Education

Learn More About Water Resources

This section is geared towards students and teachers (K-12) as well as citizens. If you are a student, use the links below to access websites and documents that can help you better understand water resources. If you're a teacher, use the links below to view Atlas-related lesson plans and links to educational resources related to education about water. If you're a citizen, use the links below to better understand the data on the Atlas and learn about maintaining the health of area water resources.

Creek Conditions

Creek Conditions

Sarasota County has 17 tidally-influenced creeks that connect to its coastal bay systems. Learn about water quality conditions in their freshwater and marine components

Water Quality Concerns

Water Quality Concerns

How water quality afffects fishing, shellfish harvesting, and recreation

Bay Conditions

Bay Conditions

How healthy are our coastal waterways? View reports on the conditions of Sarasota's six major bay systems.

Watershed Management Plans

Watershed Management Plans

A watershed management plan defines and addresses existing or future water quality problems. Experience has shown that effective watershed management includes active participation from stakeholders, analysis of the specific causes and sources of water quality problems, identification of measurable water quality goals, and implementation of specific actions needed to solve those problems.

Beach Action Plan

Beach Action Plan

Find information about Sarasota County beaches, and about what steps the County and its partners are taking to protect beachgoers from bacteria exposure and avert "No-Swim Advisories".

Coastal Watershed Wiki

Coastal Watershed Wiki

The Sarasota County Water Atlas has a new Wiki page to gather and discuss coastal watershed issues. Explore the wiki either by finding a topic or a geographic region of interest.

Community Resources

Community Resources

Improve water quality in your community waterways so you can have more birds, more fish – and more fun!

Flood Protection

Flood Protection

Sarasota County Flood Protection

Historical Narratives

Historical Narratives

Oral histories created by students at New College for Sarasota County.

Low Impact Design (LID)

Low Impact Design (LID)

Commercial Low Impact Design (LID), sometimes called Green Infrastructure, treats rainwater as an asset rather than a liability, encouraging the capture and use of rainwater on site.

NPDES Stormwater Program

NPDES Stormwater Program

The Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) is a federal program designed ot reduce stormwater pollutant discharges to receiving waters of the United States.

Oysters

Oysters

Learn more about the eastern oyster, Crassotrea virginica, a commercially and ecologically important mollusk that is also a good bioindicator of water quality in estuarine habitats.

Scallops

Scallops

Sarasota County Scallop Monitoring & Volunteer Programs

Stormwater Education

Stormwater Education

Learn more about stormwater systems.

Student / Teacher Resources

Student / Teacher Resources

Formal and informal educators and their students will find sources of interesting and useful information on these pages to help them better understand Sarasota County's watery habitats.

TMDLs

TMDLs

Sarasota County Impaired Waters and TMDLs

Related Educational Documents and Links