Paper 1 case studies

• Where is the three gorges dam located?

  yangtze river, china
• how big is the three gorges dam?

  2km long 100m high
• What did the three gorges dam create behind it?

  large lake spanning 600km
• How many people live in the Yangtze basin?

  400 million
• The Yangtze basin provides 66% of chinas rice
• the benefits of the three gorges dam are that it protects 10 million downstream from floods, generates HEP, promotes shipping and tourism and ensures a downstream water supply
• The negatives of the three gorges dam are that is disrupts aquatic ecosystems, taps silt reducing channel capacity, displaced 1.25 million people, was very expensive and is earthquake/landslide prone
• Israel needed desalination due to water scarcity from limited rainfall in winter only that only fell in the north requiring piplines leading to 10 years of drought and the dead sea drying up
• Israel initially fixed their drought by promoting water recycling and beginning desalination schemes
• Israel built five desalination stations and get 55% of domestic water from them
• The U.K.’s energy mix consist of 40% gas 30% oil 15% coal and 9% nuclear
• Norway energy mix consists of 40% hydroelectric power 30% oil 20% gas and 5% biomass
• Norway can produce hydroelectric power due to their mountainous landscape
• Norway have a high GDP per capita at around £100,000
• Norway prevents foreign companies from owning their energy sources and their taxes go towards funding renewable energy
• Norway are committed to a 40% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030
• The UK rely on north Sea gas and oil since they can’t mine the Yorkshire coal reserves because they don’t have the technology
• The UK have a GDP per capita of 33,000 meaning they have less access to expensive extraction of fossil fuels
• The UK backed out of the greene deal and want both more wind and nuclear energy
• Due to the industrial revolution the UK faced a forest loss from 80% to less than 10%
• The forestry commission are planning on planting conifers in Wales the Highlands and the Lake District to remedy the shortage of timber
• Today the UK has 13% forest cover
• The Amazon had three droughts in 2005 2010 and 2015 that degraded the forest making it more vulnerable to wildfires
• The Amazon act as a climate regulator by pumping 20,000,000,000 tons of water into the atmosphere daily using respiration
• Amazon Amazon droughts causing it to become less of a carbon store since it’s sequesters less carbon leading to the enhanced greenhouse effect
• The Tar sands is an unconventional fossil fuel located in Alberta, Canada that produces bitumen
• the tar sands positives is that they offer the USA energy security and create 600,000 jobs
• The Tar sands negatives is that it leads to chemicals polluting groundwater aquifers and drinking water as well as damaging habitats and leading to deforestation
• The tar sands produces 1.8 million tons of waste water per day
• Eyjafjallajokull occurred in March 2010 in South Iceland and had a volcanic explicit index value of 4
• Eyjafjallajokull was caused by a constructive plate boundary
• Residents were prepared for the volcano since they had text sent to them 30 minutes before which warned them and there was also one signs of a minor eruption and shallow earthquakes
• The positive impacts were that zero people died, and no trade meant that local businesses were used more often, lack of air travel lent to less CO2 emissions, and ash acted as a natural fertiliser for plants
• The negative impacts with Europe lost 2.6 billion, no trade or fishing could occur, The ash led to contaminated water and respiratory issues, and 10 million passengers of travel were affected.
• Immediate response consisted of Red Cross aid, 700 locals being evacuated, and 100,000 flights being cancelled
• Long-term response consist of structures developed to avoid it in the future and rebuilding a riverbanks to prevent jokulhaups
• The rate of loss of Arctic ice has increased by 57% since 1990
• Arctic ice is important since it regulates evaporation and precipitation and acts as a carbon store
• The positives of Arctic ice melting is it opens up areas for tourism as well as trade routes and makes arctic oil accessible
• The negatives of Arctic ice melting are that trapped, dioxide is released and the albedo effect decreases meaning that surface temperature is increase