Description: Urbanization results in a loss of surfaces that are permeable to rainfall, as roads, sidewalks, driveways and buildings cover and displace native soils and vegetation. Working in small groups, students measure the areas of different kinds of permeable and impermeable surfaces in a city block, using maps provided by the city, and then compile the block data to determine the sample means. An Urban Runoff Index (URI) is developed based on a weighted sum of z-scores for the different surfaces.

The project emphasizes samples and populations, units of measurement, means and standard deviations, z-scores, weighted sums, and outliers.

Documents: All documents for this exercise can be found in the Chapter 12 Project .