Water security Flashcards
What is a water store?
Anything that stores water i.e. ice caps.
What is a flow?
Transport of water i.e. percolation, or flux
What are aquifers and cryosphere’s?
Cryosphere’s include glaciers, where as aquifers include under ground water store.
What is a drainage basin?
Watersheds where water and rain comes from.
What are 3 types of inputs precipitation?
Orographic- clouds condense over mountains
Frontal- clouds meet and condense
Convectional- radiation causes clouds to condense
What are 3 outputs?
Evaporation, transpiration and channel flow
What is cryosphere?
Regions on Earth where the water is frozen.
What is the biosphere?
Regions on Earth where living beings stay.
What is the difference between ground and surface water?
ground water is pure, whilst surface water has salt
What is an open system?
Water from other sources can enter or leave the system, same water is not recycled.
what is the hydrological cycle and drainage basin?
hydrological cycle is the water cycle, while drainage basin allows water to travel towards the sea i.e. drains water to sea.
what are inputs?
precipitation
Define interception.
precipitation that does not reach soil therefore is absorbed by leaves.
Define infiltration.
when water on surface of ground enters soil
Define overland flow/ surface run off?
when excess water doesn’t allow infiltration
Define through flow.
water flow within soil, occurs during flooding etc.
Define ground water flow.
water enters soil then travels to the sea or river where its deposited
Define percolation.
water movement through porous substances i.e permeable rock.
what are outputs?
Evaporation, transpiration, evapotranspiration and channel flow; flow of liquid through a channel.
What is a relief rainfall?
This occurs near mountains that are near the sea. wind from the sea blows towards mountains, due to height of mountains the wind has to rise forming clouds creating rain.
What is frontal rain and where does this usually occur?
This is when cold and warm air meet resulting in rain, meeting point is usually 60 degrees north i.e England
What is convectional rainfall?
Sun heats the less dense ground and more dense sea, hot air rises and cools condensing creating rain.
What is the relevance of Cherrapungi?
This is the wettest place on Earth where floods occur, trees form bridges which grow stronger with age. Rainfall is great due to it being surrounded by ocean.
If water gets accumulated in one area what can this lead to?
waterlog
Define water budget.
Amount of water available for us.
Define fossil water.
Water that can never be replenished. This is non renewable.
Explain positive and negative runoff.
p- this is when there is an increase in runoff
n- this is when there is a decrease in runoff
Define residence time.
How long a body of water will retain that water, how long will that water be available before it is not.
Name 5 drainage basins.
Climate- influences precipitation and evaporation
vegetation- redistributes soil moisture back into soil
relief- altitude impacts percolation
soil- allows infiltration and flow through
geology- causes percolation and groundwater flow
Name the 2 tributaries of the Nile river.
The white Nile which has light coloured clay and blue Nile, which has volcanic silts.
What is a confined and unconfined aquifer?
Confined aquifer is when water cannot flow away due to lack of porous rocks but cannot be restored either, unconfined is when water can be replenished.
How can humans affect the drainage basins?
Deforestation, water abstractions and changing land use can all disrupt water processes.
what is El Niño, La Nina and normal conditions?
normal conditions- trade winds blow east to west, warm waters from SA to A, A experiences rain while SA is dry
El Nino- Trade winds blow west to east, warm water to SA from A, ocean heats up, rainfall in SA and drought in A
LA Nina- Trade winds blow east to west, stronger blow warm water SA to A, resulting in even more rain and drought.
Define river regime.
Annual variation in discharge at a particular point.
What is a complex river regime?
River with many tributaries that flow in many environments, This regime has more than 1 peak in annual discharge. factors such as climate, soil and geology have an effect on river regimes.
