Glossary of terms used in the Aqueduct Futures Project
Acre-Feet: a volume of water covering an area of one acre with one foot deep (43,560 cubic feet), about 326,000 US gallons or 1,230,000 liters
Adjudicated Groundwater Basin: an aquifer managed by a court-negotiated plan
Allocated: distributed for a certain purpose
Annexation: the process to enlarge the boundaries of a city
Aquifer: water underground in porous soil (such as sand and gravel), shallow aquifers are close to the surface, while deep aquifers are far below
Bolster: to support or strengthen
Brine Pool: the shallow remnants of Owens Lake that are very salty
Buffalo Commons: a proposal to return a large portion of the Great Plains to native prairie, removing all the fences so American Bison (buffalo) can resume migrating [see http://gprc.org]
Bullion: bricks of a precious metal such as gold or silver/lead ore (as transported from Cerro Gordo Mine to Los Angeles)
Catalyst: something that sparks an event or enables a chemical reaction
Compensation: payment for an injury, damage to property, or lost use of property caused by others
Conduit: a channel for moving water
Conservation Easement: a real-estate contract that prevents future construction to preserve habitat
Delirious: a wildly excited or euphoric feeling
Desiccation: a state of extreme dryness
Diversion: turning something away from its original path
Divestment: reducing financial involvement
Dredging: digging out soil from underwater
Ecology: the connections of animals and plants to climate and geology
Enfranchise: to have the right to vote and a voice in making decisions
Evaporation: when water changes phase into a gas
Extirpated: when animals (or plants) become extinct in a region (but still live elsewhere)
Fauna: animals
Flora: plants
Groundflow: water flowing out of the ground into a lake or stream from a shallow aquifer
Habitat: the place where animals live
Halophyte: plants that tolerate high salt levels in the soil or water
Imported water: water moved from one watershed or groundwater basin to another by an aqueduct
Infrastructure: public works engineered to support society including roads, pipes, and wires
Irrigation: supplying water to grow plants
Landscape: the features of a place or area
Latitude: geographic measurement of how far north or south from the equator a place is, measured in degrees (0 to 90), minutes (1/60th a degree), and seconds (1/60th of minute), or in decimal degrees
Longitude: geographic measurement of far east or west a place is from Greenwich, England, measured in degrees (0 to 180), minutes, and seconds, or in decimal degrees
Metabolism: the flow of energy and resources used by living organism, can also be applied to resource flows supporting cultural/ engineered system
Metropolis: a highly populated urban area with many cities
Mitigation: reducing the severity of
Nexus: a series of connections
Obsolete: out of date
Overdraft: pumping too much so a well goes dry
Phreatophytes: Plants with very deep roots that survive on groundwater
Pleistocene: the most recent ice age from 2 million to 10,000 years ago
PM10: dust particles that are smaller than 10 microns (millionths of a meter), so can be absorbed by human lungs causing health problems
Precipitation: rain
Rambunctious: out of control
Rangeland: open land for grazing
Recharge: filling up an aquifer from rain or imported water
Reservoir: a natural or artificial lake storing water
Rewilding: restore an area of land to its natural state including reintroducing wild animals that were driven out
Right of Way: a legal right (easement) to pass through property that belongs to someone else
Riparian Vegetation: Plants along the edge of a river or lake
Sankey Diagram: a diagram of flow/movement where the arrow widths are proportionate to the quantities in different parts of the system
Siphon: a pipe allowing water to flow across a high or low spot
Transpiration: evaporation of water by plants
Tufa: volcanic ash used to make concrete
Verdant: lush green with plants
Watershed: an area where water flows into a single river, stream, or lake; also called a Basin
Wellfield: an area with many wells
Xeric landscape: a very dry landscape
Xerophytes: plants adapted to very dry place
Aqueduct Futures 