Chapter 11- Water Flashcards
H2O is
a greenhouse gas, it hold heat
drought=
- no clouds
- positive feedback loop
Water in Canada
- lakes and rivers (over 2 million lakes, 8500 named rivers)
- groundwater (50% of our freshwater, 6million Canadians rely on ground water)
- glaciers (1000 named glaciers)
What % of Canada is covered with lakes and rivers?
12%
aquifer
sand and rocks that hold water if oil and gas pipes break through the aquifer must be careful about contaminants
Ground water
- creating by surface water passing into the ground
- contained in sand & gravel, pores and cracks in bedrock (aquifers)
Canada supplies how much global freshwater>
20% of global freshwater supply
only 0.5% of the population
-water used to be a commons resource but now it is becoming commercialized
What % of wetlands does Canada have?
25%- more than any other country
Importance of wetlands
- cleaning water before it reaches aquifer
- some of most biodiverse areas due to interface between land and water
Intake
amount withdrawn or used from water supply
Discharge
amount returned to the source
Consumption
intake-discharge
recirculation
water used 2+ times, or recycled to another use
gross water use
intake + recirculation (hydroelectric dams=100% returned to original source
-can decrease water use by having a water meter
wasting water
agriculture and irrigation
-very wasteful to water @ 30 degrees
Consumption
Canada is 2nd in the world USA is 1st
about 326 litres per person per day at home
refugee camp had 20L per day
Reasons for complacency about water supplies
-due to myth of superabundance
Human interventions in hydrological cycle
- water diversions (changing course of a river to divert it somewhere else)
- divert river into another river has huge ecological implications with species
- do diversions to avoid flooding
How many dams to we have in Canada
600 large dams
How many water basins?
60 large inter-basin diversions
Purpose of diversions
- Increase water supplies for community regions
- Deflect watercourses away from or around areas
- Enhance capacity of a river for other uses (floating, log transport, wastes)
- Combine/consolidate water lows for hydroelectricity
James Bay Project
** READ IN TEXTBOOK
Water pollution comes from…
industrial
urban
agriculture
point source pollution
origin easy to identify (know where it came from)