Social SciencesFreePrintable

Glenelg River Human Impacts

A free social sciences worksheet ready for your classroom. Open in Kuraplan to grab the print-ready PDF, customize it for your students, or generate a fresh version in seconds.

Download now

Name:Date:

Glenelg River Human Impacts

Read the case study and examine the data display. Then use evidence to explain how people can affect the Glenelg River and weigh up practical ways to care for it.

Case study: a changing river

The Glenelg River supports native fish, freshwater mussels, waterbirds and riverside plants. People also rely on the river and its catchment for farming, recreation and towns. In this fictional monitoring scenario, a council team compares two reaches after heavy rain. At the farmland reach, rain washes loose soil and nutrients from bare paddocks into a tributary. The water becomes cloudier, and excess nutrients can encourage algae to grow. Further downstream, a town reach has a popular walking track and picnic area. Litter left near the bank can wash into the river. Bankside trees and shrubs help hold soil in place, provide shade and create habitat. The measurements below are invented for this classroom case study; they are not official Glenelg River monitoring results.

Reach

Bank plants

Water clarity (cm)

Litter found (items)

Farmland

Sparse

Town

Mostly continuous

Investigate the evidence

Use details from the case study and data display in your answers.

1.Which reach had cloudier water in the fictional monitoring results? Explain how you can tell from the clarity readings.

2.Which reach had more litter, and how many more items were recorded there?

3.Choose the best explanation for why sparse bank plants can increase soil entering a river.

Their roots do less to hold the bank soil in place.
They make rain fall more often on the paddocks.
They remove all nutrients from the river water.
They stop people from using the river.

4.Complete the cause-and-effect chain: bare paddock soil is washed into a tributary → the water becomes → less light may reach underwater plants.

5.True or false: The classroom results prove that the town reach always has clearer water than the farmland reach.

TrueFalse

6.Suggest one practical action farmers could take to reduce soil and nutrient runoff from paddocks. Explain how it could help the river.

7.Suggest one action visitors could take at the town reach to reduce litter entering the river. Give a reason.

8.Which groups could have an interest in decisions about the river? Select all that apply.

Farmers
First Nations communities
Local residents and visitors
Environmental managers
None of these groups

9.A council has money for only one project: more bins at the town reach, or planting a native buffer beside the farmland reach. Which project would you prioritise to address a problem identified in the classroom monitoring table? Use one piece of evidence from the table and explain your choice.

10.Write a short message for a Glenelg River care campaign that names one human impact and one action people can take.