A2 Geography > Water Security > Flashcards

Water Security Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the three sources of water?

A
  1. Surface water supplies: rivers, lakes, melting glaciers and reservoirs
  2. Underground stores: groundwater aquifers
  3. Seawater: after desalination
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2
Q

What are the three main components of water demand?

A
  1. Agricultural use (70%)
  2. Industrial and Commercial use (22%)
  3. Domestic/household use (8%)
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3
Q

What is Water Stress?

A

Demand for water exceeds the amount of water available during a certain period or when poor quality of water restricts its availability for human use. Less than 1,700 m3 per person per year.

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4
Q

How might water stress cause deterioration of freshwater supplies in terms of Quantity?

A

Over-abstraction

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5
Q

How might water stress cause deterioration of freshwater supplies in terms of Quality?

A

Organic pollution or eutrophication of surface water or saltwater intrusion into aquifers.
Eutrophication: excessive richness of nutrients in a lake or other body of water, frequently due to run-off from the land, which causes a dense growth of plant life.

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6
Q

What is Water Scarcity?

A

Below 1,000m3 per person of water. Assessed using population to water equation.

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7
Q

What is Water Security?

A

The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for:

  • sustaining livelihoods
  • human well-being and socioeconomic development
  • preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability
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8
Q

What is Physical Water Scarcity?

A

More than 75% of river flows are being used. So water resources cant meet the demands of the population. Nature’s provision of water is insufficient to meet population needs.

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9
Q

Where does physical scarcity occur?

A
  • Middle East & North Africa
  • Central Asia and parts of the Indian subcontinent
  • Sub-Saharan Africa has the largest number of water stressed countries of any region
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10
Q

What is Economic Water Scarcity?

A

Human and financial factors limit water use to less than 25% of river flows. Don’t have monetary means to utilise an adequate supply of water. Characterised by unequal distribution and poor infrastructure.

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11
Q

Where does Economic Water Scarcity occur?

A
  • Sub-Saharan Africa
  • South America
  • South Asia
  • Around 20% of the world’s population face shortages because their countries lack the infrastructure to supply them.
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12
Q

Where is water available/surplus?

A
  • Temperate and tropical areas
  • South America
  • North America
  • Northern Europe
  • South East Asia
  • Australasia
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13
Q

What are two reasons demand for water is rising?

A
  1. Population growth

2. Economic Development

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14
Q

Where is water demand the highest?

A

Where there is a large population e.g. USA. Where there is high industrial use e.g. Argentina (farming & mining) & Australia (high domestic use; farming)

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15
Q

How does climate affect water availability?

A

Latitude, proximity to coasts, wind direction - factors affecting rainfall levels.
Temperature of areas: high temperature > greater evaporation > loss of water
High rainfall > sewers overflow

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16
Q

How does geology affect water availability?

A
  • When water falls through permeable rock, it flows through them and can form aquifers. Water is hard to extract from these
  • When rain falls on impermeable rock, it can’t soak in so flows to rivers/lakes.
  • Some rocks contain salts and minerals that dissolve into the water
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17
Q

How does drainage affect water availability?

A

Large drainage basins cover more land so are more likely to receive a lot of rainfall, increasing water supply. The capacity of the drainage system to cope with heavy rainfall is also key as a lack of capacity to cope cna cause sewage systems to overfall.

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18
Q

What three physical factors must be considered before abstracting from rivers?

A
  1. River discharge
  2. Water quality
  3. Other uses of the river
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19
Q

What are three impacts of over abstraction from rivers?

A
  1. Reduced volume of water following abstraction concentrates pollutants, alters downstream ecosystems
  2. Decreased velocity and discharge will increase sedimentation downstream
  3. Reduced downstream flooding will adversely affect soil quality
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20
Q

What is an Aquifer?

A

Areas of porous rock below the Earth’s surface that is saturated with water. Source of water to surface water sources through recharge and humans.

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21
Q

Why is geology important in the formation of aquifers?

A
  • Require layer of impermeable rock below
  • Amount of water stored depends on porosity and permeability of rock
  • Sedimentary basins where different layers of permeable and impermeable rock are confined and unconfined aquifers
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22
Q

What are three impacts of over abstraction from aquifers?

A
  1. Subsidence
  2. Saltwater incursion
  3. Drying of soils and osmotic dehydration of plants
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23
Q

What are three physical factors that must be considered when locating for reservoirs?

A
  1. Topography (long narrow valley basin, low water volume, low surface area)
  2. Geology (impermeable rock, not tectonically active)
  3. Catchment area (large to increase water volume for storage)
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24
Q

What are three human factors affecting water supply?

