Water cycle and insecurity

Question 1

1. Name the four main components of the water cycle
2. Name the 4 stores of the water cycle
3. Name the 4 main flows
4. Name the 2 main inputs
5. Name the 2 main outputs

Answer 1

1. Stores, flows, inputs and outputs
2. Land, oceans, cryosphere and atmosphere
3. Interception, infiltration, througflow and percolation
4. Precipitation and cryospheric processes
5. Evaporation and transpiration

Question 2

6. How is water stored in oceans?
7. How is water stored in the cryosphere?
8. How is water stored in land?
9. How is water stored in the atmosphere?

Answer 2

6. In liquid form and icebergs
7. Solid form with some meltwater and lakes
8. In rivers, streams, groundwater in liquid form (blue visible water) and in vegetation after interception (green invisible water).
9. Water vapour in clouds ☁️

Question 3

10. Explain how the hydrological cycle works

4 main stages!

Answer 3

10. •Begins with evaporation where water vapour from the ocean is lifted and condensed in the atmosphere to form clouds.
    •Moisture is then transported around the globe and returns to the surface as precipitation.
    •Some water will evaporate back into the atmosphere while some may percolate the ground to form groundwater.
    •the balance of water that remains on the surface is called runoff and emptied into lakes, rivers and streams which carry it back into oceans for the processes to start again (a closed system).

Question 4

11. Where is the earths water?
12. What is residence time?
13. Provide examples of residence times for ice bergs
14. Which store has the shortest residence time?

Answer 4

11. 96.5% in saline oceans and 2.5% freshwater.
12. Average times a water molecule will spend in the store or reservoir.
13. Groundwater can spend 10,000 years - major ice sheets are Greenland and Antarctica which can be over 800,000 years old
14. Atmospheric water - 10 days as it soon evaporates

Question 5

1. What is a drainage basin?
2. Explain interception
3. Explain infiltration
4. Explain throughflow
5. Explain percolation

Answer 5

1. Area of land drained by a river which travels downstream.
2. Precipitation that does not reach the soil as it’s intercepted by vegetation.
3. Water on the ground soaks into solis and porous rocks
4. Flowing water within the soil moving towards the river
5. Movement of water through the soil being stored as groundwater

Question 6

6. Name 3 physical factors that impact the hydrological system
7. Explain how climate affects the water cycle (4)
8. Explain how river systems affect the water cycle processes (3)
9. Explain how geology affects the water cycle processes (2)

Answer 6

6. Climate, river systems and geology
7. •temperature and precipitation patterns determine availability of water
   • seasonality determines patterns, e.g Vancouver is wettest between October and March
   •summer temperatures increase evaporation rates but plant growth increases transpiration rates.
   •equatorial rates receive most rainfall
8. •drainage basins collect precipitation and channels towards the coast •availability depend on land use, basin size and precipitation type •flow increases downstream but climate creates variation in discharge
9. •determines underground storage according to permeability, porous rocks store water •metamorphic rocks such as granites cause runoff but don’t store water

Question 7

10. Explain 4 human factors that affect water insecurity

11. Explain 3 physical factors that affect water insecurity

Answer 7

10. •accelerating deforestation and changing land use. •Digging deep wells contaminates water (pollution) •Urbanisation increases impermeable surfaces preventing precipitation penetrating the ground, less groundwater affects water supply •over abstraction of water from high demand
11. •El Nino events such as droughts and flooding •climate change •water quality affected by salt contamination

Question 8

12. What are water budgets?

13. Name the 3 climate types that influence water budgets

Answer 8

12. Show the annual balance between inputs (precipitation) and precipitation outputs (evapotranspiration) and their impact on soil water availability.
13. •temperature-faces mood temperatures and steady climate •tropical-can be tropical wet, tropical monsoon or dry seasons •polar-tundra and ice cap climates. Tundra summers are short and ice cap seasons temperatures are seldom above freezing.

Question 9

14. What are river regimes?
15. What are the 2 human factors that affect river regimes and the shape of storm hydrographs?
16. Explain the 5 physical factors that make river basins vary

Answer 9

14. Indicate the annual variation of river discharge. Discharge increases as glacier meltwater increases.
15. Land use and urbanisation
16. •shape-for rapid drainage the shape will be circular. A long narrow basin will mean it takes longer to reach the river•size-smaller basins water takes less time to drain so shorter lag time •rock type-impermeable rocks have greater surface runoff increasing discharge •soil and vegetation-plants take up water impacting through flow and discharge •relief-steeper basins have quicker drainage

Question 10

1. What are the 2 main deficits to the hydrological cycle?
2. What are droughts?
3. What are 4 causes of drought?
4. What is El Niño?
5. What is La Niña?

Answer 10

1. Droughts and human activity
2. Long periods of time without precipitation
3. Meteorological causes are precipitation deficits, ENSO cycles, anticyclones- where air does not rise so no condensation, changes in the ITCZ.
4. Reverse of walkers cells where high pressure accumulates above Australia, causing droughts, whilst South America becomes a low pressure centre at risk of flooding
5. Intensification of walkers cells where Australia has a low pressure system and South America has drought due to high pressure.

Question 11

6. Explain an example of an El Niño event

- what were the impacts?

Answer 11

6. In 2006 southern Australia had extremely low rainfall causing River Murray to dry up, reducing food production, social well-being and water supply for locals. Drought caused by El Niño and poor human management over water sources. 6 million sheep died and thousands migrated away from Murray Basin.

