Coasts

• What are the hard engineering approaches to managing water supply?

  - water transfer project

  - Dams

  - Desalination projects
• What is China's North-South project?


  - drawing water from the South + supplying to North

  - help resolve water scarcity in north
• What are the advantages of China's North-South project?

  - provide more security and relief in drier north

  - more than 1/2 China's rivers vanished in the last decade
• What are the disadvantages of China's North-South project?

  - very expensive - canal construction US$80bn

  - 300,000 displaced

  - doesn't address underlying causes of water shortages in the north

  - loss of pasture land + ecosystems
• What is China's Three Gorges Dam?


  - reduce risk of flooding downstream, generate hydroelectric power

  - diversify China's energy mix from dependence on coal
• What are the advantages of China's Three Gorges Dam?

  - flood control in lower + middle regions

  - afford protection from 1 in 100 year flood saves lives in densely populated areas

  - provide 10% of China's needs - create jobs
• What are the advantages of Saudi Arabia's desalination project?

  - provides more than 300m globally with clean drinking water

  - reusable - Israel reuses 80% of its wastewater

  - cost of $25 bn
• What is Saudi Arabia's desalination project?

  - remove impurities from water

  - reduce stress on other water sources

  - helping those at most risk become water secure
• What are the advantages of Singapore's recycling of water?

  - not dependent on rainfall - making supply for stable

  - Second Water Agreement until 2061
• What are the disadvantages of China's Three Gorges Dam?

  - relocation - at least 1.2 m people

  - loss of farmland - most fertile croplands + citrus groves submerged

  - loss of cultural heritage - over 1200 sites drowned

  - increased pollution from sewage
• What are the sustainable schemes to managing water supply?

  - recycling of water

  - water and rain harvesting
• What is Singapore's recycling of water?

  - water demand of 430m gallons expected to double by 2060

  - increases catchment area for freshwater provision to 90% by 2060

  - wastewater from homes + industry collected + transferred to where water is purified cheaply
• What are the advantages of Uganda's water and rain harvesting?

  - materials used for containers/ collecting surfaces are cheap

  - construction is easy, low maintenance + costs

  - collected rainwater doesn't need treatment if a clean collection surface is used

  - encourages increased consumption = improves health

  - accessible to everyone
• What are the disadvantages of Singapore's recycling of water?

  - desalination = expensive method of supplying water + relies on energy when Singapore doesn't have a huge amount of natural resources

  - triple price of importing equiv. from Malaysia

  - demand is rising
• What is Uganda's water and rain harvesting?

  - residents trained in construction of rainwater harvesting jars

  - close to home - removing need for old people to travel long distances to access water

  - ensure areas at risk from climate change are getting water
• What are the disadvantages of Saudi Arabia's desalination project?

  - expensive - less accessible due to high costs

  - fossil fuel needed to power
• What are the disadvantages of Uganda's water and rain harvesting?

  - supplies can be contaminated easily by animal faeces

  - poorly constructed water containers can suffer from algae growth + increased risk of disease

  - illness due to improper maintenance - economic loss and pressure on healthcare systems due to disease spread
• Tropical rainforests


  - Large store of carbon

  - Amazon sequestrates 17% of terrestrial carbon

  - Brazil Nut Tree (1% of Amazon) stores 50% of all Carbon
• Positive feedback (global temperatures)


  Global warming causes ice to melt , this releases gases that were stored under the ice - these can contribute to the greenhouse effect which causes global warming
• Russian Gas to Europe

  - 3 of 4 pipelines to Europe go through Ukraine - 80%

  - Due to recent invasion Ukraine may charge higher price to cross the country or attack the pipes to ruin Russian income

  - Russia could invade and try to take control of pipes

  - 2009 - Gazprom supplying 25% Europe's needs

  - Germany did get 50% from Russia
• Canadian Tar Sands


  - Started commercial in 1967

  - Produce 40% of Canada's oil output

  - Requires strip mining, so has large environmental impacts on states like Alberta

