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!
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