WATER: Australia

Question 1

how has human activity contributed to an increased risk of drought in the Sahel Region?

Answer 1

a

Question 2

millennium drought 1997-2009

Answer 2

longest uninterrupted series of years with below median rainfall in south-easter Australia since at least 1900

Question 3

meteorological causes of millennium drought

Answer 3

El Nino events 2002-2003 and 2006-2007 caused two-thirds fo the rainfall deficit in eastern Australia

strengthened STR accounted for 80% of the rainfall decline in south-eastern Australia by blocking storm tracks (depressions), forcing them towards lower latitudes, reducing the frontal rainfall

Question 4

human causes of millennium drought

Answer 4

changes to Hadley Cell and STR associated with anthropogenic global warming

STR intensified due to global surface temperature increase resulting from human emissions

anthropogenic warming reducing the temperature gradient between the Equator and the Poles, subsequently reducing the energy available for the mid-latitude storm systems and the polar front jet stream

Question 5

‘Big Dry’ of 2006

Answer 5

this was assessed as a 1-1000 event

Question 6

The Murray-Darling Basin (MDB)

Answer 6

home to more than 2 million people

contains two rivers, the Murray and the Darling

covers 14% of the Australian land mass

provides 75% of Australia’s water and 85% of the country’s irrigation water

provides 40% of the nation’s farm produce

Question 7

environmental concerns of the IMD

Answer 7

increasing and competing demands which has increased by 5x since 1920, which has not always been well managed or co-ordinated

the difficulties are because the