  - Vulnerable to oil price fluctuations because extraction is expensive

  - could meet 16% N. America's needs

  - Conclin - 1/3 community living in sub-standard conditions

  - 2-5 barrels of water for every 1 barrel of oil
• Brazilian Deepwater Oil


  - Leading emerging economy (BRIC)

  - Oil reserves discovered in 2006

  - 200 km offshore

  - Risky drilling so far offshore

  - Hazardous access by ship due to rough seas

  - Rigs drill over 2,000m below surface and thousands of metres below the seabed under a thick layer of salt

  - Reservoirs contain huge amounts of toxic, flammable gases

  - Oil rigs have exploded, eg. Deepwater Horizon in Mexico, 2010

  - BP's Atlantis platform produced 200,000 barrels of oil a day
• Biofuels in Brazil


  Fuel derived from crops that can be converted into forms of ethanol and used as fuel
• Benefits of Brazilian Biofuels


  - 90% of new vehicles can be fuelled by sugar canes turned into ethanol

  - Reduction of C02 emissions

  - sugarcane based yields 370% more energy than required to produce it
• Costs of Brazilian Biofuels

  - Deforestation in order to make sense for sugar cane farms or cattle (deforestation releases C02 back into the atmosphere) - this can reverse the effects of using biofuels

  - Growing crops for non-food purposes whilst there is an increasingly hungry world

  - Eu to meet 10% target 70% of arable land used
• Benefits of Nuclear Energy

  - Does not add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere

  - Can generate a lot of energy from a small amount of material

  - not as vulnerable to fuel price changes as oil and gas

  - Hinkley Point C provide 7% energy for 60 years
• Costs of Nuclear Energy

  - Fukushima and Chernobyl events can be very destructive to people and the whole area

  - Very toxic radioactive substance with a very long half life

  - Hinkley Point C costs £22bn

  - no country has solution to nuclear waste problems
• Hydrogen Fuel Cell


  A combination of hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, heat, and water
• Benefits of Hydrogen Fuel Cells

  - Source of heat and electricity

  - Power source for electrical vehicles

  - Produces no C02 - only waster is water

  - more efficient than petrol or diesel engine
• Costs of Hydrogen Fuel Cells

  - Hydrogen is never found by itself so needs to be split up from other compounds

  - Expensive for the technology and split hydrogen up
• Ocean Acidification


  Decreasing pH of ocean waters due to absorption of excess atmospheric CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels - can lead to reefs not being able to grow
• HEP advantages


  - turbine efficiency rarely below 80%

  - cost per KW of energy lowest of all renewables

  - produces 90% of world's renewable power

  - 80 year life span

  - UK 5885 GW h/year
• HEP disadvantages


  - Uk development slowed down due to tariffs

  - requires a very specific location - suitable valley

  - most countries do not have the space
• Geothermal advantages


  - carbon free, renewable, sustainable and provides continuous uninterrupted supplu of heat

  -met majority of electricity and heat demand in Norway

  - can provide baseload energy
• Geothermal disadvantages


  - relatively low level of subsidy

  - expensive only works in some sites

  - drilling + pumping water to underground rock has been linked to seismic activity in some areas

  - two small earthquakes hit Blackpool
• Solar advantages


  - minimal maintenance required

  - easy to remove or replace

  - reliable

  - Australia world's biggest solar panel plant built in 2013
• Solar Disadvantages


  - works best in areas of over 6kwh per sq.m a day

  - costly to install

  - need large space

  - tech not available to most countries
• Wind Advantages


  - cheap once they are built

  - saves land - tall and don't interfere with land beneath

  - goof way of generating electricity in remote areas

  - 2022 Uk has 78MW floating offshore wing operational
• Wind disadvantages


  - only start operating at wind speed of 5 m/s at speed above 12 m/s risk of damage

  - only 30 - 40% efficient
• Fracking advantages


  - possibility of fracking causing rogue fractures that would allow methane gas to contaminate less than 1%

  - horizontal drilling allows wells to be drilled in several directions

  - financial benefits from selling mineral rights