Geography 202 Resources and the Environment

Directions. Choose a site to work with, and complete the following questions. You must get permission if you pick a site outside of Lancaster, York, Lebanon, or Baltimore Counties, since no soil surveys are available locally for them. You may print this site out and answer the questions in pencil. Also, you may copy the questions to your word processor and type in the responses in bolded letters. In any case, do not remove any of the questions. The finished work should be stapled and turned in to me without any covers or clips. Note: I want only 1 copy of the exercise per group.

Choose a site that is easily accessible throughout the semester and that holds interest for you. It might be within an agricultural field, a city or suburban lawn, a patch of urban forest or park, state game area or other. Please make sure trespass is not an issue, and if relevant, get necessary permissions to visit the site throughout the length of the semester. Please include photo (if possible) and the location of your site.

1. What is your site?

2. What is the name of the nearest town?

3. County?

Become familiar with the features of your site. What is noteworthy about your site?

1. What is its current land use?

2. Describe the lay of the land (at top/bottom of hill, on slope or flat land?).

3. Is it shaded for portions of the day?

4. What type of vegetation is there?

5. Describe the site's relative location--that is, where it is in relation to other landscape features and land uses. So describe what is immediately around your site and within 1/2 mile of your site.

6. Complete your description by consulting a USGS topographic map for your site. Paper maps are located in the Geographics Lab. The name of the paper map for your site can be obtained by using the PA index to maps in the back of the Geographics Lab, or by going online to http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic . Type in the name of your site's state and county, then pick a feature class and fill in its name.

Electronic maps may be accessed online at http://msrmaps.com/default.aspx (Near the top left, put in the nearest town location in the search box. Click on an item from the list of corresponding topo maps/photos. Then click on the direction of one of the compass points to see adjacent sections. Zoom in and out to gain different perspectives on your site. A discussion of map symbols can be found at http://egsc.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/booklets/symbols/.

Attach a map (zoomed in to the second-greatest level of detail, using a medium-sized map (top left of map))and air photo, and mark where your site is. What other (types of) information does this map (and air photo) tell you about your site and its surroundings? List at least 5 things.

C. Soil and Land

Find out the soil type (choose 1 that best represents your site) for your location using the 'Soil Survey of Lancaster County Pennsylvania'(located in the Geographics Lab), and following the instructions below. You will need this book for questions 1 to 3 below.

1. Use the Index to Map Sheets (second map in second half of book) to identify the map on which your site's soils are detailed. Turn to that map in the following pages. What soil type (code) is located where your site is? Turn to the Soil Legend on the back of Index to Map Sheets. What does the soil symbol stand for? (If your soil type is Uc--Urban Land, indicate this. Then choose the nonurban soil type that is closest to your site, indicate it, and use if for the questions below.)

2. Turn to the Detailed Soil Map Units (starting page 9, then find it in alphabetical order) and find the soil type for your site.

What texture (indicates proportion of sand, silt, and clay) is the surface layer (e.g., dark brown silt loam)?

For what uses is this soil suited?

What limitations does this soil have?

What are the recommended soil conservation practices?

What is the land capability subclass? Based on the land capability subclass (click on the link), what are secondary uses of this soil?

3. Flip through the section of tables starting page 96.

According to the tables, what is the average yield per acre of corn for your soil type?

According to the tables, is this soil type considered prime farmland?

According to the tables in the book, what are common trees found on this soil?

According to the tables, what is the potential of this soil type as habitat for wetland wildlife?

What limitation does it have for development of local roads and streets (table 11)?

4. Inspect your site for the various forms of erosion. What types appear (e.g., rill, gully, sheet, wind), or what do you think are the most predominant type(s)? Why?

5. Calculate the slope of your site. Show calculation and express your answer in feet of vertical drop per 500 feet of horizonal distance. To do this, pull out a paper topographic map from the Geographics lab. Since the scale of the map is 1:24,000, 1 inch on the map covers 24,000 inches on the ground. Simplified, 1 inch = 2000 feet, and 1/4 inch= 500 feet. Take your ruler and place your site in the middle of 1/4 inch, oriented so the ruler goes across the steepest way. In that 1/4 inch, find the highest and lowest elevation, and subtract the lowest from the highest. The result is the vertical dropoff. Express your answer as the vertical drop in feet per 500 feet horizontal distance.

D. Hydrology/Water Quantity

From your site, walk, if possible and safe, to the nearest stream or river. (If not safe, or if you need to cross others' land, just go the the nearest stream by the best means possible.) If your site is the Millersville Pond, use the Conestoga River for all following discussions.

1. Provide a rough estimate of the distance of your site from this stream/river.

2. Did you notice any changes in the physical environment as you descended to the stream? Explain.

3. Is your site within the floodplain of a stream or river? Explain.

4. Approximate the depth of the water at its deepest location.

5. Use your topo map to identify the name of the water body.

6. Use this map and others to list the series of streams, creeks, and/or rivers a drop of water in this water body would take in reaching the sea.

7. Based on the color of the site's dot on the web page, what percentile of streamflow is today's instantaneous streamflow?

8. Roll your mouse over the station. What is the station name?

9. Click once more, then again on the hydrograph tab. Then click on the picture of the hydrograph. Print the graph of discharge, and print or type the daily discharge statistics at the bottom of this page.

10. Using the daily discharge statistics, what percent is current flow of the maximum flow? Show calculation.

11. Is your site currently in a state of drought? If so, what class does it fall into?

1. What companies have been issued permits to discharge waste water into rivers in your area of interest? Include printout, even if there are no violations.

2. Choose one discharge source (facility), and click on its NPDES ID. Search for 'limits' and 'measurements and violations'. Under the limits report, find what substances they monitor (under parameter code). List them. If there are none, indicate none and then go to the Lancaster City STP --Sewage Treatment Plant-- (search under Lancaster) and print the substances they monitor.

3. In 'measurements and violations', measurements and violations are reported separately for each pollutant type (parameter code). Check the measurement violation code. Are there any violations for dissolved oxygen? If so, list violations since January 2004.

Scroll down to see "Waters listed by Waterbody." See if your stream is listed (if so, it is impaired). (Caution: the code 'unt' in the title indicates an un-named tributary of the that river. You want the creek itself, so don't use any title with 'unt' in it.)

5. Is your stream (the one you listed in D.5.) impaired? If listed, click the number in the column 'Waters on List", then click the river name. What are the reasons for the State and Parent Impairments?