brief
overview of NPS simulation models and methods used to validate their output. We then outline
how NPS pollution models have been coupled with GIS to estimate loadings to systems other
than wetlands and how geographic errors can be propagated in a coupled approach. Finally, we
discuss the potential application of a coupled model-GIS approach for estimating NPS loadings to
wetlands and highlight some of the specific considerations and validation problems unique to
these systems.