Question 12

7. What do surpluses to the hydrological cycle cause?
8. What increases flood risk? (2)
9. Provide an example of flooding
10. Provide an area prone to drought and an areas prone to flooding

Answer 12

7. Flooding
8. Human actions -Urbanisation and deforestation increasing impermeable surfaces creating more surface runoff. Poor management and hard engineering of rivers.
9. Carlisle flooding in 2005 saw 2 months of rainfall drop in 24 hours, killing 3 people and flooding 2700 homes. Cost was over £400 million destroying businesses and employment.
10. Bangladesh prone to flooding and Sahel in Africa prone to drought

Question 13

11. How does climate change/warming impact on the water cycle processes? (5)

Answer 13

11. • increased greenhouse gas in atmosphere-increased climate warming heats land and sea •increase in world temperatures •increase in evaporation causing droughts •enhanced precipitation rates and runoff causing flooding•changes in size of systems, duration and distribution.

Question 14

1. What is water stress?
2. What is water scarcity?
3. What are the 3 factors that create water insecurity?
4. What are water conflicts?
5. Provide 6 examples of water conflicts

Answer 14

1. When each person has below 1700m3 of water
2. When freshwater shortages threaten food production and wellbeing- below 1000m3 of water per person.
3. Diminishing supply, rising demand and competing demands from users
4. When demand overtakes available supply and stakeholders are desperate for water
5. Coca Cola, Israel, turkeys GAP, Colorado River, Aral Sea, River Nile

Question 15

CASE STUDIES

6. Why is there conflict with Coca Cola?

Answer 15

6. Industrial water pollution - in Kerala there was conflict between locals and Coca Cola after allegations were made that Coca Cola stole local water sources for coke production.

Question 16

7. What is the Aral Sea?
8. Explain the 2 major stakeholder causes
9. Explain 2 stakeholders that have been negatively impacted
10. Explain 2 stakeholders that have benefited

Answer 16

7. In Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan Central Asia - once the 4th largest inland sea. Been shrinking since 1960. By 2007 declined to 10% of its original size and split into separate lakes because of poor management and over abstraction.
8. Kazakhstan farmers brought water table to surface polluting water. Water engineers built irrigation schemes poorly, allowing water to leak and evaporate. Karakum canal allows up to 75% of its water to go to waste.
9. Fishing community collapsed which used to employ 60,000 people. Heath problems for locals caused by polluted drinking water - creating highest infant mortality rate in the world 10% of children dying in first year.
10. Uzbekistan government allowed poor county to become the largest exporters of cotton. Former soviet government leasers began an irrigation scheme to develop cotton farming and created millions of jobs.

Question 17

11. Why is Turkeys GAP project a source of water conflict?

Answer 17

11. Aim is to address drought in the Middle East, with 32 dams, 19 HEP plants producing 22% of Turkeys energy. Dam over Tigris River affects Syria and Iraq. Syria gets 100% of its water from the rivers. Turkey have full control over water supply for both counties, which has been released to help Syria but not Iraq. Irrigation of the Tigris river creates conflict between the transboundary countries.

Question 18

WATER MANAGEMENT

1. Name 2 hard engineering water management schemes
2. Provide an example of a desalination plant
3. What are the 4 aims of sustainable water management?
4. Name 4 sustainable water management methods (water conservation)

Answer 18

1. Mega dams and desalination.
2. Israel developed 5 plants at £400 million each - costly and take time to build requiring specialist expertise.
3. •minimise pollution of water resources •ensure there is access to safe water for all people at an affordable price •take into account all views of water users •equally distribute water between counties
4. Smart irrigation, hydroponics, recycling grey water, rainwater harvesting

Question 19

5. Why is water conservation more sustainable than desalination?
6. What are hydroponics?
7. Provide a country that is a top priority for water management. Why is this?
8. Provide 3 management strategies Singapore has introduced

Answer 19

5. Using resources that are already there - no chemicals needed. Collecting rain falling onto roofs and limiting tap usage.
6. Growing crops in greenhouses that are co2 and temperature controlled and fed water - no soil involved
7. Singapore 🇸🇬 - high per capita consumption of water, high standard of living and thriving economy
8. Collect every drop of water-government encourages citizens to use water efficiently, reuse water using technologies, desalinate more saltwater-2 desalination plants now meet 25% of water demand

Question 20

9. Why is water conservation more sustainable than drilling groundwater? (5)

Answer 20

9. •cheaper option -groundwater extraction requires complex technologies •no new infrastructure needed •recycling rainwater is beneficial to agriculture-environmental benefits •decreases waste discharge and reduces pollution •drilling can create sinkholes and cracking in ground, impacting buildings in Mexico City for example.

Question 21

CASE STUDY - China’s north south transfer project

10. Why and when did this project begin?
11. What does this project involve? (2)
12. Explain the scale of the hard engineering in this scheme.
13. What are the critics concerns with the project?

Answer 21

10. In 2003 because south of china is rich in water resources but the north isn’t. Expected to take 50 years costing $100 billion.
11. Building 3 canals across eastern and western parts of China linking to the countries 4 major rivers: Yangtze, Yellow, Huai and Hai.
    •water conservation, pollution treatment and environmental protection are included in the plans.
12. It will transfer 45 billion metric tonnes of water per year. Central government will provide 60% of the cost with the rest coming from local governments.
13. The likelihood of ecological and environmental impacts, including resettlement issues and worsening water quality. The Yangtze River is heavily polluted and the Yellow river is undrinkable.
    Could this lead to an ecological disaster???