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Geography > Water > Flashcards

Water Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the major features of a famine drought?

A

(Food deficit)
- Loss of natural vegetation
- Increased risk of wild fires
- Wind-blown soil erosion
- Desertification

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2
Q

What are the main features of a hydrological drought?

A

(Stream flow deficit)
- Reduced infiltration
- Low soil moisture
- Little percolation and groundwater recharge

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3
Q

What are the major features of a meteorological drought?

A

(Rainfall deficit)
- Low precipitation
- High temperatures
- Strong winds
- Increased solar radiation
- Reduced snow cover

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4
Q

What are the major features of an agricultural drought?

A

(Soil moisture deficit)
- Low evapotranspiration
- Plant water stress
- Reduced biomass
- Fall in groundwater levels

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5
Q

What are the impacts of a meteorological drought?

A
  • Loss of soil moisture
  • Supply of irrigation water declines
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6
Q

What are the impacts of hydrological droughts?

A
  • Reduced water storage in lakes and reservoirs
  • Less water for urban supply and power generation - restrictions
  • Poorer water quality
  • Threats to wetlands and wildlife habitats
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7
Q

What are the impacts of agricultural droughts?

A
  • Poor yields from rain-fed crops
  • Irrigation systems start to fail
  • Pasture and livestock productivity declines
  • Rural industries affected
  • Some government aid required
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8
Q

What are the impacts of a famine drought?

A
  • Widespread failure of agricultural systems
  • Food shortages on seasonal scale
  • Rural economy collapses
  • Rural-urban migration
  • Increased malnutrition and related mortality
  • Humanitarian crisis
  • International aid required
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9
Q

Order of drought duration and severity? (From shortest to longest)

A
  • Meteorological
  • Hydrological
  • Agricultural
  • Famine
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10
Q

What is the PDSI?

A

Palmer Drought Severity Index- Focuses on monitoring the duration and intensity of large-scale, long-term, drought-inducing atmospheric circulation.

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11
Q

What happens in a normal (non- El Niño) year?

A
  • The trade winds blow westwards (from South-America to Australia) across the tropical Pacific
  • The winds blow towards the warm water of the western Pacific
  • Convectional uplift occurs as the water heats the atmosphere
  • The trade winds push warm air westwards. Along the east coast of Peru, the shallow position of the thermocline allows winds to pull up water from below
  • This causes upwelling of nutrient-rich cold water, leading to optimum fishing conditions
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12
Q

What is water scarcity?

A

Less than 1000m of water available per person per year.

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13
Q

What is physical scarcity?

A

There is not enough water to meet the demand.

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14
Q

What is economic scarcity?

A

Water is available but people cannot afford it.

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15
Q

What is water stress?

A

Less than 1700m3 of water available per person per year.

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16
Q

What is water insecurity?

A

Present and future water supplies cannot be guaranteed.

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17
Q

What are the 4 main reasons for increased global water scarcity?

A

Increasing population and urbanisation
Improved living standards
Industrialisation
Agriculture

18
Q

How does increased population and urbanisation affect water?

A
  • Demand for water is growing twice as fast as the population
  • Half the world’s population live in urban areas. By 2030, the urban population in Africa and Asia is expected to double.
19
Q

How does improve living standards change affect water scarcity?

A
  • Rising incomes in developing and emerging economies
  • Increased meat consumption
  • Larger homes
  • Production of more cars, appliances and gadgets
20
Q

How does industrialisation affect water scarcity?

A
  • Industrial consumption will increase by 400% by 2050
  • Increased industrial pollution contaminates supplies
21
Q

How does agriculture affect water scarcity?

A
  • Largest consumer of water
  • By 2050, 60% more food will be required
  • Depleting aquifer levels and contamination by salt water
22
Q

What are desalination plants?

A

Remove salt from water in order to obtain freshwater supply

23
Q

What are the pros of desalination?

A
  • Sustainable due to vast amounts of seawater supply
  • Advancing technology makes the process less energy-intensive
24
Q

What are the cons of desalination?

A
  • Major ecological impact on marine life as left over water returned from desalination plant has double the salt concentration of sea water which can impact coral and food webs.
  • Energy intensive process
25
Q

How long is the River Nile?

A

6700 km long (World’s largest river)

26
Q

What percentage of total water is stored in oceans?

A

96.9%

27
Q

What percentage of total water is stored in icecaps?

A

1.9%

28
Q

What percentage of total water is stored in groundwater?

A

1.1%

29
Q

What percentage of total water is stored in rivers and lakes?

A

0.01%

30
Q

What percentage of total water is stored in soil moisture?

A

0.01%

31
Q

What percentage of total water is stored in atmospheric moisture?

A

0.001%

32
Q

What are SuDS?

A

Sustainable drainage systems

33
Q

What do SuDS do?

A

Reduce runoff produced from rainfall by using:
- green roofs
- Infiltration basins
- permeable pavements
- Rainwater harvesting
- Soak-away
- Filter drains
- Detention basins
- Wetlands

34
Q

What are the main reasons that the price of water varies?

A
  • The physical costs of obtaining the supply
  • The degree of demand for water
  • Infastructure
  • Who supplied the water
35
Q

How does the physical costs of obtaining the supply affect water price?

A

Becasue, in some cities, water has to be piped for many kilometres from mountainous reservoirs (for example, the California coastal city of Los Angeles gets its water from Colorado through a very long pipeline).

36
Q

How does the degree of demand affect water price?

A

If water is very scarce, as in the 2015 California drought, the price increases to manage and (inevitability the poor miss out). Even in cities in developed countries, such as Detroit and New York in the USA, there are considerable amount of very poor people

37
Q

What causes water prices to vary?

A
  • Costs of obtaining the supply
  • Investment in infrastructure
  • Demand
    -Government policies
    -Privatisation
38
Q

Why does the cost of obtaining the supply cause water prices to vary?

A

Some areas have plentiful supplies e.g. Memphis- so the water costs are very low ($0.4 per m3).
Areas where there are low levels of preciptation e.g. Coastal cities in California have high prices such as San Francisco ($1.8 per m3).

39
Q

Why does demand cause water prices to vary?

A

In Very High Human Development countries if there are high demands with wealthy consumers it allows water companies to charge high prices.
E.g. in the US estimated 1 in 30 people have a swimming pool, so areas with high supply such as Chicago have high prices ($0.7 per m3).

40
Q

Why do government policies casue water prices to vary?

A

In some developed countries there are high prices to discourage waste of water e.g. Denmark cost can be as high as $9.7 per m3.
In contrast some developed countries have state subsidies for water e.g. In SW US water for agricultural use which drives down costs to just $0.05 per m3.

Geography (16 decks)

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