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The Thames River Basin Is A Catchment Of The River Thames Essay

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Introduction The Thames River Basin is a catchment of the River Thames. Located in the southwest of England, it stretches from the river’s source in Gloucester to the North Sea (Environment Agency, 2009). Much of the basin is heavily urbanized, with over 12 million people living within the boundaries of the basin (Borgomeo, Pflug, Hall, & Hochrainer-Stigler, 2015). This is nearly 25% of the population of England and Wales living on only 10% of the land. Additionally, the southeast is the driest part of the country. The average rainfall within the basin is 690 mm per year – over 200 mm less than the national average. Of that, only about 250 mm of precipitation makes it into the water system, with the rest being lost to evapotranspiration (Environment Agency, 2014). The basin sits atop the Chalk aquifer, which is the largest aquifer in Britain (Birks, Owen, & Arkell, 2001). Together with water from the Thames, water from the Chalk aquifer makes up the bulk of the water resources utilized for the London WRZ (Borgomeo et al., 2015). Abstraction from the aquifer in the nineteenth and early 20th centuries led to aquifer depletion, with a drop of 90 meters at the lowest point. However, this trend reversed in the mid-40s after abstraction was scaled back and as of the early 2000s the aquifer was seeing recharge at a rate of up to 2.5 meters per year (Birks et al., 2001). Water service in England and Wales is privatized, though legally water companies may not discontinue service

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