Natural resources Flashcards
(26 cards)
What is a natural resource?
Any part of the environment that people use to meet their needs.
Natural resources are Classified as:
- biotic
- abiotic
- renewable
- non-renewable
What resources are exploited from the environment?
Fossil fuels - coal is removed from the ground by mining at the surface and in deep shafts. Extracting oil and gas involves drilling into underground reserves. It can be done inland and at sea
Fishing - commercial fishing methods involve trawling (towing nets behind boats) and dredging (dragging a metal frame along the seabed to harvest shellfish). Fish farms breed fish in contained spaces.
Farming - crops, cattle or mixed.
Deforestation - trees are chopped down for timber or fuel, they are also removed to clear areas.
Water - can be extracted directly from rivers, from underground stores (aquifers) or from reservoirs created by dams.
How cam resource extraction impacts water and air quality?
Fossil fuels - release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when they’re burned. Waste from mines eg. Mercury and lead, can pollute groundwater and air.
Fishing - oil and petroleum can spill from fishing vessels causing water pollution.
Farming - artificial fertilisers and pesticides can harm or kill organisms if they enter water courses.
Deforestation- less photosynthesis, more CO2 in the air, burning vegetation to clear forest releases even more CO2.
Water -water transfers need lots of energy to pump water over long distances if there isn’t a natural downhill route, which may require burning fossil fuels for energy.
How does resource extraction impact water and biodiversity?
Fishing - overfishing of some species can, in turn, reduce the number of other species in the environment.
Farming - removing hedgerows reduces biodiversity in plant and animal species that live in them.
Deforestation - around 70% of all land-based plant and animal species live in forests.
Water - dams act as a barrier to species movement.
How can resource extraction cause soil erosion?
Farming - the increased use of heavy industry can cause soil erosion.
Deforestation- removing trees exposes the soil and makes it easier for water or wind to erode.
How does energy consumptions change with development?
Developed countries consume lots of energy because more people can afford to. Most people have access to electricity heating and energy intensive devices eg. Cars.
Developing countries consume less energy as they are unable to afford it as much. Less energy is available and lifestyles are less dependent on high energy consumption.
What percentage of the world’ surface water supply is fresh water?
3%
Most of the water is saline (salty) water in the seas and oceans.
Some is stored as surface water in lakes and rivers
some it stored underground as groundwater eg. In aquifers
most is frozen, stored in ice caps and glaciers
a small proportion is stored in the atmosphere as clouds and water vapour
What is it called when a part of the world has more or less water than is needed
Water surplus - more water than needed
Generally happen in places with high water availability and low demand for it.
Water deficit - not enough water.
Generally happen in places with low water availability and high demand for water.
What are the reasons for changes in water supply
Over-abstraction - aquifers and groundwaters have been depleted because people have been using the water faster than it can be replaced.
Pollution - chemicals from agricultures and industry have polluted lakes and rivers, asking water unsafe to use.
Climate change is causing rainfall to become less reliable in some areas.
Reasons for changes in water demands?
Rapids population growth means that the number of people using water has increased.
Development - the growth of industry has increased demand for water. Development has also led to more farms using irrigation instead of relying on rainfall, which increases their water consumption. As people become wealthier, they tend to adopt a lifestyle that uses more water, increasing the demand for it.
How do developed countries use water
Developed countries tend to use more water for domestic uses and industry rather than for agriculture.
Developed countries tend to have better water infrastructure e.g. pipes can bring clean water into peoples homes. This means that water is easily available for most people.
Having cheap and plentiful access to water in the home means that people can use appliances eg. Washing machines, which use a lot of water.
People don’t have to worry about their water supply so they’re more likely to waste water than people living in developing and emerging countries.
However developed countries also have a potential to reduce their water consumption being able to invest in tech technologies for managing water efficiently.
How do developing and emerging countries use water supplies
Developing and emerging countries have lower water consumption per person than developed countries.
Many people don’t have convenient or affordable access to clean water so they might be more careful not to waste any.
Developing and emerging countries use a lot of water to produce things that are then imported and consumed in developed countries.
