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Instream Flow: How Does It Affect You?
Curriculum Standards:
National Geography Standards, Grades 9-12:
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Standard 13 - The geographically informed person knows and understands the forces of cooperation and conflict that shape the divisions of Earth's surface.
- Standard 16 - The geographically informed person knows and understands the changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution and importance of resources.
National Science Content Standards, Grades 9-12
- Standard C: As a result of their activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop understanding of interdependence of organisms:
Human beings live within the world's ecosystems. Increasingly, humans modify ecosystems as a result of population growth, technology, and consumption. Human destruction of habitats through direct harvesting, pollution, atmospheric changes, and other factors are threatening current global stability, and if not addressed, ecosystems will be irreversibly affected.
- Standard F: As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop understanding of Science in Personal and Social Perspectives: ·
Population Growth Populations can reach limits to growth. Carrying capacity is the maximum number of individuals that can be supported in a given environment. The limitation is not the availability of space, but the number of people in relation to resources and the capacity of earth systems to support human beings. Changes in technology can cause significant changes, either positive or negative, in carrying capacity.
Natural Resources Human populations use resources in the environment in order to maintain and improve their existence. Natural resources have been and will continue to be used to maintain human populations. The earth does not have infinite resources; increasing human consumption places severe stress on the natural processes that renew some resources, and it depletes those resources that cannot be renewed.
Environmental quality Natural ecosystems provide an array of basic processes that affect humans. Those processes include maintenance of the quality of the atmosphere, generation of soils, control of the hydrologic cycle, disposal of wastes, and recycling of nutrients. Humans are changing many of these basic processes, and the changes may be detrimental to humans.
Natural and human-induced hazards Human activities can enhance potential for hazards. Acquisition of resources, urban growth, and waste disposal can accelerate rates of natural change.
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