Land Use

Question 1

What is the California subdivision map act?

Answer 1

Subdivision Map Act – Provides for regulation of land divisions by a city; – Interpreted and enforced by the city.

Question 2

What is the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)?

Answer 2

CEQA is intended to inform government decisionmakers and the public about the potential environmental effects of proposed activities and to prevent significant, avoidable environmental damage.

Question 3

How does land use affect the drinking water quality and quantity standards?

Answer 3

A higher proportion of stream miles are impaired in agricultural and urban landscapes.

Question 4

What does the State Water Quality Control Board do in regards to land use?

Answer 4

The State Water Quality Board regulates various land use activities such as: Biosolids (disposal of sewage sludge), Cannabis cultivation, irrigated lands, landfills, and wetlands.

Basically runoff, flows from tile drains, and storm water runoff. These discharges within these land use activities can affect water quality by transporting pollutants. SWQCB protects the Basin Plan is designed to preserve and enhance water quality and protect the beneficial uses of all regional waters

Question 5

What is considered to determine a zoning category?

Answer 5

Density
Parking requirements
Lot coverage
height limits
lot size requirements
unit size requirements
Floor area ratios
setbacks
open space requirements
growth controls (multifamily buildings)

Question 6

Land planning rules for conditional use permits?

Answer 6

A conditional use permit allows a city or county to consider special uses which may be essential or desirable to a particular community, but which are not allowed as a matter of right within a zoning district, through a public hearing process.

Question 7

What are the land planning rules for general plans?

Answer 7

To provide physical development, expresses the goals and embodies public policy relative to the distribution of future land uses, both public and private.

Question 8

What are floodplain maps?

Answer 8

maps land area subject to inundation by floodwaters from any source.

Instructions for determining whether the project construction area is located with a regulatory floodway or within the base floodplain (100-year) elevation of a watercourse or lake are provided in the maps

Question 9

Name toxicological contaminants in land use

Answer 9

Lead, Arsenic, Asbestos, perchlorate

Question 10

Name some historical land use activities that can affect current potential land uses

Answer 10

Mining activities
underground storage of liquids (gasoline)
drug labs
military bases
cemeteries
archeological sites
dumpsite/landfills

Question 11

What are some minimum water quantity requirements ?

Answer 11

Source, storage, and distribution

Question 12

Safe drinking water act set what primary standards:

Answer 12

The primary drinking water quality standards
radioacttivity, organic, synthetic, volatile, inorganic (nitrites/ Nitrates and heavy metals), biological (total and fecal coliform bacteria)

Question 13

Safe drinking water act set what secondary standards:

Answer 13

Secondary standards for safe drinking water act include: Taste, Odor, and Appearance

Question 14

define geology

Answer 14

study of mineralogical composition of rocks in order to get insight into their history of formation.

Question 15

Define watershed management

Answer 15

Practices of water and land to protect and improve the quality of the water and other natural resources within a watershed by managing the use of those land and water resources in a comprehensive manner.

Question 16

Hydrology

Answer 16

The branch of science concerned with the properties of the earth’s water, and especially its movement in relation to land.

Question 17

wetlands

Answer 17

Areas where water covers the soil or is near the surface of the soil for all year or for varying periods of time.

Question 18

Topography

Answer 18

Study of the forms and features of land surfaces

Question 19

Soil Morphology

Answer 19

the branch of soil science dedicated to the technical description of soil; physical properties studied include texture, color, size, etc.

Question 20

Artesian spring

Answer 20

Source of ground water that is forced to the earth’s surface by the pressure caused by underground layers of rock, without the air of a pump.

Question 21

Flood plain

Answer 21

Area of land next to a river or stream that flood during a storm. Helps reduce pollution and lessen impact heavy storms.

Question 22

Aquifier

Answer 22

Is an underground body of rock or sediment that serves as a storage reservoir for large volumes of groundwater. Unconfined (open) or confined (closed) aquifers

Question 23

Aquitard

Answer 23

Confining unit, is a low-permeability unit that can store groundwater and transmit it slowly from one aquifer to another.

Question 24

Porosity

Answer 24

The quality or degree of having minute spaces or holes through which liquid or air may pass.

Question 25

Permeability

Answer 25

The State or quality of a material or membrane that causes it to allow liquids or gases to pass through it.

“the porosity needed depends on the permeability of the soil”

Question 26

Runoff

Answer 26

Flow of water across the earth instead of being absorbed into groundwater or evaporating.

Question 27

Absorption

Answer 27

seeping of water beneath the ground through the roots of plants and trees.

Question 28

Ddecibels

Answer 28

a unit to measure the intensity of a sound or the power level of an electrical signal by comparing it with a given level on a logarithmic scale.

Question 29

Logarithmic progression

Answer 29

is the inverse of exponential growth

Question 30

human health effects based on sound and noise

Answer 30

Drives hearing loss, tinnitus, hypersensitivity to sound, cardiovascular disease,, type 2 diabetes, memory impairment, and attention deficits, learning delays.

Question 31

Noise measurement

Answer 31

Noise level is measured in decibels (dB).

Question 32

Noise control

Answer 32

or noise mitigation is a set of strategies to reduce noise pollution or to reduce the impact of that noise, whether outdoors or indoors.