Surface Water Hydrology
Graduate & Undergraduate Course
The course begins at the microscale, discussing the unique properties of the water molecule, then immediately zooms out to the macro-scale by discussing the expansive circulation network water travels, sculpting mountains and carving valleys on its ever-moving path across and through our planet. You will learn an appreciation for humanity’s ancient and still growing role in augmenting the hydrologic cycle. The course then focuses on individual components/processes of the Hydrologic Cycle, from the small and invisible processes such as evaporation, to the grand and powerful hydrologic phenomena such as flooding. Along your journey through the elements of the water cycle you will learn the state-of-the-art concerning how hydrologic information is quantified, measured, and compared.
Environmental Restoration
Upper-level Undergraduate
It is true that we are living in The Anthropocene, a geologic epoch defined by our sweeping changes—both physical and chemical—to the planet’s natural systems. Ironically, it is our species’ inherent natural ability to engineer ecosystems to suit our needs that has resulted in the complex set of environmental successes, challenges, and tragedies that are daily unfolding all around the planet. In Dr. Flood’s Environmental Restoration class, students are given the tools and taught the techniques needed to change the trend in habitat simplification that has become the hallmark of human ecosystem development. We take systems with a great diversity of members and remove them to make way for a handful of preferred species. Restoration students utilize engineering methods and tools to reinstall and repair environments degraded or destroyed by human endeavors. In this moment of great concern and global anxiety over environmental health and sustainability, ecosystem restoration engineering offers tangible, positive, and morally sound results; it is also perhaps our only best option.
In 2019, Dr. Flood received a $50,000 USD grant from the Maryland DNR to manage a student led team charged with researching stream-sealing materials and the preparation of a restoration plan for a tributary to the Potomac near campus. Students were excited to contribute meaningfully to the environmental health of their region and also learned valuable lessons about legal, engineering, and financial impediments to progress. We are very very grateful the MDNR as well as the folks at the Bureau of Mines for helping us over the course of the semester.
Intro to Physical Geography
It is hard not to get excited to teach and discuss the reason the sky is blue, how deep is the sea, where did water come from, how old is our planet and when did life arrive?
Students in Dr Flood’s Physical Geography course embark on an intellectual journey that takes them around the dynamic surface of our planet, down into its dense iron-nickel core still hot from the Earth’s formation, along the mighty streams that cut and carve its terrestrial surface, and up through the thin veil of atmosphere that has enveloped us all nearly every moment of our lives. During their semester-long adventure, it is Dr. Flood’s sincere hope that many of the planet’s physical phenomena will inspire awe and speak to that deep sense of wonder engrained in every human soul. But Flood entreats students to dig deeper into enigmas and gain insight into the processes, mechanisms, and relationships that have generated and continue to shape the physical and living world around them.
Environmental Planning
Environmental Planning is not all greenways, bike paths, BMP’s, and stormwater management. Especially not in Appalachia. The class begins with asking the stakeholders of mountain Maryland what in the heck it is they want out of their environment? What sections of the environment do they want to stay exactly the way it is, what would they like to see developed or changed, what would they like to see removed, and what would they really not want to see in their backyard. From this feedback Environmental Planning students have been able to assist in numerous regional planning projects, from restoring a stream reach for trout fishing, to working with the Adventure Cycling Association to produce GIS bike routes for Allegany County, to completing a Environmental Assessment along NEPA guidelines for a wind-turbine extension project.
Flood’s class has made consistent effort to turn the waste of Appalachia into a resource… or at least less bad waste. Coal ash and AMD are the two most pressing environmental waste streams impacting Western Maryland. Student experiment with the potential uses of coal ash as a pozzolan in cement mixtures. AMD is principally Fe, SO4, and Mn, but many of its precipitates contain concentrations of Rare Earth Elements used in the manufacture of electronic goods. Students have revealed that there is money to be made from RRE in AMD, but separating them from their orange sludge matrix is for now an impediment.
Surveying & Field Techniques
Upper-Level Experiential Learning Course
Students in Dr. Flood’s Surveying & Field Techniques course learn how to delineate a wetland, key out plant taxa, conduct a soil survey, set up a baseline and run transects through forests and peri-urban environments, analyze basic water chemistry, create a stream cross-section and longitudinal profile, set up an excavate a 1x1 with acceptable vertical control, create 3D maps with AutoCAD Civil3D, set up and run Topcon total stations and data collectors, analyze soil and sediment chemistry for development suitability using XRF instrumentation, conduct a Wolmann pebble count, and map a straight line from a wooded glen through campus with the tools used by the original surveyors, the Roman Groma and teamwork. This class was inspired by Dr. William Doolittle at UT Austin and has been a hit with FSU students. The goal is to give them as many useful environmental skillsets that I feel professionally competent to teach. Each module aligns with a field of study and real career in environmental consulting or management (okay not the groma… but surveying definitely). Definitely one of Dr. Flood’s favorites.
STEM Outreach
Dr Flood has worked hard to organize and participate in as many STEM outreach events as possible. This drive was instilled in him by his PhD advisor, Dr. Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach who tirelessly promotes diversity and champions equality in the sciences. Flood has been successful in weaving STEM events into the Surface Water Hydrology class, wherein college students get to share their new knowledge of the workings of world of water with kids from nearby schools. They utilize the actual streamflow table and the new augmented reality sandbox. This is often the first time these students step foot on a college campus and Dr. Flood strives to ensure that it is only the first step in a beautiful journey of life long learning.