Thanksgiving.

For Thanksgiving I traveled to the Ozarks. I spent it in a cabin out in the middle of nowhere, deep in the country of Protem, Missouri. Right by Arkansas. The cabin had an entire wall covered with huge windows that displayed a view of my entity in enlarged form- Bull Shoals Lake, a similarly man-made lake surrounded by an expanse of trees and grass. It was a bit grander than the lake in the IU arboretum though.

Environmental Sustainability.

My entity is located at the center of the IU arboretum, a botanical garden featuring a wide expanse of grass and a variety of trees and plants. More trees could be planted to promote environmental sustainability because it would ensure that the arboretum would continue to flourish and not be diminished in the future.

Abiotic Environment

Abiotic features, such as sunlight, precipitation, and temperature create direct changes in my entity. When there is more sunlight, my entity's water is heated and rises in temperature. When it rains, precipitation feeds my entity and causes its water levels to rise. When the weather gets colder and temperatures drop, my entity can freeze from water to ice.

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” -Anne Bradstreet, http://thinkexist.com/quotations/seasons/

Urban Sprawl.

My entity was probably built as a result of growing urban sprawl. The lake and the arboretum that it is located in is a piece of land reserved to be relatively free of the built environment, unlike the area that directly surrounds it. It tries to preserve the land as a natural space and keeps urban sprawl from spreading into this particular environment.

Why?

 I think my entity was developed in order to bring some natural scenery onto campus. It creates an ambient atmosphere amidst buildings filled with classrooms and lecture halls. It is the center and main focus of the arboretum.

The weather's been a bit gloomy. But we should listen to the advice of Clint Eastwood and not let it get us down: "I don't believe in pessimism. If something doesn't come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it's going to rain, it will." http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/rain_2.htm

Prediction.

Look at the past to predict the future.
Second and third pictures taken on December 5, 2010. I predict the lake will look similar mid-January.

"In four months my entity will..."
look like the cover of a Christmas card.

Ecosystem Services: Inspiration.

"Let yourself be open and life will be easier. A spoon of salt in a glass of water makes the water undrinkable. A spoon of salt in a lake is almost unnoticed." -Buddha

Introduction.

This is the lake in the IU arboretum just as the weather is starting to change.