Geography-Water Flashcards
(24 cards)
What has happen on the Aswan Dam?
The Aswan Dam was built in the 1960s to prevent streamflow downstream but has negative impacts as it is estimated that Lake Nasser has evaporative losses of 10 to 16 billion cubic metres a year-20% of water volume in the Nile.
What were Physical/human factors in the Brazil 2014/2015 drought?
Some Physical/human factors in the Brazil drought were:
* rural communities illegally gained access to groundwater aquifers as it costed $3000 to gain licence to drill wells.This cauased 2.5 million illegal bareholders across Brazil.
* High pressure systems blocked the rain bearing low pressure from reaching Brazil leading to Brazil remaining dry.
What were the physical causes of the Austrailan 2019 droughts?
- The Indian Ocean Dipole was one of the causes ofthe Australian Drought in 2019 as decrease temperatures in the sea surface leads to less evaporation and less rain forming.
What were the human causes of the Austrailan 2019 droughts?
- Climate change.
- Overabstraction of groundwater as the rates of grounndwater extraction across Australia have increased by 100% between the early 1980s and the early 2000s.
- Deforestation.
What were the impacts of the Australian 2019 Drought?
- Bush fires struck across Australia which stretched across an estimated 10 million hectares of land.
- level record heat as it reached 1.52°C above the long-term average.
- Wildfires burnt a total of 18 million hectares- twice the size of the UK and caused $100 billion (AUD) in economic losses.
What was the meteorlogical cause of the Northern England December 2015 flooding?
The metereological cause of the flooding was the position of the jet stream which determines the direction of depressions and their speed of movements.
What are the human causes of the Northern England December 2015 flooding?
- Changing landuse-farmers have changed the landscape from forests to grasslands which reduces the amount of water absorbed during an high rainfall event.
- Mismanaging rivers - combination of raised riverbanks, pumping stations and diversion channels may only reduce these extreme storms and may become overwhelmed.
What were some impacts of the Northern England 2015 flooding?
- 61,000 hoomes lost power.
- 5,200 homes flooded.
- cost of flooding in Cumbria was £400 million in 2015
- Insurance claimed in 2015 flooding exceeded £6 billion.
- Honister Pass recorded 341.4 mm of rain in just 24 hours.
What is the African Great Green Wall Project?
How has the project reduce the spread of the Sahara Desert?
The African Great Green Wall aims to reduce the spread of the Sahara by creating a wall of trees throughout the Sahel.
This project has reduced the impacts of the spread of the Sahara by:
* Project rehabilitated 300,000 hectares of land.
* half moons with diameter of 4.5 metres wide.
* Half moons were created in order ot retain water which then feeds plants.
What are some examples of variance in price of water?
- In Canada, where supplying water still lies within the public sector, charges to consumers are 80% less than in Germany.
- Ireland only began charging for water in 2012! In 2016, water bills there were 75% less than in the UK.
- Denmark has the world’s most expensive water. Its government aims to cut water consumption through pricing based on passing on all costs to the consumer. price of water in Denmark is €9/m3
What happened in Cochabamba water system in 1999?
Cocohambula city water switched to private company and this caused increased prices in water so that water costed up to 20% of poor incomes in the city.
How has human activities led to water stress around the Aral sea? What are some negative impacts of this?
Since the 1950s the soviets used the aral sea to construct the large construction and agricultural projects leading to the aral sea decreasing.
Some negative impacts of this are:
* 1/3 of the Aral sea has become desert area.
* In 50 years the Aral sea has lost 50% of it’s river volume.
* People staying in the region experience high levels of cancer due to high exposure with salt.
What are some reasons internal conflicts exist within Spain?
Some reasons internal conflicts exist within Spain due to:
- Development, irrigation, and dams along the length of the river have cut sediments by 90%.
- Government plans to transfer water from Ebro Delta to arid areas increases conflicts with some autonomous regions such as Catalonia.
- Management of Ebro Delta to avoid flooding may cause some negative impacts to locals leading to conflicts.
What are some actions in Turkey have caused conflicts over water supply in Syria and Iraq?
Some actions in Turkey have caused conflicts over water supply in Syria and Iraq as:
- Since 1975, Turkey’s extensive dam and hydroelectric construction has reduced streamflows in Iraq by 80% and 40% in Syria
- 22 dams and 19 hydropower plants across the Tigris and Eurphates Basins reducing sediment volume and river discharge
- Low flow rates in Iraq have allowed sea water from the persian gulf to infiltrate 150 km inland
What are some impacts due to the construction of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD)?
Some impacts due to the constrution of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam are:
- The GERD costed $4 billion and is expected to produce 5250MW of electricity,which is double Ethiopia’s current electric output.
- If Ethiopia filled the Dam within 5 years it would reduce Eygpt’s water volume by 26% and destroy Eygpt’s agriculture by 37%
- Eygpt is deeply reliant on the Nile as 95% of Eygpt’s water comes from the Nile.
What are some reasons of water conflict in India and Pakistan?
The Inus originates in India and flows through into Pakistan through 6 major rivers which is vital for Pakistan’s agricultural and agarian infrastructure as it is heavily reliant on the river water
How has Israel used hard engineering schemes to address its water shortage?
- Israel has used hard engineering schemes to address its water shortage as 60% of the country is arid and 40% being semi arid
- Israel has invested £400 million into the construction of the Sorek Desalination plant
- Today 60% of Israel’s domestic use consumption comes from desalinisation
- In 1960 the first desalnisation plant was made in Eliat
- Now 100% of residents in Israel has access to running water every year.
What are some things has the China Three Gorges Dam caused?
Some things that the China Three Gorges Dam caused are:
* 633 square km of land flooded-1.3 million displaced people.
* water quality issues.
How much did the China Water transfer scheme cost?
How much metres of water is diverted to the north?
- The China Water transfer scheme costed $79 billion
- The Water Transfer scheme diverts 45 billion cubic metres of water every year to the north.
What are some things has the China Water transfer scheme cause?
370 km2 of land flooded leading to 345000 people to be displaced.
Why was the China Three Gorges Dam built?
How much did the China Three Gorges Dam cost?
- The china three gorges dam was built to secure water supply on the river Yangtze.
- The project costed $37 billion to build.
Where did Singapore used to get their water supply from?
What were some things that Singapore do to become more energy secure?
Singapore used to import most of their water from Maalaysia but wanted to become water secure.
Some things that singapore did to become more energy secure were:
* creating 5 desalination plants supplying 40% of water supplies
* NEWater-water recycling.40% of water is supplied through this technology
* The whole country has been turned into a rainwater harvesting catchment including a numerous reservoirs,canals and wetlands.
* scaled water pricing scheme to reduce demand
What are some reasons the states in the colorado river conflicting over water resources?
Some reasons of colorado river conflict over resources are:
* increasing population-provides drinking water for 50 million Americans
* irrigates 1.4 million hectares of farmland
* increased demand among the states due to increase consumption of water
What are some things the US has done to reduce the conflict over the Colorado river?
Some things the US has done to reduce the conflict over the Colorado river are:
* Making new agreement in 2012 called Minute319 whihc entitled Mexico to a greater share of the water in the Colorado
* The US government is also trying to reduce demand through changes in prices and water conservation techniques.
