Applications for
Science and Teaching

Emriver Models in Environmental Science/Planning and Landscape Architecture

Emriver stream tables are easily set up in a classroom or lab for hands-on demonstrations and interactive discussions. Students are able to put textbook learning into action and better understand how rivers work in a simulated experience. Professors and their universities will find the models an ideal recruitment tool to attract students to a department or lab.

Classes and Topics

  • Environmental planning: Urban and regional planning with a focus on sustainability. Analyze and minimize environmental impacts of proposed construction projects, making sure they meet all environmental regulations. Planners help with shaping or improving construction projects to make them easier on the earth. (citation) 
  • Water resources management and human impact on surface waters
  • River processes and restoration
  • Watershed ecology and planning
  • Hydrology for planners
  • Ecological design
  • Environmental geology (See Emriver for the Geosciences)
  • Urban ecology
  • Stream ecology: Hydrographs, long and cross profiles, etc.
  • Environmental problem-solving
  • Landscape architecture: The art and practice of designing outdoors, especially designing parks or gardens together with buildings and roads. The Harvard REAL Lab has used the Em3 dual tilt in very creative ways.

Videos

Little River’s owner Steve Gough lectures on fluvial geomorphology and teaches an interactive stream table lesson to make the lecture come to life. Watch here.

Little River Research & Design and the Missouri Department of Conservation made a series of videos using the Emriver models to help students better understand geomorphic processes in rivers. Examples of the videos include headcuts, tributary incision, meandering, wetland draining, bank failure, mining, effects of dams and weirs. Our YouTube channel includes a playlist of all these River Geomorphology videos. Each video in the playlist includes a description, but you can also download a teaching guide.
(Many of the videos are also available online, hosted by Carleton College. A DVD with all videos is included with a model purchase. Or you can purchase the entire series on DVD from Little River.)