The Water Cycle

• Benefits of water conservation & management


  - ensures supplies for the future

  - countries with strong gov water conservation can be strongly promoted. (This meaning that population and gov has access to clean water therefore promoting health and economic benefits).
• Water conservation


  is the practice of using water efficiently to reduce unnecessary water usage.
• Costs of land use planning & flood management

  - Reduced housing capacity: overcrowding

  - public don't want to get on board

  - Doesn't work in already settled areas
• What are the 4 physical causes of flooding

  - low pressure systems/ depressions

  - Tropical storms/ hurricanes

  - Monsoons

  - Glacial/ snow melt
• What does it mean if theres a transversal climatic zone in the Sahel?


  - Rainfall only in the summer
• What is the water poverty index & it's 5 components

  - Is a tool to determine many indicators that relate to water resources sustainability and their impacts on people.

  - It has a purpose of monitoring process and priotorising water needs.

  
  

  1) water resource

  2) Access to water

  3) Handling capacity

  4) Environmental indicators

  5) usage of water
• What are teleconnections?


  They are casual connections or correlations between meteorological or environmental phenomena that occurs a long distance apart.
• How much of the total global water is freshwater?

  2.5%
• What are the impacts of drought in the Sahel? (3 points)

  - Famine (food scarcity)

  - crops and animals die

  - Soil erosion due to vegetation loss
• What is the impact of the River Niles History?

  - Unfair allocations of the Niles water

  - !959 2nd Nile Water agreement gave nearly all water to Egypt and Sudan.
• How do humans disrupt the drainage basin? (7 points)

  - Urbanisation

  - Farming & irrigation

  - Dam construction

  - abstraction (over)

  - River defences

  - Pollution
• How does pollution cause drought?

  Pollute air there are more and smaller drops of water formed. The droplets float in the air and are slow to coalesce (come together as one) into rain drops. With small amounts of moisture, most cloud drops never become large enough for efficient perception which therefore is why rainfall in reduced causing increase risk in droughts.
• What is frontal rainfall?

  Occurs as a result of the meeting of two different air masses (warm front meets a cold front) with significantly different characteristics. The lighter, warmer air is forced to rise up above the the heavier cold air which sinks to the ground. As a result, the warmer and less dense air rises and then condenses to form rainfall.
• How does glacial/ snow melt cause flooding?

  - In winter mountains gather snowfall to a large depth. (Stored in the ice caps).

  - In spring increases in temperature causes the ice to melt/ thaw rapidly causing increased surface run off and decrease infiltration.

  - Ground below may be impermeable so unable to infiltrate and store water. This is known as perma frost.

  - Surface runoff increases.
• How much freshwater does the cryosphere store?

  - Holds 69% of global freshwater.
• How much freshwater does groundwater store?

  - Holds 30%.
• How much freshwater is stored in the biosphere?

  Less than 1% (vegetation and soil moisture).
• How much do rivers make up of total water?

  0.007%.
• How much does river make up for fresh surface water?

  0.49%.
• Why are wetland ecosystems important? (5 points)

  They are important because:

  - They store carbon (between 20-30%)

  - Nutrient cycling (providing nutrients to the environment)

  - Flood control (they absorb a significant amount of water and temporary store it).

  - Valuable resource during drought periods as water can be extracted and be utilised.

  - Peat (This is because peat has a net cooling effect on climate so therefore can act as a storage of carbon, flood defence and support biodiversity).
• what does the term peat refer to?

  refers to a spongy material formed by the partial decomposition of organic matter, primarily plant material, in wetlands such as swamps, muskegs, bogs, fens, and moors.
• How do monsoons cause flooding?

  - Subtropical areas have a wet season, more wet where land areas are found between maintains and warm oceans

  - Torrential rainfall descends onto hard, dry and impermeable surfaces increasing the risk of flooding as there is increased surface runoff and decreased infiltration.

  - Saturated ground contribute to flood risks.
• What are monsoons?


  - They are seasonal changes in the direction of the prevailing winds of a region.

  - They cause wet and dry seasons in much of the tropics (often within the Indian ocean).

  - 60% of the world's population live in monsoon climates with wet and dry seasons.

  - Sub-tropical areas have a wet season, they are really wet seasons between mountains and warm oceans (Indian ocean).
• How will climate change lead to droughts?

  -Reduction in inputs (such as perception patterns).

  - Decreased levels of water stored in soil, rivers and lakes.

  - Increase in the importance of ground water flow (abstraction and irrigation).

  - Cause initial high rates of evaporation.
• What are the 3 dimensions to water scarcity identified by FAO?

  - Availability

  - Access

  - Utilisation
• What does FAO stand for and what are there goals?


  - Food and Agriculture Organization.

  - Their goal is to achieve food security for all and ensure that people have a regular access to enough high- quality food to lead healthy and active lives.
• What does the water budget mean?

  - Is the annual balance between precipitation, evapotranspiration and runoff. The annual balance between the inputs and outputs.
• What is the precipitation equation?


  - Precipitation = channel discharge + evapotranspiration + change in storage.
• What is the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO Cycle)?

  - The ENSO cycle takes places every 3-5 years where trade winds weaken across the South Pacific ocean. This causes warmer water to move to South America Coastline, where low pressure occurs and causes large increases in rainfall, promoting the increase in flooding.

  - During the ENSO cycle, Australia experiences cooler than normal ocean temperatures and is subject to high pressure cause little rainfall and promoting potential drought risk.
• What is socio-economic drought?

  -This is where water demand for social and economic purpose exceeds water availability which is caused by a lack of precipitation or human overuse of water (e.g: over- abstraction).
• What is water scarcity?


  - Lack of adequate quantities of water for human and environmental use.

  - Additionally, where renewable water resources are between 500- 1000 m^3/ capita.
• Why are future projections of climate change complex?

  - Because climate change causes uncertainties.

  - There are multiple causes of climate change.

  - Long term data on climate is limited resulting in analysis being difficult.

  - Insufficient understanding of the teleconnections between earth systems.
• How much of the global population live in areas of water scarcity?

  20%.
• What is a Jokulhaup?

  - Type of glacial outburst flood which occurs when the natural dam containing a glacial lake falls. (e.g: E15).
• What does the huge variability in rainfall mean in the Sahel mean?

  - It means that warm sea surface temperatures favour strong convectional uplift over the ocean and weakens west African Monsoons.
• What is orographic rainfall?

  - Occurs when moist air moves over a mountain range. This creates a rain shadow of dry descending air.

  
• How do tropical storms/ hurricanes cause flooding?

  - They bring high amounts of rainfall in a short period of time which can increase the risk of flash-floods.

  - The rainfall is intense and doesn't have time to infiltrate so surface run off is increased and is rapid.
• What is the Sahel a case study for?

  - Drought
• what is climate of the Sahel?

  - It is a semi- arid region which consists of a hot and dry climate with little precipitation rates.
• What is the River Nile a case study for?

  - Water scarcity and conflict.