Youtube daily land May 26 2017

Hi. I'm Allan Bacon.

I teach Soil, Water and Land Use.

It might not be a surprise to you

to appreciate the fact that humanity's

well-being is intimately related to a

variety of soil and hydrologic processes.

What you might not know is how much

humanity itself is influencing these processes.

And the major way we impact these processes is

through our land use decisions and management

techniques associated with those decisions.

In Soil, Water and Land Use, we're going to

develop quantitative and conceptual skills

To evaluate the effects of land use decisions on

soil and hydrologic processes.

We're going to do this in the classroom about

half the time.

And what's really exciting about this class

is what we'll be doing the other fifty percent of the time

when we'll be outside, interacting with

natural resource professionals in the area,

so we can learn specific techniques and tools they use.

Come on, let's go check some out.

Here we are in downtown Gainesville

in the urban ecosystem, at Depot Park.

Today, this land behind me is a shining example

of downtown Gainesville and a real gathering place

for our community.

Not long ago, however, this was a

highly polluted environment.

We're going to explore this place closely to see

how this whole area was remediated

by sound soil and water management practices,

and also how the design of this park

has weaved in the cultural history of Gainesville

into the contemporary community.

Here we are at Hogtown Creek.

Behind me is 34th Street.

This stretch of the creek is managed by the

Florida Department of Transportation,

and what you can see, in the water, these

concrete lines,

they're actually sediment traps.

Where the Department of Transportation is improving

water quality and reducing sediment load downstream,

ultimately because they need to protect the roadway.

We're going to meet here with somebody from

the Department of Transportation

to talk to us about management of this aquatic system,

as well as the logistics involved when state,

federal, and county agencies have to

work together for water management.

Now we're here at the University of Florida's Dairy Research Unit.

This is a working dairy farm,

and like most dairy farms, you can imagine there's

a big wastewater stream produced.

We're going to explore how this wastewater stream

is managed, and results in an amazing internal

cycling of resources on this agricultural landscape.

Now we're standing in front of the Cody Scarp.

Yes, a scarp in Florida.

This is the most predominant landscape feature

in our state.

The sharp typography behind me can be

traced across all of north Florida.

and it denotes an important soil and

hydrologic boundary, that doesn't just determine

processes related to soils and hydrology,

but also how we manage them.

We're going to learn a lot about the Cody Scarp.

That's just a taste of what we're going to be

doing in this class.

We're going to be looking intensively at the

agricultural, urban, and forest landscapes,

to understand how our land use management

in these ecosystems affects soil and water processes.

Hope to see you in class!