Erosion, Salinity, Well-Being

Question 1

What is degradation?

Answer 1

The loss of productivity and decline in fertility of land based environments as a result of human activities.

Question 2

What are the causes of degradation?

Answer 2

Deforestation, erosion salinity.

Question 3

What types of erosion are there?

Answer 3

Water erosion, sheet erosion, gully erosion, tunnel erosion, Scalding, wind erosion.

Question 4

What is water erosion?

Answer 4

Surface runoff.

Question 5

What is sheet erosion?

Answer 5

Water or wind carrying off topsoil.

Question 6

What is tunnel erosion?

Answer 6

Water infiltration creating a tunnel underground.

Question 7

What is scalding?

Answer 7

Result of removed topsoil exposing under soil.

Question 8

What is wind erosion?

Answer 8

Wind picking up soil and carrying it to different areas.

Question 9

What is the social effect of erosion?

Answer 9

Erosion can destroy farms, minimises land for urbanisation.

Question 10

What is the economical effect of erosion

Answer 10

Loss of land property, loss of product sold from farms.

Question 11

What is salinity?

Answer 11

Salt from underground carried up by the water table to leach soil nutrients and therefore destroy land.

Question 12

How would one contest salinity?

Answer 12

Plant a lot of deep rooted plants to lower the water

table.

Question 13

What is irrigation salinity?

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

What is dryland salinity?

Answer 14

The result of salinity drying up top soil.

Question 15

What is Gully erosion?

Answer 15

Water sharply cutting into soil over time creating a large gully.

Question 16

What is desertification?

Answer 16

Land turning into desert due to land degradation and overuse which is then deserted by it’s inhabitants.

Question 17

What are some causes of desertification?

Answer 17

Over grazing, lack of water, poor soil quality, over population and human pressure.

Question 18

What are some impacts of desertification?

Answer 18

Kills crops, kills animals, leaches soil nutrients, droughts, dries up water table.

Question 19

How can we manage desertification?

Answer 19

Dams, efficient water use, reforestation.

Question 20

How does desertification affect human wellbeing?

Answer 20

Droughts spread as the deserts grow and food production is reduced resulting in hunger, thirst and malnutrition.

Question 21

What is a strategy being used to overcome desertification in the Sahel region?

Answer 21

The Great Green Wall initiative ran by UNCCD United nations convention to combat desertification.

Question 22

What can efficient water use be?

Answer 22

Saving water by only using it for survival needs like drinking, bathing or cooking rather than non useful things.

Question 23

What is damming?

Answer 23

The use of dams to rise the water table in deserted regions.

Question 24

What stage is China and Australia in the demographic transition model?

Answer 24

Stage 4.

Question 25

What stage would most African countries be in the demographic transition model?

Answer 25

Stage 2-3

Question 26

What stage is India in the transition model?

Answer 26

3

Question 27

What is the condition of Indian slums in ‘Slumming it’?

Answer 27

Poor, non hygienic, lots of pollution, crammed up shacks.

Question 28

How does well-being vary in India?

Answer 28

There are rich people with large apartments taking up masses of land then there are these small, crammed up slums right next to the city.

Question 29

What are some well-being factors?

Answer 29

Death rate, Birth rate, fertility rate, malnutrition, GDP, medical aid etc.