The Government Agency responsible for flood protection is the ENVIRONMENT AGENCY. Also go to the SCOTTISH EQUIVALENT. Their site has some excellent downloadable resources for AS level students, and worksheets suitable for younger ages. They have details on the new flood alert system, with 4 staged warning phases. These are now included in weather forecasts. During the recent flooding in the UK, daily bulletins warned of rivers which were under threat of inundating their floodplain. The Agency also deals with pollution incidents. It has been recently updated (July 2001) and is now even more useful, although I have found it impossible to find recent flood alerts. Try here first for anything relating to river management.
I also recommend that you go to the site and fill in the Floodline questionnaire. I did this, and put on my school address and was sent a very nice Floodline information pack with lots of information on flood warning system, a pack: 'Be a Flood detective' for pupils aged 7-11, an EA sink plug (yes really..), a badge, a floodline key-ring and a car sticker with the floodline number all in a nice pack. Well worth a quick e-mail.
For flooding case studies, there is a site which links with the Geographical Eye over Europe videos on the flooding of the River Rhine in 1995, written by a Dutchman during the rising river levels. It's now archived, although at the time it was written as the floodwaters rose. There are also some useful teachers' notes to go with the series produced by Channel 4, whose programme notes are now much improved and come with downloadable .pdf activity documents.
If your house has been flooded, it might be worth following the advice about what to do BEFORE YOU MOVE BACK IN. Once you've been flooded, there's also an excellent site on REPAIR AND RESTORATION here.
For the Water Cycle, try WATER SCIENCE FOR SCHOOLS.
Rivers have also been dammed in places. Not all of these projects are without controversy, in particular the THREE GORGES project in China.
See the GCSE links page for information on flooding in Bangladesh and along the Mississippi in 1993. For a list of major world events, try FLOODING LIST.
In recent years there have been many flooding incidents.
Has your house been flooded ? You'll need to follow this ADVICE ON WHAT TO DO before moving back into your home, produced by insurance companies. There are apparently a lot of problems caused AFTER the floods rather than because of the floods themselves.
Environment Agency also sent me a report on the November 2000 floods. Worth subscribing to their Environment Action newsletter. It comes every couple of months and always has some articles of interest.
See RiversWEB for a growing collection of resources. Recommended.
Try Peter Evans' RIVERS LINKS.
From RiversWEB, you can link to the Intranet of Cornwallis school in Kent. This has a useful format ready made for fieldwork on the River MEDWAY. They have other useful resources too. It's worth searching for your local river by name of course.
The South West Grid for Learning has an excellent rivers site. Recommended.
Go to the Bootham school site and look at the excellent online lecture by Hydrologist Mike Stokes. The lecture is one given to the local GA association and has some excellent maps, photos and text which could be made into a useful lesson with a bit of adaptation, or you could produce a question sheet to use with it. Go HERE for the index of slides. Recommended.
Try the East Anglian Times' Eduzone site for an archive based set of activities based around the East Coast FLOODS OF 1953. Recommended.
Photos of the Lynmouth, 1952 flood HERE.
I have a new set of BOSCASTLE 2004 information on my FLOODS page.
KIELDER WATER is one of the largest multipurpose schemes in Europe. This always makes a good case study for water supply and tourism.
The MARUNDA PROJECT aims at providing clean water in the city of Jakarta in Indonesia. GLOBAL EYE has a great spread on this with images, and links to details on water-borne diseases.
The WORLD WATER DAY 2000 was part of a UNESCO project. The webpages with information on the hydrosphere and providing clean water for all are HERE.
River pollution is added to by sewage disposal from people's homes. ADOPTABEACH is produced by the Marine Conservation society and is aimed at encouraging people to take an interest in the waste that arrives on beaches, much of which could well be SRD (Sewage Related Debris)
SEVERN TRENT WATER have a nicely designed site which has a good range of information on water supply. If you have a school which is in the area served by this particular company you can apply for some free bottles (Primary schools only) for your pupils to drink water from in lessons. We have just introduced this scheme into our school, as it is thought that keeping hydrated allows pupils to work better. The bottles are labelled 'H2GO' and are worth ordering. As a Yorkshire-man I'm always keen on 'owt for nowt - just like GeographyPages - all free!
Toilets are the biggest use of water in the home in the UK. There are ways of reducing the amount of water that are used in the toilet by using a brick (you put it into the cistern not the toilet itself...) or HIPPOS: plastic bottles which are filled with water and then placed in the cistern.
We could reduce domestic water consumption with the following methods:
Waterless toilets - composting toilets
Rainwater harvesting
Efficient taps and showerheads
Flow restriction
Efficient appliances such as washing machines
There's some useful information on the processes and features ALL ALONG THE RIVER here, based in Singapore, but with some useful case study information on rivers such as the Rhine, including information on Pollution, which is a useful topic at GCSE level too.
I tend to use the River Tees as an example lower down the school. There's a good updated version of the Bernard Clark classic which I use. North West Water has details on the river too (see below), and you can find lots of pictures of features like High Force. A search on 'Ox Bow Lakes' on GOOGLE's image search throws up some handy homework-sized diagrams. This seems to be one bit of geography which everyone seems to remember - not that it's a great deal of use in later life.
As usual, the USGS chip in with an excellent site for lower school students. Work through the exercises to receive a certificate. Go HERE for the excellent site.
North West Water have an excellent educational site called a Learning Grid. This has a series of interactive journeys along a river, and would be well worth investigating. The site is HERE. You can go on from there to look at the course of the River Dane, with pictures of certain point along the river's length (see link in Drainage Basin section)
One of the most useful sites I've seen is the THINKQUEST site: ALL ALONG A RIVER. Has details on processes and features, and a case study of the River Rhine. I am producing a rivers site which will take students along the course of a river from start to finish. Keep checking at the bottom of this page to see the progress made.
A recent discovery was the game related to the WATER CYCLE produced by MID KENT WATER. There is a PACMAN style game where you get chased by water droplets. There is also a useful PDF booklet to download which contains Mr. TAPHEAD's INFO for schools.
There is a WORLD DRAINAGE BASINS DATABASE, giving details on catchments large and small, mainly large.
Going on river FIELDWORK ? Make sure that you take care to follow all the Health and Safety and risk awareness guidelines. The recent tragedies involving school children on trips must make us all think twice before taking pupils anywhere other than for a quick traffic survey with our noses pressed up against the school railings.
Try GEOGRAPHY EXCHANGE for details on how to do CROSS SECTIONS.
GLOBAL EYE has a particularly good feature focussing on THE NILE, and the management of its drainage basin, which includes an interactive map of the area. Also try HERE for loads more on the Nile - ideal for a research project.
I recently came across an excellent site with information on all the major AMERICAN RIVERS, which also does rather nice e-postcards with environmental messages. they have some useful information on river management, including the effect of previous work by the US Army Corps which may in fact have contributed to recent flood events: such as the 1993 Mississippi event.
There's an excellent trip along the River Dane near Macclesfield HERE. Visit and travel along the river by clicking on the numbers. Use this to help you with river investigations. (Follow on from earlier mention)
A recent addition to the very useful Suffolk Slamnet site has been aerial photographs which follow 3 Suffolk rivers from source to mouth: the Deben, Gipping & Orwell and the Waveney. Go here for the PHOTOPACK. Seems that a lot of councils have Geography networks but not Norfolk.
Go to this site at SNAITH PRIMARY. Click on the SHIP and find out all about water and how we use it.
An entire site all about the RIVER SEVERN. Including flooding and the famous Severn Bore. Includes a list of NOTABLE floods with dates. See the details below.
There are a few nice animations at the LONGMAN site: they don't take long to download: there are 3 of them: WATERFALLS, OX BOW LAKES and SPITS.
Also have an activity looking at the drainage basin of the River Severn. This has mapping element to it, and also labelling of the key terms and towns which the River Severn runs through on its 354km journey to the sea. There is also a good 10" section on the River Severn on the BBC's WORLD PHYSICAL video.
The RIVER SWALE has a CD ROM which you can purchase from the Regeneration Project.
1. A ready made lesson courtesy of Nelson Thornes. Simply go HERE and do the activities, based on Upper Teesdale and High Force waterfall.
2. Lesson on THAMES BARRIER from RiversWEB. Information on River THAMES too.
3. Watch these excellent ANIMATIONS from Noel Jenkins' old site.
4. RIVER TEES
The River Tees flows for around 120km from its source at Cross Fell in the Pennine Hills: a peat moorland area which soaks up water in the very wet climate of upland Britain. The water which comes off this peat moorland is often discoloured. A scale called HAZEN is used to determine just how coloured the water is. DONALD MCDONALD has some useful details on HIGH FORCE and other parts of the TEES valley. Nice images here. From Cross Fell, the river begins to develop very quickly, and widens and deepens the valley. The river flows into Cow Green reservoir. We also have some Channel 4 TV ROMS which do a good job at helping you explain the processes. You can pause the picture and then draw the shape of the river valley (for example) on the whiteboard behind you - well it keeps me amused anyway...
Can also follow the course of the RIVER RIBBLE, RIVER KENT etc. on the CLEO NET site.
6. a) MATCHING THE TERM TO THE DEFINITION
b) WATER CYCLE CIRCULAR DIAGRAM
These are worksheets which I use with Year 8 pupils of mixed ability.
A JOURNEY DOWN THE TEES: LEAFLET LESSON
Need to use the various sites, and PUBLISHER to create a 4 page booklet. To get a 4 page booklet, you need to use Publisher. Start a BLANK PUBLICATION, then go to PAGE SETUP. Choose BOOKLET, and click YES to add 3 more pages. You now have a 4 page booklet, and you can move between the pages using the tabs on the bottom left hand corner of the screen.
DONALD MCDONALD has some useful details on HIGH FORCE and other parts of the TEES valley. Nice images here.
TEES TRAIL from the BBC has an interactive map where you can see various places on a trip down the Tees.
Use search phrases such as 'RIVER TEES', 'TEESDALE', 'YARM' etc.
You need to produce an illustrated 4 page leaflet which has the following features:
TITLE PAGE: WORD ART title
MIDDLE PAGES: Map of the rivers course
Information about the river itself: HIGH FORCE, MEANDERS, places (settlements) along the river, details on how people use the river.
Need to have PICTURES.
BACK PAGE: Factfile on the river - using the green book and websites.
Do not print without asking me first.
5. RIVER TRENT
The third longest river in England after the Thames and the Severn, the River Trent now has a very useful site called ON TRENT. The site has a fact pack with information on length and drainage basin area which would be useful for project work, and also illustrated pages on habitats. A useful resource from which you could produce a useful case study lesson should your school be in the drainage basin (or even if it isn't..)
6. GOOGLE TOURS
This is a new feature for January 2006. Take a trip down a river via Google Earth... Noel Jenkins has developed this idea further at his DIGITAL GEOGRAPHY site. I have also produced some place marks along the River Tees starting at the mouth. Develop this for your local river and send them to me !
7. MOZAMBIQUE 2000 - floods in an LEDC
The East African country of Mozambique was hit by a cyclone in 2000, which devastated the country and left thousands of people stranded on rooves and trees.
The image of people stranded in trees is one which was in a lot of news bulletins of the time.
You can download a WORKSHEET aimed at producing a POWERPOINT PRESENTATION which was produced by ex ITT colleague Mr. O' Donnell.
There is an archive of stories, images and other multimedia stuff at the BBC NEWS' site at their MOZAMBIQUE FLOODS page.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/655510.stm - links to loads of other pages, including the birth of baby Rositha in a tree.
I use some news footage taken at the time, and use the image of the tree.
Put yourself in the place of the people in the trees.
Remember that wildlife also sought shelter in the trees. Insects and snakes plagued the people as they waited for rescue by helicopters (there were only a small number of South African crews working to rescue people) and boats.
8. NORTHAMPTON EASTER 1998
Northampton flooded without warning in Easter 1998. There had been 6" of rain in just 36 hours. The River Nene overflowed into the Grand Union canal. I use a video from Anglia TV. "Floods of Tears". The canal then overflowed and water poured into an area known as Far Cotton.
There are some BBC REPORTS on the website HERE and HERE.
The Environment Agency were criticised in a report on the flood, as there were apparently gaps in the flood defences which had not been repaired.
DOWNLOAD SOME NOTES to go with the video.
9. WATERBOY - New for March 2006
This is an Evian ad. There are a number of sites where it can be downloaded from as a QUICK TIME movie file.
The ad can then be watched - it lasts 2-3 minutes so would make a good starter. The aim is to spot the references to where water is used, either as part of the Hydrological cycle or as a process involving water. Noel Jenkins from Juicy Geography has produced an excellent addition to this video: http://www.juicygeography.co.uk/evian.htm - has screenshots.
10. DROUGHT IN THE UK...
Remember 1976 ? Perhaps not.... but I do, and so will many geographers of a certain age...
Here are some resources relating to the Summer of 2006 - DROUGHT OR NOT ?
11. NIAGARA FALLS JOB DESCRIPTION
Rich Allaway has produced an excellent new resource aimed at preparing for a JOB INTERVIEW.
It is available at Richard's site
I like the fact that you can make the Talking Head ask your questions...
12. BOSCASTLE 2004
Check the page of Richard Allaway which has some great resources.
A new resource in this area has been produced by the Ministry of Defence: DEFENCE DYNAMICS
