Resource Management

• Solar energy:

  • Advantage: renewable
  • Disadvantage: only produces electricity when there is sunlight
• Hydroelectric energy:

  • Advantages: renewable; more reliable than wind / solar
  • Disadvantages: dams may change the paths of rivers, which can disrupt homes
• Wind energy:

  • Advantages: renewable
  • Disadvantages: unreliable; only produces power when wind blows
• Nuclear energy:

  • Advantages: no greenhouse gas emissions; reliable
  • Disadvantages: nuclear waste has a very long half-life
• Fossil fuels:

  • Advantages: reliable
  • Disadvantages: not renewable; inefficient; contributes to global warming
• Ways of conserving energy:

  • Designing homes
  • Demand reduction
  • Increasing efficiency of fossil fuels
  • Sustainable transport
• A third of the world's population struggle with malnutrition
• 300,000 women die in childbirth due to malnutrition
• Wealthy countries spend $750 billion on food waste disposal
• 1 in 9 people can't have enough food to lead productive lives
• 60% of those who are in hunger are females
• Wealthy countries spend five times more money on waste over aid
• Agribusiness: intensive farming aimed to maximise food produced, usually have high levels of chemicals and technology used
• Organic produce: produce grown without the use of chemicals
• Water surplus: an area with more water available than demand
• Water treatment process:

  • collecting rain
  • storing the water
  • screening the water
  • removing particles
  • removing bacteria
  • transferring water to customers
• Water treatment process:

  • collecting rain
  • storing the water
  • screening the water
  • removing particles
  • removing bacteria
  • transferring water to customers
• Sources of river pollution are:

  • livestock
  • urban runoff
  • combustion (cars)
• Sources of groundwater pollution:

  • fertiliser
  • septic tanks
• Agricultural pollution is caused by:

  • milk spillages
  • manure spillages
  • silage spillages
• Effects of agricultural pollution:

  • bacteria can remove oxygen from water - killing fish
  • bacteria already present can multiply
• SUDS stands for sustainable urban drainage systems
• SUDS allows water to seep into the ground at its source
• Belfast project:

  • £130 million investment
  • repair sewage networks
  • additional drainage tunnel constructed to increase storm water capacity
• Water Resources Act:

  • no poisonous, noxious or polluting matter
  • no solid waste matter to enter aquifers, rivers or the sea
• Water security: having enough clean water to sustain well-being; good health; and economic developments
• 80% of available water is used every year
• Less than 1700mm of water available to a person per year is considered water stress
• Places in water deficit are located close to the equator, due to the extreme heat
• Places further away from the equator are more likely to be in water surplus due to the wet and colder climate
• Why is water consumption increasing?

  • Economic: 40% of big countries will be middle class by 2030 - this increases demand due to more money to spend on appliances, and the increase of factories
  • Population growth: by 2050, population is estimated to reach 9.3 billion so demand increases so there is more people to supply for.
  • Global demand for food: expected to increase by 70% by 2050, so water stress increases as more water is needed to grow crops
  • Urbanisation increase: more people to supply for, more facilities needed (sewers; sanitation; factories)
• Factors which affect groundwater:

  • geology (physical)
  • climate (physical)
  • over-abstraction (human)
  • pollution (human)
  • poverty (human)
  • limited infrastructure (human)
• Fracking: injecting liquid into rocks underground to extract gas
• Decommissioning: making a nuclear reactor inoperative and safe
• Issues with fossil fuels:

  • Economic: finite amount
  • Environmental: greenhouse gases; coal mines cause landscape destruction; oil spillages
• Fracking process:

  1. drill deep underground when we find reserves of gas
  2. mixture of water/clay/sand/chemicals are injected into cracks at extremely high pressure
  3. this releases gas from the rocks and makes it available for collection
• Fracking issues:

  • may cause earthquakes
  • pollution of groundwater resources
  • high extraction cost
  • increase water use - increases water stress
  • hard to dispose of the liquid used
• Nuclear energy issues:

  • Environmental:
  • harmful radioactive leaks
  • warm waste water can harm ecosystems
  • safe processing and storing nuclear waste is a problem
  • Economic:
  • high cost for releasing electricity
  • expensive to build power plants
  • decommissioning old power plants is lengthy and expensive
• Wind farm issues:

  • Environmental:
  • noisy
  • visual impact
  • construction of access roads
  • Economic:
  • high costs
  • reducing tourist numbers
• Hornsea wind farm:

  • 165 turbines
  • turbine blades are 81 metres long
  • sales job opportunities have increased