WATER SUPPLY AND WATER QUALITY 31 March 2014 technical assignment 1: watersheds and river hydrographs question 1 due

at the start of class on Tuesday, 1 April 2014 questions 2-4 due electronically at 8:00 am, Tuesday, 1 April 2014 Let's devote this first assignment to understanding our local watersheds. 1. I'd like you to use Google Maps -- and only Google Maps, please -- to figure out the boundaries of the Squamish River watershed. Use whichever views you like, zoom in and out as much as you need, and then, when you've got it figured out, please draw the boundary of the Squamish River watershed on the map I have pasted in here. Also include the divisions between the major sub-watersheds, please. (15 points)

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2. Zoom in on the area around Quest. Ring Creek is the name of the river that flows behind the Riverside and Swift Creek residence buildings. It flows down into the Mamquam River. If I change Google Maps to "terrain" view (you have to switch from "satellite" mode to "map" mode first before you can turn on "terrain" mode) and zoom out a little, it looks like Ring Creek goes around the north side of a small mountain while the Mamquam River goes around the south side. But, they basically come from the same place. Why might the Mamquam River be much bigger? (10 points) 3. Please follow the instructions listed on today's breakout activity and look up the discharge hydrograph for the Squamish River as near to its outlet as possible. View the graph over the last couple years. When is flow the highest? When it is the lowest? Why do you think this is? If you had 20 years of data, do you think the timing of these events would be consistent every year? (10 points) 4. Lets pretend that there were gauges in many different tributaries of the Squamish River and that you downloaded and graphed data from two of these tributaries. To what extent do you think they would be similar? Why would this be, and what does this tell you about the watershed? (10 points)

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