Activity 1 - Your Community's Water Resources

Use the resources listed below to help you complete this activity.

To learn more about this topic, visit the following web sites:

Water Sources and Land-Use Planning

Clean Water Action Plan
The home page for the Clean Water Action Plan, an iniative for restoring and protecting the nation's water resources. Click on the links to review the details of the Plan, to learn the most recent actions related to the Plan, and also to move to other related links.

"Water-Managing a Natural Resource" - USGS Fact Sheet
This site briefly reviews the role of the USGS in managing the water resources of the United States. Topics covered include reservoir management, in-stream management and recreation, groundwater as a resources, groundwater contamination, and much more. Site also contains links to regional (Northeast, Southeast, Central, and Western US) hydrologists. Clicking on these links will take you to sites which give more detailed, regionally focused information.

"AWRA State Section Websites" - American Water Resources Association
Click on your state to be taken to a list of links which will connect you with up-to-date information about water resources specific to your state.

"National Water-Use Maps" - USGS
Download color maps illustrating water usage in the United States. Data is from 1990, but the maps are informative and break up usage into categories including commerical water-use, domestic water-use, livestock water-use, thermoelectric power water-use, and more.

Inquiring Further:

To learn more about monitoring local issues, visit the following web sites:

"AWRA State Section Websites" - American Water Resources Association
Click on your state to be taken to a list of links which will connect you with up-to-date information about water resources specific to your state.

"Water Where You Live" - EPA Office of Water
Click on your state to recieve a list of links which provide information about water quality issues in your state, as well as real time data and general environmental links.

"Local Offices for Water Resources" - USGS
Click on your state to link to the USGS Water Resources office in that state. Each state site is slightly different, so you will need to do a bit of exploring.

To learn about problems other communities are experiencing in with watersheds, visit the following web sites:

"AWRA State Section Websites" - American Water Resources Association
Click on your state to be taken to a list of links which will connect you with up-to-date information about water resources specific to your state.

Send all comments about this website to education@agiweb.org

Last updated: May 11, 2010

This project is supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation and the AGI Foundation. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation.