People Need Water, Challenge 2:
Boating and Swimming and Damming, Oh My ...
Multiple Perspectives

Explore the following resources to find information that will help you answer the “Generate Ideas” questions and increase your knowledge about the topic.

• The Water Never Got This High Before is a wonderful short movie produced by the Lower Colorado River Authority about the history of flooding on the Colorado River and how quickly people forget.
• Reservoirs on the Side is a short Texas Parks and Wildlife video about efforts to establish new off-channel reservoirs on the Brazos and Colorado rivers to increase water supply for the city of Houston and rice farmers near the coast, as well as the city of San Antonio.
• Water Futures is a short Texas Parks and Wildlife video about the need for additional water in Texas as population grows and as a consequence of climate change.  The Texas Water Development Board’s State Water Plan looks toward the future.
• The Texas Water Development Board publication Water for Texas 2007, particularly Chapter 6 on Surface Water Resources, Chapter 9 on Water Supply Needs, and Chapter 10 on Water Management Strategies, provide information to address the challenge.  Students should pay special attention to the maps, tables, and charts on page 145 and Table 10.3, on page 265.
• Take a Google Earth tour of the Lower Colorado River.
• Forty-three children were swept away when floodwaters of the Guadalupe River overturned a school bus.  This segment was taken from Episode 117 of Rescue 911, which aired on January 23, 1990, on CBS.  This video conveys the importance of the message: Turn Around, Don’t Drown.
• Robert Draper’s article, Australia's Dry Run, in the April 2009 issue of National Geographic Magazine, describes drought conditions in the Murray-Darling Basin of Australia and the impact on the region’s farmers.  There are similarities with the Highland Lakes System of Texas.  Australia's Dry Run is available online.