The Degradation Of Arid Areas

The consumption of water has been increasing in the last few decades. Most of the demand is caused by agricultural activities (BBC Features). Water needed for industrial purposes also drives up the demand. The world can learn about ways of conserving water from the countries that have initiated the measures and have become successful at it. Australia is considered as the most successful so far. Recycling, desalination, and harvesting rainwater are some of the solutions that can be applied to handle water shortages and create

The article “Down go the dams” by Jane C.Marks aim to provide an informative view on the current pending issue on Dams. The article starts out my mentioning the important nature of dams in our society. For example, Jane C.Marks states that today about 800,000 dams operate worldwide as well as the fact that most were built in the past century, primarily after World War II. Furthermore, the author lays down informative facts about dams such as the fact that dams control flooding and their reservoirs provide a reliable supply of water for irrigation, drinking and recreation which are all very important to society. In an economic standpoint, although it is very high maintenance dams provide jobs for people. The

The Three Gorges Dam is an unfinished project which will be the largest dam ever constructed on the planet Earth. It is situated in China on the third largest river in the world – the Yangtze. The dam has been debated over since the 1919 and is still a hot topic of debate because of its many pros and cons. In 1994 construction began on the dam, and it is expected to be finished by the year 2009. The massive dimensions of the dam are mind boggling and its functions – if the dam actually works – are truly remarkable; however, with such a large structure also comes difficulties, sacrifices, and cynics. The goal of this essay is to lend an understanding of the dam itself, the prospective benefits of

Dam projects can serve many purposes. They compensate for varying amounts of water that nature may send down a river at a given time, or they may serve as a resource to generate hydropower for the local population. The construction of these complicated feats of engineering is an expensive, time consuming task. For whatever reason a dam is built, it will almost always pay for itself in the energy it produces or

Hydroelectric dams as energy sources have many advantages; they provide a renewable energy source, it can take the place of fossil fuel usages, and while being built dams can significantly help jobs in the development industry (Perlman). However, these dams are extremely costly, not just economically but environmentally and socially as well. These costs can be demonstrated by looking at the consequences of other dams. Three Gorges in China: release of methane gases, deforestation, water pollution, ecosystem disruption. Glen Canyon Dam: sedimentation, endangerment and extinction of species endemic to the area, poor water quality, crippling of ecosystems downstream—and these are just the environmental impacts! All of these

The real question here however is why these dams were installed. Well you see, it all goes back to the Gold Rush. Most accounts of the environmental damage caused by the Gold Rush focus on the direct effects of mining. During the gold rush, many farmers saw the open opportunity to take advantage of miners that had traveled from across the world. They increased the value of their food to outrageous prices.

The thirst for water has lead individuals and organizations to build dams across rivers at an alarming rate. During the early 1900s dams were being built so fast it was no longer big news when a dam was completed. These structures provided controlled irrigation water and hydroelectric power to the communities not only close to the reservoirs and dams, but also provided irrigation water and hydroelectric power to communities many miles away from the river. Negatively blocking the flow of the river has impacted fish ecosystems, increased evaporation of water, and flooded intricately important landscapes. These negative impacts, it can be argued, affect the humans living downstream or within the flood plain of the dam site. Dams

As Australia has a lot of land used for agricultural purposes, we are one of the greatest exporters in the world. This means a lot of the world depends on us for food but when we only have 472mm of water a year, the lowest of all the continents ( except Antartica ) we can find it hard to irrigate our crops at time. With 80% of Australians de-hydrating everyday, some because they don’t care about drinking water but many others as they don’t have the fresh water to drink, if we cannot supply enough water to drink wear are we meant to get the water to irrigate plants? Water scarcity has had a dramatic effect on our ability to grow crops, making it hard to grow crops for not only our country to eat but all the other countries we export food

The current official population of Gold Coast City in June 2015 was about 556.000. And as the population grows, there is also more water needed as a water supplies. Beside the usage of drinking water, we need water for a lot more reasons like laundry and cleaning, toilets, showers and baths, faucets, irrigation and agriculture. If we don’t want to run out of water, there is need of more water sources building another dam in the Gold Coast Hinterland or building a new Desalination Plant in the northern area of the Gold Coast (SEQ Water, 2016).

Australia has a big agricultural industry so many people live in rural areas where there are no pipes connected to the houses there. An alternative to find water is through rainwater tanks, storm water harvesting and farm dams. It would take longer for the water to come than

Globle warming is increasing the possibility of a droughts and floods. Australia has faced harsh droughts and floods before that have created issues for Australia’s agriculture, environment and urban waters. Victoria needs to be prepared for all circumstances and has a dependable and functional water system. By having a reliable water system, it allows people to feel safe to create new industries and businesses in

In the water sector, which is a special concern for this research, it is predicted that the water supply conditions in all regions and sectors in the world are likely

Water is the fundamental asset to bolster all shape life on earth. Shockingly it is not equally disseminated over the world via season or area. All through the historical backdrop of the world dams and stores have been developed with a specific end goal to anticipate surges, to supply drinking and

Desertification is the degradation of land and soil in dryland ecosystems caused by both the climate and human activities. In the year 2000, one third of the population of the earth dwelled in dryland ecosystems, and drylands are 41% of world’s land. The effect of desertification is massive because of the amount of people that live in affected areas. Drylands facilitate 44% of the food production in the world and 50% of livestock, so these ecosystems are a very important source of resources. 2.6 billion people depend of the food developed in drylands and many of those people have jobs making the food. 52% of the land is being affected in some way by degradation because it removes the moisture that is needed to grow or herd food. Around 800 million people are going hungry and around 80% of these people are small land owners or they do not own any land and are very poor. This means that those small land owners might not have any land in the end because of the deterioration of healthy soil. Land degradation also effects water quantity and quality. Clean water is one of the most important resources in the world, and desertification eliminates that resource. 74% of those in poverty are directly affected by land degradation. 10-20% of drylands are degraded already. The places most effected by desertification are sub-Saharan and Central Asia drylands. Desertification occurs for various reasons. It can come from a failure to balance how much the ecosystem can give as

Desertification is a term few people recognize and even fewer are concerned about. This paper will cover what desertification is along with why it is a global crisis, what the root causes of desertification are, what can be done to reverse the harm full desertification process, it will also cover how farmers can work together to prevent future desertification.