Download On-Site Challenge: Water Harvesting Terms and Concepts

On-Site Challenge: Water
Harvesting Terms and Concepts
Quiz 4
(Use the terms & concepts list in the MESA
Day Handbook along with the “Rainwater
Harvesting for Drylands” resource book)
This is a structure that decreases storm-water flow
from a site by temporarily holding the runoff onsite.
It is called a _________ or __________ basin.
ANSWER: detention or retention
basin
Water flowing into retention basin
A large-scale retention
basin that doubles as a
recreation site when
not holding water.
Hard-water is a characteristic of water in which it
contains dissolved _________ and _________
Examples of hard-water mineral deposits on water fixtures.
ANSWER: calcium and magnesium
Diagram shows how minerals make their way into our household water
The pictures below are examples of a waterharvesting earthwork that is laid perpendicular to
land slope & consists of an excavated basin and a
raised berm located just downslope of the basin.
What is it called?
___________ and ____________
ANSWER: Berm and Basin
Water containing little or
no calcium or magnesium
is called ________
ANSWER: Soft-water
A landscaped level-bottomed, relatively shallow
depression dug into the earth that collects,
infiltrates, and utilizes the rainfall, drainage
from the area, and grey water is called an
_________ ________
ANSWER: Infiltration basin
The total area of a landscape draining
or contributing water to a particular
site or drainage is called a __________
ANSWER: Watershed
WATERSHED MAP
SHOWING MAJOR
RIVER WATERSHEDS
IN NEW MEXICO
A gently sloping drainage-way that moves water
slowly downslope across a landscape, while
simultaneously allowing some of it to infiltrate
into the soil is called a __________ _________
ANSWER: Diversion swale
Water is slowly
running across
the landscape
and seeping
into the
ground in this
diversion
swale
When water completely fills the pore
space in soil it is called ______ ______
ANSWER: Saturated soil
UNSATURATED SOIL PARTICLES
SATURATED SOIL PARTICLES
A modified system of boomerang
berms connected directly to one
another, concentrating harvested
runoff at multiple points in the
landscape is called a
____ and ____ _______
ANSWER: Net and pan system
A completed system looks like a “net” of berms
draped over a hillside with “pans” or basins inside
each segment of the net.
The amount of rainwater falling onto a site and
runoff flowing into a site, minus the amount of
water lost to runoff is called the
______ _______ _________
ANSWER: Onsite water budget
The water that runs off a surface
when more rain falls than the surface
can absorb is called ________.
ANSWER: Runoff