Human Ressons For Changes To The Water Cycle Flashcards
What are the three main reasons for human changes to the water cycle?
Farming practices
Land use change
Water abstraction
What is water abstraction?
Water removed from stores for human use
How does farming practices effect the water cycle?
Ploughing breaks up the surface increasing infiltration.
Arable farming increases interception and evapotranspiration.
Pastoral farming compacts soils reducing infiltration and increasing runoff.
Irrigation removes water from local rivers decreasing their flow.
How does land use change effect the water cycle?
Deforestation reduces interception, evapotranspiration but increases infiltration.
Construction reduces infiltration and evapotranspiration due to impermeable surfaces but increases runoff.
How does water abstraction effect the water cycle?
Reduces volume of water in surface stores.
It increases in dry season as water is needed for irrigation.
There’s a global long term water store shortage as human abstraction meant output must increase to meet demands. Output> input = shortage
What does ploughing do?
Reaks up the surface increasing infiltration
When does water abstraction usually increase?
During dry season