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

A large-scale retention basin that doubles as a recreation site when not holding water.

Water flowing into retention basin

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 water-harvesting 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