Clearcutting is a forestry practice where most or all trees in a designated area are uniformly harvested at the same time. This method is often employed to efficiently clear land for agriculture, ranching, or timber production, but has many environmental consequences.
Identify one way in which clearcutting impacts water quality of streams and rivers in the watershed where the logging occurs?
Describe an alternative strategy of harvesting trees that would have less impact on the environment.
When a new school is built in a suburban area, it often requires clearing forested land.Students in an environmental science class are interested in calculating the amount of runoff into a nearby creek from the parking lot of the new school. The table below shows the relevant data they need to do the analysis.
Size of parking lot | 14,500 m2 |
Volume of rain in a heavy rain event | 0.0076 m/hour |
Length of rain event | 2 hours |
Amount of rain that runs off | 90% |
Amount of rain that infiltrates | 10% |
Calculate the volume of rain, in m3, that falls on the parking lot during the 2 hour rain event.
Calculate the volume of rain, in m3, that runoff the parking lot
Calculate the volume of rain, in m3, that could be diverted from runoff if the parking lot is built with permeable pavers instead of asphalt.
Other than replacing impermeable asphalt with permeable pavers, on describee way a municipality could reduce the amount of runoff from parking lots and other impervious surfaces.
Describe an additional benefit of the strategy
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