1) List the main reasons for water scarcity. The main reasons are hot deserts and low rainfall. Low rainfall, variations in climate, land degradations, population growth and water pollution.
2) What is a drought? What type of hardships do you think that a drought could cause if you were living in a village in a poor country such as Ethiopia. A drought is a period below average precipitation. A drought is when there is little or no rainfall and water scarcity in a large area. Hardships would be problems with washing and quenching thirst.
3) How does land degradation affect the supply of fresh water? It stops infiltration and creates run-off, thus transforming more fresh water from rain into salt water in the ocean.
4. a) What is El Nio? The strong winds that occur when the wind reverses over the Pacific.
b) Why does El Nino often cause drought in Australia? Wind blows away storm clouds and water vaper in the air from Australia.
5) Observe the map showing the global effects of El Nino in 1982-83.
a) What effects does El Nino have on the availability of fresh water? El Nino takes away a lot of water from south east asia and Tasmania.
b) Name the countries and describe the problems that arose from decreased rainfall caused by El Nino. Indonesia; more air pollution and forest fires, Philippines; drought, Papua; drought and famine, Australia; drought.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
water treatment plant
On November 5th, all the Q module went to the water treatment plant for a field trip. There we had a quick tour around the treatment plant, and learned they cleaned the water. Then, we watched a movie about the steps.
1. The first step was taking out all the floating garbage in the water. Often garbages like plastic bags and diapers flow in with the water, and they need to be removed. There are big iron gate-like fences, which lets the water flow in, but not the garbage. It hooks the garbage, removing it from the water.
2. The second step was adding minerals and oxygenating, once the garbage was removed. This was done for aeration, letting some oxygen mix with the water. Adding good and healthy minerals for us was also done in the second step.
3. The third step was adding chemicals, which also included allum. Allum was put in, and all the big pieces of dirt floated upwards, making a hay-and-water sort of gooey mixture called floc. It was the first step of removing dirt from the water, and to clean it.
4. The fourth step was taking out the floc. A lot of people just think floc as a waste and throw them away, but the water treatment send the floc to a waste tower, where they make a paste using the floc. The paste is used to build houses and stuff. So, the water treatment plant was being nature-friendly!
5. The fifth step was filtration and disinfection. The remaining water passed through a layer of very fine sand for last removal of any dirt left, and then more chemicals were added for disinfection for one more time. This was part was one of the most important step, because they had to make sure the water was clean.
I had a pretty fun time at the water treatment plant. It was really cool how they transformed the murky, dirty brown water to a perfectly drinkable water. I never knew this much steps were done for my shower water and stuff. I think I'm really lucky to get all this clean water quickly, whenever I want it.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Water Activites
1.What percentage of the world's supply of water is fresh water?2.5 % of the world's water supply is fresh water.
2.Where is the world's supply of fresh water found? The world's supply of fresh water is in ice, underground, soil, rivers and lakes.
3.Even though the supply of fresh water is abundant it is sitll a problem. Why? The reasons water is abundant and is still a problem is because the people and the water on earth is not evenly spaced out.
4.Observe the map of world average annual precipitation. A: Describe the changes in rainfall that occur as you move from the southern to the northern tip of africa?If you start at the southern tip of Africa the annual precipitation is different, but if you were looking at Africa from the West to the East at the Northern tip the West gets less rainfall than the East. As you move up the rain becomes more, then at half way it goes the opposite.
B: Describe the changes in rainfall that occur as you move from the western tip of Australia along the Tropic of Capricorn. At the East the annual precipitation is at 1000-1500 (mm), and as you move to the West the annual precipitation goes down.
5.Observe the map above of water availability per person. A: Which parts of the world appear to have a large amount of water available per person? The Northern part of South America, the Northern part of North America, the Northern and Western part of Australia, the Northern part of Asia, the Western part of Africa, and the Northern part of Europe are are the places that appear to have a large amounts of water per person.
B: Which parts of the world appear to have a small amount of water per person? The northeastern part of North America, the Southern part of Asia, the Southern part of Australia, the Northern part of Africa, and the Southern part of Europe are the places that appear to have a small amount of water per person.
6.Observe the diagram of water use. A: What are the main uses of water?The main uses for water are Agricultural and Industrial.
B: Which uses have increased the most over the last century? The uses of water that have increased in the last century are Reservoir losses from evaporation and seepage and Community.
2.Where is the world's supply of fresh water found? The world's supply of fresh water is in ice, underground, soil, rivers and lakes.
3.Even though the supply of fresh water is abundant it is sitll a problem. Why? The reasons water is abundant and is still a problem is because the people and the water on earth is not evenly spaced out.
4.Observe the map of world average annual precipitation. A: Describe the changes in rainfall that occur as you move from the southern to the northern tip of africa?If you start at the southern tip of Africa the annual precipitation is different, but if you were looking at Africa from the West to the East at the Northern tip the West gets less rainfall than the East. As you move up the rain becomes more, then at half way it goes the opposite.
B: Describe the changes in rainfall that occur as you move from the western tip of Australia along the Tropic of Capricorn. At the East the annual precipitation is at 1000-1500 (mm), and as you move to the West the annual precipitation goes down.
5.Observe the map above of water availability per person. A: Which parts of the world appear to have a large amount of water available per person? The Northern part of South America, the Northern part of North America, the Northern and Western part of Australia, the Northern part of Asia, the Western part of Africa, and the Northern part of Europe are are the places that appear to have a large amounts of water per person.
B: Which parts of the world appear to have a small amount of water per person? The northeastern part of North America, the Southern part of Asia, the Southern part of Australia, the Northern part of Africa, and the Southern part of Europe are the places that appear to have a small amount of water per person.
6.Observe the diagram of water use. A: What are the main uses of water?The main uses for water are Agricultural and Industrial.
B: Which uses have increased the most over the last century? The uses of water that have increased in the last century are Reservoir losses from evaporation and seepage and Community.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
water cycle
Evaporation:The graphic to the left shows H2O flying into the air. The H2O (or water as we shall call it) actually turns into a gas first. Water in gas form is called vapor. Vapor soars into the air, higher and higher until it is cooled.
Condensation:To the left you can see a lovely graphic of a cloud.
When water vapor is cooled it condenses and becomes a liquid again but in microscopic droplets that are light enough to float. Water then floats on air and becomes fog or clouds.
Precipitation:
A graphic of rain to the left is linked to precipitation.
When a cloud is submitted to very cold air it will rain. All of the little water droplets that were riding on the air fall to the ground as rain. If submitted to extremely cold air, water can freeze and fall to Earth as snow or hail. Also it is incorrect that rain is teardrop shape but more like spheres for small rain drops, the larger rain drops are flatten at the bottom and looks like a hamburger and the large one are parachute shape
Infiltration:
To the left is a graphic of mud. When water hits the soil as rain it can create mud. Once water hits the ground it seeps into the earth. This is called infiltration. Soon it will find its way to the sea, which is where most water is evaporated. Then the cycle starts again.
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