Environmental Science, 10th Edition (Cunningham)

Chapter 17: Water Use and Management

GE Exercise: Palm Desert

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Take a virtual field trip with Google Earth!
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An overview manual is available by clicking here... Google Earth Overview (342.0K)

To continue:
- Make sure you have the Google Earth software installed and running.
- Copy the following latitude and longitude and paste into the "Fly to" field under the Search tab.
- Hit "Enter" for Google Earth to take you to the specified coordinates, then come back here and read the following overview.

Latitude/Longitude: 33.7376, -116.356

Overview: Palm Desert, p. 384

This area of resort communities in the Coachella Valley is located in one of the hottest, driest parts of the country, and yet, as you can see from this aerial view, they are characterized by a plethora of golf courses and lush residential neighborhoods. None of this vegetation could exist here naturally. It's all dependent on water imported from either northern California or the Colorado River. The excess that runs off from cities and farms sustains the Salton Sea to the southeast. If farms and urban water users were forced to be more efficient, the sea would become too salty to support wildlife and fish that have come to depend on it.

If you find this desert urbanization intriguing, try searching for Salton City, mid-way down the western shore of the Salton Sea. This is a city whose streets were all laid out and given optimistic and amusing names, but few structures were ever built there.

1
How many golf courses can you see within about 10 km of Palm Desert?
A)At least 2
B)At least 10
C)At least 17
D)At least 25
E)At least 35
2
What state is this city in?
A)California
B)Nevada
C)Arizona
3
What big city lies directly west of this area?
A)Bakersfield
B)San Diego
C)Santa Monica
D)Mexicali
E)Los Angeles
4
What vegetation type naturally occurs in this area?
A)Savannah
B)Tropical
C)Desert
D)Arctic
E)Terrigenous
5
Why is irrigating expansive lawns and golf courses inefficient in an arid climate?
A)Grass is a climate-dependent plant, so it increases its own need for water when it grows in an arid environment.
B)It's expensive to drip-irrigate a lawn.
C)In an arid climate, much of the water used in irrigation evaporates, rather than staying on the ground and in the soil.
D)Arid environments are ideally suitable habitats for a particular type of microbe that robs the ability of grass roots to accept water molecules from the soil.
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