I. General Information

1. Course Title:
Watershed Management

2. Course Prefix & Number:
NATR 2160

3. Course Credits and Contact Hours:

Credits: 3

Lecture Hours: 2

Lab Hours: 2

4. Course Description:

5. Placement Tests Required:

6. Prerequisite Courses:

9. Co-requisite Courses:

II. Transfer and Articulation

1. Course Equivalency - similar course from other regional institutions:

III. Course Purpose

Program-Applicable Courses – This course fulfills a requirement for the following program(s):

Other - If this course is not required in a program or is not part of the MN Transfer Curriculum, it may be used for the purpose(s) listed below:

• Liberal Arts Elective
• Technical Elective

IV. Learning Outcomes

1. College-Wide Outcomes

2. Course Specific Outcomes - Students will be able to achieve the following measurable goals upon completion of the course:

• Demonstrate their understanding of the varied impacts of the watershed upon water quality in lakes and rivers.
• Quantify watershed impacts and calculate their collective impacts upon water quality.
• Investigate, analyze, and illustrate watershed impacts on water quality using public access data and GIS software.
• Explain the various governmental jurisdictions and associated requirements that exist within watersheds.
• Create watershed-level assessment reports and management plans focused on maintaining or improving water quality.
• Calculate volume and area of a lake or water body.
• Calculate the shoreline development index (SDI) for a lake.
• Create a GIS dataset for a lake and watershed.
• Create a presentation of watershed impacts on a lake and present to lake associations.

V. Topical Outline

Listed below are major areas of content typically covered in this course.

1. Lecture Sessions

1. Discuss land use practices and their associated impacts on surface and ground water
• quantify forestry, agriculture, mining, and development impacts
2. Discuss and review the water cycle and its application to water quality at a watershed level
• compare relative rates of precipitation, evaporation, and inflow/outflow in lakes and rivers
• quantify and compare run-off, infiltration, and groundwater rates in the watershed
3. Discuss glacial landforms and geological substrate and their impacts upon water quality
• present an overview of glacial deposits and landforms
• link substrate and mineral compositions of deposits/soils to impact on water quality
4. Investigate hydrology of ground water in various watershed systems
• explore and quantify interactions between ground water systems and lakes and rivers
5. Discuss and review water quality indicators and conditions which affect these indicators
• discuss phosphorus impacts
• discuss nitrogen impacts
• discuss importance of transparency and suspended solids
• present biological basis of using algae and chlorophyll as nutrient surrogates and discuss application
6. Discuss the impact of infrastructure and development upon lakes, rivers, and watersheds
• explore and quantify impervious surfaces impacts on water quality
• explore and quantify septic systems impacts on water quality
• explore and quantify landscaping impacts on water quality
• explore and quantify docks, boats, etc. impacts on water quality and aquatic habitat
7. Explore the different governmental agencies and jurisdictions which are represented within a watershed
• explain Federal (Army Corps) roles and jurisdictions
• explain state (DNR, MPCA) roles and jurisdictions
• explain county, SWCD roles and jurisdictions
• explain municipal/city and townships roles and jurisdictions
• explain lake improvement districts and watershed districts roles and jurisdictions
8. Demonstrate the incorporation of watershed data into holistic lake assessments and management
• demonstrate energy flow and nutrient modeling
• demonstrate the use of mass balance equations
• demonstrate calculation of morphometric data for lakes

2. Laboratory/Studio Sessions

1. Use public access data to map watershed boundaries
• demonstrate access of DEM and 2 ft. contour data from public data sources
• demonstrate the use of this data to construct watershed boundaries and calculate areas and slopes
2. Calculate different percentages of slopes, soil types, etc. within a watershed
• demonstrate access of digital soil data and land use data from public data sources
• demonstrate the use of this data to calculate percentages of type occurrences within the watershed
3. Calculate proportions of water delivered by various means to the lake or river from the watershed
• quantify inputs of water by various delivery methods
• demonstrate calculation of these inputs for an entire watershed, by delivery method
4. Explore nutrient budgets and mass balance for lakes and rivers
• demonstrate mass balance calculations for aquatic systems
• demonstrate the use of watershed data to determine mass balance of selected nutrients for aquatic systems
5. Investigate plats, zoning and other development/regulations within watersheds using digital data
• demonstrate access of governmental boundary data from public data sources
• demonstrate the overlay of platting data on watershed maps
6. Create watershed-level assessments and management recommendations using public access data
• demonstrate the synthesis of watershed calculations and mapping data to calculate watershed level impacts
• explore drivers of water quality in the watershed and develop strategies to mitigate their effects