Water case studies Flashcards
What are some of the causes of water insecurity in asia?
-Agriculture uses 90% of freshwater
-salinity and industrial pollution affects 60% of ground
water supplies in indo-gangetic basin
- aquifer over abstraction
- Billion gallons of raw sewage dumped into the ganges
- China only holds 6% of wolds fresh water
Where is the murray-darling basin?
Australia
Name 3 Large scale water management projects to help deal with water insecurity
- Three gorges dam (China)
- South-North water transfer project (china - Beijing)
- Israels desalinisation project
What are the pros and cons of the three gorges dam?
Pros
- generates HEP
- Stores water for north-south water transfer
- Regulates water flow along the Yangtze for times of deficit
Cons
- over 600km flooded
- 1.3 million relocated
- Decomposition of vegetation produces methane
- Low water quality due to industry sewage and farms upstream
What are the pros and cons of the south-north transfer project?
Pros
- Beijing has 35% of china population, 40% of its arabal land but only 7% of the water
- Enables transfer of water surplus to water deficit
- reduces water shortages in beijing and boost economic development
- reduced reliance on groundwater
Cons
- Flood over 300km land
- over 300,000 people relocated
- risks over abstraction from southern china
What are the pros and cons of Israels desalination project?
Pros
- reliable source of water
- aims to provide 70% of water by 2020
- produces 600 tonnes of fresh water per hour
Cons
- Each plant requires its own powerstation
- produces vast amounts of salt, which contains anti scaling agents that harm ecosystems
- expensive
What water surplus case study have we looked at?
- Storm Desmond in the lake district/Carlisle
- Boscastle floods
When did Storm Desmond happen?
2015
What caused storm Desmond flooding?
- Previously saturated ground
- Jet stream remains over the northwest for longer than usual bringing rainfall from the Atlantic
What factors are exacerbating flood risk in the UK for places such as Carlisle?
- Deforestation to make room for farm land reducing interception
- Urbanisation, especially on flood plains causing increased impermeable surfaces
- Climate change
What were the social impacts of storm Desmond?
- 3000 homes flooded
- Residents moved to temporary accommodation
- Temporary closure of local services
What were the environmental impacts of Storm Desmond?
- River banks eroded
- Sewage/pollutants flowing into the river
- landslides of saturated ground
- Eroded soils
What were the economic impacts of Storm Desmond?
- Business closed
- Cost of over £400 billion
- Farmers lost dry stone walls, livestock and crops
- House prices fell
What case studies are associated with the effect of climate change on the hydrological cycle?
- La Nina/El Nino
- Re greening of the Sahel region in the southern fringe of the Sahara dessert.
- Mega droughts in California caused by rising temperatures and decreased precipitation
What water deficit case study have we looked at?
- Cape town
- Australia
- Rio (in book)
When did the Australian droughts peak?
2003-2012
What is the cause of the drought in australia?
Mainly:
-Climate change and rising global temperatures.
Average rainfall is expected to decrease by 40%, from an already low figure
What are the impacts of the Australian droughts?
- Damage to the agricultural economy worth almost $10 billion
- slaughter of large number of cattle
- Spike in suicide rates amongst cattle farmers.
- Loss of wetland, decline in fish stocks, aquifer depletion
How was the Australian droughts managed?
Banning of:
- watering lawns
- watering sports fields
- using sprinkler systems
Projects:
- building desalination plants in Sydney and Perth
-A North–South pipeline costing $750 million
taking water from Victoria to Melbourne
In 2007, Melbourne was consuming 16% less water in 2007 than 2016.
What caused the droughts in brazil?
High pressure winds diverted rain bearing winds away from the amazon causing floods in Paraguay and Bolivia but droughts in Brazil.
What were the impacts of the Brazil droughts in 2014/15?
- water rationing for 4 million people
- halting of HEP which led to power cuts
- depletion of 17 of the largest aquifers to dangerously low levels
- reduced agriculture such as coffee beans which increased global coffee prices by 50%
What is cape towns day zero?
The day water is expected run out.
This is caused by severe droughts and cape towns water intensive fruit crops such as grapes
What is the big dry?
A severe drought in south-east Australia between 2003 and 2012.
