Erosion, Salinity, Well-Being Flashcards
(29 cards)
What is degradation?
The loss of productivity and decline in fertility of land based environments as a result of human activities.
What are the causes of degradation?
Deforestation, erosion salinity.
What types of erosion are there?
Water erosion, sheet erosion, gully erosion, tunnel erosion, Scalding, wind erosion.
What is water erosion?
Surface runoff.
What is sheet erosion?
Water or wind carrying off topsoil.
What is tunnel erosion?
Water infiltration creating a tunnel underground.
What is scalding?
Result of removed topsoil exposing under soil.
What is wind erosion?
Wind picking up soil and carrying it to different areas.
What is the social effect of erosion?
Erosion can destroy farms, minimises land for urbanisation.
What is the economical effect of erosion
Loss of land property, loss of product sold from farms.
What is salinity?
Salt from underground carried up by the water table to leach soil nutrients and therefore destroy land.
How would one contest salinity?
Plant a lot of deep rooted plants to lower the water
table.
What is irrigation salinity?
Water placed between rows of crops that sits there for so long that it infiltrates the ground and rises the water table to bring up salts.
What is dryland salinity?
The result of salinity drying up top soil.
What is Gully erosion?
Water sharply cutting into soil over time creating a large gully.
What is desertification?
Land turning into desert due to land degradation and overuse which is then deserted by it’s inhabitants.
What are some causes of desertification?
Over grazing, lack of water, poor soil quality, over population and human pressure.
What are some impacts of desertification?
Kills crops, kills animals, leaches soil nutrients, droughts, dries up water table.
How can we manage desertification?
Dams, efficient water use, reforestation.
How does desertification affect human wellbeing?
Droughts spread as the deserts grow and food production is reduced resulting in hunger, thirst and malnutrition.
What is a strategy being used to overcome desertification in the Sahel region?
The Great Green Wall initiative ran by UNCCD United nations convention to combat desertification.
What can efficient water use be?
Saving water by only using it for survival needs like drinking, bathing or cooking rather than non useful things.
What is damming?
The use of dams to rise the water table in deserted regions.
What stage is China and Australia in the demographic transition model?
Stage 4.