A
  1. Increasing demand is reducing supplies
  2. Pollution of water supplies (eutrophication)
  3. Falling supply and increasing demand > price increase > inequality of access
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25
What is Water Diversion?
Changing the course of the river so it flows to a different area
26
What is Interbasin Transfer?
Transfer water from one river catchment to another (surplus to scarcity)
27
What are three positives of Water Transfer?
- Tackle localised droughts quickly/ reduces water scarcity/ inequality of access - Protection of habitats such as wetlands from water scarcity - Allows further industrial development
28
What are three negatives of Water Transfer?
- High initial investment/ running costs - Increases water stress in area diverted from - Environmental impact of transfer equipment
29
What is a named case study for Water Diversion?
Aral Sea
30
What is a named case study for Water Transfer?
South-to-North water transfer | Elan Valley, Wales to Birmingham
31
What is Water Catchment?
Collecting water for use
32
What are advantages of water catchment?
- More affordable - Can be employed in areas lacking in sufficient surface water supplies - Less environmental impacts (no need to over abstract )
33
What are the disadvantages of water catchment?
- Reliant on sufficient rainfall | - Small scale (not suitable for large scale industrial use)
34
What are the case study examples of Water Catchment?
- Bermuda: stepped roofs and rainwater collection | - Gansu Province, China: 2.97 rainwater cellars store water for domestic and agricultural use.
35
What is a Reservoir?
Large store of water (from natural river flow/rainfall)
36
What is a direct supply reservoir?
Stored water is piped directly to treatment plants for public supply
37
What are the advantages of reservoirs?
- Store surplus winter rainfall - Regulate river flow to maintain habitats - Can manage/increase water supply on a large scale - Large multipurpose reservoirs supply additional benefits: hydroelectric power, tourism industries etc
38
What are the disadvantages of reservoirs?
- Reduced flow downstream | - Flooding of large areas of land for water storage (loss of habitats)
39
What is desalination?
Removal of salts from seawater
40
What are the two main methods of desalination?
1. Reverse osmosis | 2. Distillation
41
What are the case study examples of Desalination?
- Dubai - Thames Water desalination: Beckton, East London - Israel
42
How much of Dubai's water supply is from desalination?
98.8%
43
What is an advantage of desalination?
Sea water is abundant in many areas lacking in freshwater - a solution to water scarcity
44
What are the disadvantages of desalination?
- Intensive energy usage - Brine produced (highly saline and damaging to ecosystems) - Expensive - Not applicable to land-locked countries without expensive water transfer
45
What are three strategies to reduce domestic use of water?
Technological & behavioural advances: - Showers instead of baths - Dual flush toilets; displacement bags - Water meters
46
What are three strategies to reduce agricultural use of water?
Technological advances: - Drip-feed pipes - Micro-irrigation - Soaker hoses Behavioural: - Contour ploughing - Watering in the morning to reduce evaporation losses
47
How can countries manage virtual water sustainably?
Water scarce countries export products low in virtual water and import products higher in virtual water. Therefore exploit comparative advantages in terms of water efficiency and water supplies.
48
How do land use, ecological management and afforestation affect water consumption?
- Control land use to ensure sufficient infiltration to increase longer term groundwater storage - Afforestation to increase interception/infiltration - Afforestation > increases evapotranspiration > regulates rainfall
49
What is Greywater?
Water that has been used for washing/cleaning but not been mixed with sewage. Reused for purposes where non-potable water is sufficient
50
How can recycling and greywater reduce water demand?
- Allows supply to be met without needing to extract further from groundwater etc - Using grey water increases sustainability = less groundwater abstraction needed and less intensive water treatment
51
How can leakage control and reduce water demand?
Reduces waste of water > more abstracted water reaches the consumer
52
How much water is lost due to leakages in England and Wales each day?
3.1 billion litres of water each day according to the Consumer Council for Water (CCW)
53
Evaluate the success of strategies to reduce water consumption
- Requires collective action to be successful e.g. 57% in the UK without water meters - Domestic vs Corporate- little impact of domestic strategies - Inequality of access LIC vs HIC - Importance of behavioural change alongside technological advances - Agricultural methods 70% of global water usage (expense, new tech may not be sustainable, need for education to change farming practices)
54
What are reasons water resource distribution causes geopolitical issues?
1. rapid population increase - human welfare vs economic development 2. Inequality of wealth - economic vs physical scarcity 3. Climate change responsibility > need for international governance to reduce water use 4. 200 transboundary aquifers
55
What is local water conflict?
Different users wanting a scarce resource - tends to be between different sectors.
56
What are examples of legal agreements on sharing water that have persisted through conflict on other issues?
- Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam 1957 on the Mekong River Commission throughout Vietnam war. - The Indus river commission has survived two wars between India and Pakistan
57
What are the examples of future water tech developments?
1. Osmotic Distillation and advanced membrane technology 2. Electrodialysis 3. Saltwater Greenhouse Technology 4. Solar Stills 5. Sand Dams
58
How would Osmotic Distillation and Advanced Membrane Technology improve sustainability?
Less energy intensive method of desalination reducing atmospheric impact
59
How would Electrodialysis improve sustainability?
A less energy intensive method of desalination
60
How would Saltwater Greenhouse Technology improve sustainability?
Uses solar radiation to evaporate sea water and collect condensation > method of desalination > also useful for agriculture. Can be used on a smaller scale.
61
How would Solar Stills improve sustainability?
Low cost; low energy use; small scale; suitable for use in remote locations > efficient at reducing economic scarcity
62
How would Sand Dams improve sustainability?
Constructed on seasonal rivers to trap water making it available all year round. Simple, low cost, low maintenance.
63
How do economic developments affect water supply and demand?
- Increasing economic development and standard of living > increased consumption per person > demand increases - Increased development > more able to afford efficient tech to meet demand > may increase reliability of access - Increase in water trade e.g. water shipping, virtual water trade
64
How will environmental changes affect water supply and demand?
- Climate change > water management strategies need to account for this - Need for further integrated catchment management to consider all parts of a river catchment - Increased water consumption by humans will impact aquatic ecosystems > may need management
65
How will future politics affect water supply and demand?
- Further need for cooperation - transboundary issues and wider water trade - National/international government policies aiming to reduce water demand become more widespread - Need for global governance as a source of conflict
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