Course Description
Ecohydrology & Water Sensitive Design (ENVA3021) is a fully online, non-credit course that offers basic knowledge about the natural functioning of inland waters and the threats they face from urbanization and sprawl, as well as introducing various innovative techniques of green infrastructure that are increasingly becoming widespread in the professional practises of stormwater management and waterside development planning. This course focuses on selected best management practices (BMPs) such as treatment wetlands, buffer strips, rain gardens, and green roofs to mitigate against, or repair the damage caused by waterside and watershed development in urban, peri-urban and rural settings. That is the end goal, but in order to get there, we need to back up. In other words, before one can attempt to fix an environmental problem, one must understand how that problem was created; and before one can understand what is wrong, one must appreciate how something operates properly.
Course Outline
MODULE ONE - WATER & ECOHYDROLOGY - Weeks 1,2,3,4
Importance, definitions, and difference
WATERSHED PERSPECTIVE
Lakes and rivers in a landscape continuum, geological/geomorphological constraints and processes, wetland ecosystem functioning
EXTERNAL (TERRESTRIAL) ENERGY SOURCES
Wind and solar energy (lake mixing depths, thermal stratification), nutrient inputs (lake trophic productivity, phosphorus influence), particulate inputs (leaf litter, River Continuum Concept), dissolved organic inputs (DOC dependency, microbial loop)
MODULE TWO – ANTHROPOGENIC INFLUENCES Weeks 5,6,7
RURAL
Deforestation and riparian buffer strips, acidification and nuisance algal blooms
RURAL/URBAN
Eutrophication of lakes and ponds, index of Biotic Integrity and river health, wetland loss and mitigative management
URBAN
Stormwater flooding and toxicity
MODULE THREE – BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES Weeks 8,9,10,12
STORAGE PRACTICES
Detention basins and ponds
VEGETATIVE PRACTICES
Buffer strips, swales, green eco-roofs, wetlands
FILTRATION/INFILTRATION PRACTICES
Wells, trenches and basins, bioretention swales and rain gardens, permeable pavement
WATER SENSITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Impervious surface reduction, low impact development
MODULE FOUR – SUMMARY Week 13
OVERVIEWS
Water sensitive design, regenerative landscape design
FURTHER EXAMPLES
Nova Scotia stormwater, Truro NS stormwater, alewife Reservation, MA wetland, alewife Reservation stormwater
What You Will Learn
The objective of this course is to introduce participants to one of the most popular and important forms of contemporary environmental management: water sensitive design. The course approaches this goal through the field of ecohydrology, which blends together science, landscape architecture, and eco-engineering. By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
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Understand the important role of water in global history and the newly emerging paradigm of ecohydrology
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Understand how lakes, rivers and wetlands operate in a landscape and ecosystem perspective
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Recognize the causes and severity of a suite of deleterious human influences on freshwater ecosystems in rural, peri-urban and urban contexts
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Understand the diversity of options available to improve environmental conditions in terms of water quality and quantity
Foster an appreciation for inter-disciplinary learning of water sensitive design, in particular the ability to study and analyze projects holistically in terms of deliverables through the co-dependent lenses of science, landscape architecture and eco-engineering.
Notes
Virtual guest speakers
Students will be exposed to some of the world’s leading landscape architects, environmental engineers, and land use planners through lectures of theirs that were recorded at conferences organized by Dr. France at Harvard and Dalhousie Universities. Among these speakers are: Herbert Dreiseitl, Bill Wenk, Larry Coffman, Bob Murase, Jim Bays and Rob Steedman (about whom more information can be found through online searches).
Course format, expectation and assessment
Participants taking the non-credit Extended Learning option are enrolled into and take the course simultaneous to Dalhousie students. There are, however, differences undertaken in the required work throughout the term.
For each week, learning material is presented in several different formats. First, a set of power point presentations (PPTs) are provided that contain information distilled from many pertinent sources. These PPTs contain voice-over dialogue by the professor to guide the participant through, while emphasizing the most important elements therein. Next, one or several video lectures are viewed. These are our virtual guest speakers -- representing some of the world’s leading practitioners and researchers – who were filmed previously at a series of conferences run at Harvard and Dalhousie Universities.
Non-credit participants have to produce a list of short salient points that demonstrate they have viewed the online material and clearly understand its take-away lessons. These are submitted at three times during the term upon completion of each module.
There is no final exam.
In addition to the salient points, non-credit participants will:
- Produce a short critique of a published paper from the professional literature (using sources that are easily accessible through open access searches via Google Scholar).
- Undertake the visual assessment of the health of streams in their own neighborhood by using a detailed series of provided evaluation criteria.
- Participate in a capstone, conceptual design project to improve conditions through implementation of BMPs for a real-world location of their own choosing.
Successful completion of the course is based on an overall passing grade of 70%. Participants must complete all three assignments (the final conceptual design project can be undertaken as a group) in addition to submitting the salient points for the lectures and PPTs.