1. How much of the water in the Colorado River is allocated for use?  What is the water used for?  What is the problem with California’s use of the river?

2. How much of the earth’s water is fresh?  How much of that is readily available?

3. What is a watershed?  What is the floodplain of a river? What does the term riparian mean?

4. What do the terms Oligotrophic and eutrophic mean?  

5. Why are wetlands important ecologically?   What % of natural wetlands remain in the US?          California?

6. Know the terms groundwater, recharge area, water table, aquifer.

7. Where is the Ogallala Aquifer? Why is it important? What is happening to it?

8. What regions of the US are already suffering water shortages or likely to do so in the future?

9. What % of the world’s large rivers have been dammed?   

What is the % for N. America?

10. Globally, what % of water is used by each of the following sectors:

agriculture,

industry, 

household /municipal

11. What is the difference between consumptive and non-consumptive uses of water?

12. What are the benefits provided by dams?

13. What are the environmental costs of dams? (negative impacts)

14. Where is the Three Gorges Dam?  What are its serious environmental issues?

15. Where is the Aral Sea? What has happened to it?  What are the negative impacts? 

16. Why is groundwater even more at risk of depletion than surface water?

17. What are the 4 major consequences of groundwater depletion?

18. What is desalination?   Is it a practical solution to balancing water supply and demand?

19. What are the other potential solutions to balancing supply and demand?