Geography 360 : Principles of Cartography
Digital Elevation Models and Watershed Sustainability
Worth 10 Points and a wealth of insight for the lab assignment

Today you will participate in a small group discussion with one or two other classmates about "Digital Elevation Model (DEMo) and Watershed Sustainability". We want you to use the lecture material (notes, hand-outs, readings) and the lab assignment from this week as appropriate in your discussion. If you so choose, the five-minute essay you write as part of this activity can be used to help you prepare for the lab assignment.  To help with the discussion, we would like you to use the following steps as a guideline.

1. Convene according to your workgroups for lab.  If this is not convenient, then convene as you wish.

2. You have become familiar with DEMo database structuring (e.g., equations, contour trace, triangulated irregular network, and regular grid) and various map display types (contour line map, wireframe block diagram, and solids model rendering) in the lecture and lab assignment.  Clarify and discuss one of the following questions.  Remember that  information we choose to represent about the world guides us in building databases. Furthermore, the content of databases enables and constrains the potential for map display (be they 2D or 3D map displays).

a. Describe how you might use 3D map displays of elevation as a base for depicting sustainability indicators.  Choose at least two sustainability indicators to communicate some aspect of watershed sustainability in your discussion.

b. What influence do viewing parameters have on 3D displays that portray watershed sustainability indicators?  Sketch your answers if it helps.

c. How does your choice among DEMo database structures (as representations of the world) and map display types (as representations of what is in the database) provide an advantage for representing information about watershed sustainability?

3. Write your name on a clean sheet of paper. Writing on that paper, take five minutes to respond to the question. You can agree with the others in your group for all of you to discuss the same question; or, each can do a different question. Don’t spend too much time deciding.

4. Trade papers so that no one has his or her own essay.

5. Write your name below the original author’s name and write "written comment" next to your name. Comment in written form on the answer your classmate provided in the essay. Write directly on their paper. Remember to be cordial and constructive. Make sure you clarify which question your classmate answered.

6. Exchange papers again so that you have an opportunity to read your classmate’s essay as well as your other classmate’s comments to that essay. Write your name on the paper and write "verbal comments" next to your name.

7. Return the essay to the original author. You may edit your essay to improve your answer before you turn it in. If you use a second sheet of paper, make sure your name is on both.

8. Turn in your essay. As mentioned above, this essay, and now the comments, should help you think through and respond to the questions in the Terrain Representation and Watershed Sustainability Lab Assignment. Essays will be returned as soon as possible.

Find below the rubric that your instructors will use to evaluate your essays (10 points).
0: unacceptable - no paper and no medical excuse or other form of absence not approved in advance.
2: low acceptability - turn in a paper with one or two sentences demonstrating low interest.
4: low-medium acceptability -  provide a few sentences, but a lot more could have been provided
6: medium acceptability - answer addresses question, but more could be said based on lecture or lab experience.
8: medium-high acceptability - question answered thoroughly, but answer incorporates only lecture or lab material.
10: high acceptability - question answered thoroughly incorporating material from both lecture and lab.