*Please remember that all exams are CUMULATIVE. This means that concepts from previous exams may (and often do) show up in some form in later exams.
Energy Balance and Evapotranspiration: Understand conceptually the Stefan-Boltzman equation, Wein's Displacement Law, and the Priestley-Taylor equation and how they (and other factors) relate to evapotranspiration (and PET) in a watershed. Be able to specifically discuss the unique aspects of the Klamath watershed and why understanding the roles of precipitation, SWE, and evapotransporation/PET are crucial for understanding current, and forecasting future, water use dynamics in the watershed (both human and wildlife).
Study Design: Be able to walk me through the process of study design that we went through in class (and in your assignment). You started with a question about the Klamath watershed, you came up with a way to test this question, you determined which data would be useful to answer your question, you determined which data you could access, you carried out an analysis, you interpreted the analysis, you recognized the limitations of your analysis, and you thought about how some of these limitations might be addressed. Be sure to include a conceptual understanding of some of the advanced tools available to you and how these might be used to extend your analysis.
The Catskills, NYC, and Water: Be prepared to analyze the West-of-Hudson Catskill/Delaware watershed as a coupled social-ecological system, drawing equally on your field notes and discussions with both the Watershed Agricultural Council (WAC) at Gladstone Farms and the Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) in Margaretville. Rather than memorizing isolated program statistics, focus on how physical geography (steep slopes, shallow rocky soils, and flashy hydrology) and the historical legacy of reservoir construction (the displacement of valley communities and the loss of prime bottomland farms) interact to concentrate environmental risks along headwater streams and shape local attitudes toward New York City. You should be ready to compare how and why WAC and CWC were structured under the 1997 MOA as locally governed buffers between NYC DEP and upstate residents, including why the two organizations face very different day-to-day outreach and trust-building challenges with their respective constituencies. Review the primary water-quality threats to NYC’s unfiltered UV- and chlorine-treated water supply, specifically phosphorus, protozoan and bacterial pathogens, and sediment/turbidity, and practice tracing how infrastructure and regulatory interventions in both the agricultural sector (e.g., barnyard, grazing, forestry, and nutrient/manure management BMPs) and the residential/municipal sector (e.g., individual septic, community wastewater, stormwater, and flood-mitigation programs) often create secondary technical, labor, biogeochemical, or regulatory bottlenecks that require further systemic innovation to resolve. Finally, be prepared to evaluate the MOA’s core premise that source-water protection and rural economic vitality can coexist by examining how external socioeconomic and environmental pressures such as farm succession and legal/financial vulnerabilities, agricultural supply-chain constraints, post-COVID demographic and housing shifts, and climate weather volatility threaten the long-term resilience of the working landscape and local communities, as well as how WAC and CWC programs attempt to buffer those pressures.
Bonus: What kind of climate-related ecological study do you think would be useful for WAC to facilitate in the West-of-Hudson Catskill/Delaware watershed? Why? What data would they need? How might they go about designing and carrying out this study?
We have spent a lot of time reviewing the following frameworks: Planetary Boundaries, Doughnut Model, FEW Nexus. Be ready to briefly describe each of these frameworks in full and how they might be used to approach systems-based "wicked" problems. Make sure you can also talk about LCAs and how they can generally be used to operationalize frameworks.
Be able to thouroughly apply Reading Scientific Papers to the paper A DGVM model. Demonstrate that you have mastered conceptually how to interpret this paper.
Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people...regardless of race, color, national origin, or income...regarding the creation, application, and enforcement of environmental laws and policies. Degrowth and Decoloniality are approaches intended to address systemic issues regarding environmental justice. Describe some issues you have encountered in your readings, discussions, or field trips that illustrate these systemic issues as well as possible solutions. Use the papers below for reference.
Bonus: Are there responsible uses of AI?