How are water demands and supply distributed around the UK?
The north and west of the uk have high rainfall, which means there’s a good supply of water.
The north and west are areas of water surplus.
The south east and the midlands have high population densities, which means that there’s a high demand for water.
The south east and midlands are areas of water deficit.
This imbalance between supply and demands can cause water supply problems.
There also seasonal imbalances in water supply and demand - in the winter, rainfall is high and demand is low, while in the summer rainfall lies low and demand is higher.
How is water stored and transported?
Water can be transferred from areas of water surplus to areas of deficit.
Water from winter rainfall can be stored in reservoirs to be used in the summer.
What are the problems with the UK’s water systems?
The UK’s water infrastructure is ageing - old sewage systems and water pipes are struggling to keep up with the higher volumes of water that need to be treated and transferred to meet demand.
The infrastructure is also inefficient - in 2016-17 3.1 billion litres of clean water were estimated to have been lost every day through leaky pipes.
How do people in developing and emerging countries supply themselves with water?
Many people carry water to their homes - in 2015, the UN estimates that 844 million people did not have access to a safe water source within a 30 minute round trip from their houses.
Over 480000 children die every year from diarrhoea, often caused by drinking contaminated water.
What are the problems with the water systems in developing and emerging countries.
In some developing and emerging countries there is also a greater risk of water courses becoming polluted than in developed countries due to the lack of infrastructure for treating sewage and waste water.
Laws that protect the environment are often less strict that in developed countries, so industries like mining are more likely to pollute water courses. This reduces the available supply of clean, safe water.
Some emerging and developing countries are located in areas with low annual rainfall and a high frequency of droughts, which means that there is a low water availability per person.
Many developing countries also lack the technology and infrastructure to store what rainfall they do receive, and to move water supplies from areas of high rainfall to areas with higher demand.
How do individuals exploit water?
Individual people want to be able to get as much clean safe water as they need - and to be able to get it easily and cheaply.
Different people have different expectations about how much water is enough - eg. People in developed countries might expect to be able to water lawns and run washing machine machines at any time of day, whereas in developing countries people might think that using treated water for activities like washing clothes is a waste of resources
How do organisations exploit water?
Charities like water aid and UNICEF believe that everyone should be able to use safe clean water. They carry out work and developing countries to increase peoples access to clean water e.g. boreholes and toilets. This increases water consumption but can also reduce the contamination of water sources.
Some businesses and industries think that is acceptable to exploit water resources in an unsustainable way in order to make a profit.
How do governments exploit water?
Governments have to balance the needs of citizens and businesses. They need to avoid water shortages so they have to make sure that industries don’t consume too much water - but they also want businesses to stay because they provide jobs and taxes so they can’t restrict water use too much.
What is desalination?
Desalination is the removal of salt from seawater so that it can be used.
There are two main processes that are used - Either the seawater can be heated to evaporate it and then condensed to collect the freshwater or water can be passed through a special membrane to remove the salt.
It is expensive because energy is needed to heat the water or to force it through the membrane. Most plants are also powered by fossil fuels, though Saudi Arabia is building the world’s first large scale, solar powered desalination plant.
How is desalination used in the UK?
in the UK this foundation is mainly used during droughts rather than being the main source of water.
How do wealthy desert countries use desalination?
Wealthy desert countries often use desalination as their main source of clean drinking water.
Dubai supplies 98.8% of its water through desalination. It has the largest supply plant in the region which can produce 140 million gallons of desalinated water every day.
Desalination plants in countries that are more dependent on them have developed more efficient technology.
Dubai’s new plant if 82% efficient compared to about 45% for plants in Europe.
How do individuals plan to sustainably manage water supplies?
Individuals want to have cheap, reliable and convenient access to water in the future - and probably want the same for their future generations too.
They might also want to have a say in how water is managed, especially if they share the use of a water resource with other people.
Community based water management is common in developing countries where many people do not have their own private water supply and the government doesn’t have enough resources to monitor whether water is being used sustainably. For these groups sustainable management might also mean that everyone has a fair share of the available water resources.
