RESTORATION OF THE ANIMAS RIVER THROUGH SILVERTON, COLORADO: AN APPLIED ENGINEERING GEOMORPHOLOGY CLASS PROJECT
This was one of eight team-learning projects assigned during the semester. Members of the class were assigned to a “geomorphic consulting company”; a company consisted of five members. These projects were open-ended assignments. The project began by each company receiving a letter of contract, which provides detailed instructions of the perceived problem and request for specific products. A company was asked to develop an engineering geomorphology approach to protection, improvement and expansion of riparian ecosystems, consideration of recreational amenities, and paid consideration to historical preservation. Geomorphic and topographic features, wetlands, beaver ponds, and areas of quality wildlife habitat had to be identified and mapped, as the base map for the project.
For the Animas River Project students were given topographic maps, geologic maps, and aerial photographs in paper and digital formats. Students conducted bibliographic searches, data base searches and data set compilations. Each company met, as a team, to identify the actual problem, set objectives to match the letter of contract, develop a work-plan, and to establish a time-line based on the date the project was due.
Companies were required to turn in a professional quality product. These products consisted of a cover letter, executive summary, consulting report, references, appendices and an itemized bill for services. Most companies used GIS to create data layers to study temporal and spatial patterns of the data.
Student satisfaction of this approach was very high. Comments on course evaluations expressed appreciation of being provided opportunities to experience a “real world” problem to gain an understanding of the complexity of issues and opportunities that exist with such a project.