Water EQ2 Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the 4 types of drought?

A
  • Meteorological- shortfall or deficiency of water over an extended period
  • Hydrological- reduced streamflow, lowered groundwater levels, reduced water stores
  • Agricultural- famine, and starvation
  • Socioeconomic
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2
Q

What are the causes of meteorological drought?

A
  • Research suggests sea surface temperature important factor in short-term precipitation deficits
  • Physical causes on partially understood -complex interactions between different spheres
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3
Q

How does El nino work?

A
  • Strong trade winds push warm ocean currents to the east around South America, and leaving cooler ocean currents around Australia
  • Occur every 3-7 years and usually last for 18 months
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4
Q

How does la Nina work?

A
  • Involve build-up of cool water around South America due to no trade winds- lead to severe drought conditions in parts of SA- Very warm water moving east- west
  • Sometimes happens after EL nino
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5
Q

What are the causes of desertification and where does it take place?

A
  • Changing rainfall patterns
  • Vegetation cover becomes stressed and begins to die leaving bare soil
  • Bare soil eroded by wind and occasional intense shower
  • When rain does fall only for short, intense periods- difficult for soil to capture and store it
  • Usually takes place in semi- arid land on edges of existing deserts
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6
Q

What human actions exacerbate desertification?

A
  • Over-abstraction of surface water and groundwater
  • Population growth- pressure on land to grow more food
  • Overgrazing- destroy vegetation cover
  • Overcultivation- exhausts the soil
  • Deforestation- roots no longer bind soil and erosion occurs
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7
Q

What human actions exacerbate desertification?

A
  • Over-abstraction of surface water and groundwater
  • Population growth- pressure on land to grow more food
  • Overgrazing- destroy vegetation cover
  • Overcultivation- exhausts the soil
  • Deforestation- roots no longer bind soil and erosion occurs
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8
Q

What is the situation with drought in Australia?

A
  • It is a recurrent annual feature- up to 30% of the country is affected ( El Nino links)
  • Careful management of scarce water resources- large scale recycling of greywater, desalination plants, and water conservation strategies
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9
Q

Why are wetlands useful?

A
  • Act as temporary water stores
  • Recharge aquifers
  • Trap pollutants
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10
Q

How does drought impact wetlands?

A
  • Less precipitation- less interception- less infiltration and percolation - water tables fall- increase evaporation and decreased transpiration
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11
Q

How does drought affect forests?

A
  • Increase sisceptibility of pines and firs to fungal disease
  • Tree mortality increase
  • less interception- reduced infiltration and overland flow
  • Deforestation also has massive effects
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12
Q

What are meterological casues of flood?

A
  • Intense storms- lead to flash flooding- common in mountainous areas
  • Prolonged, heavy rain- asian monsoon
  • Rapid snow melt- siberia in warm spring
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13
Q

What physical circumstances increase liklehood of flooding?

A
  • low-lying areas with impermeable surfaces
  • impermeable rocks on ground surface
  • ice dams suddenly melt- glacial lakes released
  • volcanic activitygenerates meltwater suddenly released- jökulhlaups
  • earthquakes cause failure of dams or lanslides- bloking rivers
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14
Q

What are some different human actions that exacerbate flood risk?

A
  • Impermeable areas of tarmac
  • Dams built to supply towns with water
  • Ploughing compacts soil
  • Deforestation stops woodlands from intercepting and transpiring
  • pasteurised land does not allow water to sink in
  • wells sunk to supply settlements.
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15
Q

What are a few examples of river mismanagement of rivers using hard engineering?

A
  • Channelization- improves river discharge and reduces flood risk, but it simply displaces the river downstream
  • Dams- block flow of sediment down a river, so reservoir gradually fills up with silt- increases riverbed erosion downstream
  • River embankments- designed to protect from floods, but they can fail when a flood exceeds there capacity- this makes the scale of flooding much greater.
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16
Q

What is more preferred in managing rivers in flooding soft or hard engineering and why?

A
  • Soft-engineering like making use of the floodplains as nature intended as temporary stores of water. This is preferred because of the mismanagement that can happen with hard-engineering leading to a greater impact?
17
Q

What are a few socio-economic impacts of flooding?

A
  • Death and injury
  • Spread of water borne diseases
  • Damage to property
  • Interruption of water and energy supplies
  • Destruction of crops and loss of supplies
18
Q

What are some environmental impacts of flooding?

A
  • recharged groundwater stores
  • increased connectivity, between aquatic habitats
  • soil replenishment
  • triggers breeding, migration and dispersal
  • pollutants can be brought into
  • soil and river channel erosion
  • soils may become waterlogged
19
Q

What were a few impacts of the UK flood events 2015-2016?

A
  • 16000 properties in England flooded
  • total economic costs £5 billion
  • Roads and railways blocked
  • Businesses damaged
20
Q

What was to blame for the lack of flood protection?

A
  • Budget cuts in the amount of money being spent on flood defenses
  • Global warming
  • Poor land management
  • EU puts environmental conservation ahead of regular dredging of rivers.
21
Q

How has climate change affected precipitation?

A
  • Higher humidity in the atmosphere creates a greater potential for condensation and precipitation , but patterns are variable
  • Rainfall is likely to be heavier and more intense
22
Q

How has climate change affected evaporation/evapotranspiration?

A
  • Increased a lot especially over oceans, but also over land
  • Increasing the amount of moisture in the atmosphere
23
Q

How has climate change affected runoff and streamflow?

A
  • Precipitation is in heavy short bursts due to higher humidity levels, or where snow and ice are melting , more water will runoff the surface and enter streams, increasing flood risk
24
Q

How does climate change affect snow?

A
  • Amount of snow collecting and surviving from one winter to the next is decreasing as air temperature increase.
  • Snow depths has been decreasing and early melting has been observed
25
Q

How has climate change affected glacier mass?

A
  • Most glaciers in the world in retreat due to warmer temperatures, especially at lower altitudes
  • Glaciers in Antarctica are thinning as ice shelves on the warmer sea, allowing glaciers to move faster
26
Q

How does climate change affect lakes and reservoirs?

A
  • Higher evaporation rates from open water sources due to warmer air temperatures have decreased water heights, and lower precipitation means that they are not refilled in times of drought.
27
Q

How does climate change affect lakes and reservoirs?

A
  • Higher evaporation rates from open water sources due to warmer air temperatures have decreased water heights, and lower precipitation means that they are not refilled in times of drought.
28
Q

How does climate change affect permafrost?

A
  • Tundra areas are experiencing the greatest degree of warming, therefore all forms of permafrost are experiencing melting- this changes the surface and soils of these areas
29
Q

How does climate change affect permafrost?

A
  • Tundra areas are experiencing the greatest degree of warming, therefore all forms of permafrost are experiencing melting- this changes the surface and soils of these areas
30
Q

How does climate change affect soil moisture?

A
  • Big contrast around the world- some moisture levels have increased, others have decreased, but higher air temperatures have drawn more water from soils by evaporation.
31
Q

What factors

A