Chapter 7

7.1

WATER: VITAL RESOURCES

• Water is absolutely fundamental to life as we know it.
• A total volume of 325 million cubic miles covers 71% of the Earth’s surface.
• About 97.5% is the salt water of oceans and seas.
• The remaining 2.5% makes up freshwater.
• Freshwater is water that contains less than 0.1 salt content.
• Roughly two thirds of freshwater is contained in the polar icecaps and glaciers.
• Only 0.77% of all water is found in lakes wetlands rivers groundwater biota soil
and in the atmosphere.
• Evaporation of the oceans continuously resupplies the small percentage of
freshwater through the solar-powered hydrologic cycle.
• Freshwater is the vital resource for all land ecosystems, modulating the climate
through evaporation. and essential global warming.
• Methods used to control water are dams canals aqueducts, sewer systems,
treatment plants, water towers, pipelines, irrigation systems, and desalination
plants.
• Results of water control have reduced waterborne diseases and allowed cities to
thrive in desert climates.
• Irrigation accounts for 40% of the world’s food, as well as one fifth of the world’s
electricity through hydropower.
• In the developing world 1 billion people still lack access to clean drinking water.
• 2 ½ billion still lack access to adequate water sanitation facilities, resulting in 3
million deaths per year, mostly in children under 5 due to waterborne diseases
• In addition because of the water control methods, whole seas are being lost rivers
are running dry and tens of millions of people have been displaced to make room
for reservoirs.
• Groundwater aquifers are being pumped down and disputes are being raised from
local to international levels.
• Freshwater is also a limited resource in many parts of the world.

7.2

HYDROLOGIC CYCLE, NATURAL CYCLE, HUMAN IMPACTS

• Earths water cycle is also known as the hydrologic cycle.
• The basis of this cycle consists of water rising in the atmosphere through
evaporation and transpiration.
• Transpiration is the loss of water vapor as it moves from soil to the green plants
and exists through the leaf pores.
• Water returns to the land through the processes of condensation and precipitation.
• Water vapor and liquid water are distinguished through the terms green water and
blue water.
EVAPORATION CONDENSATION AND PRECIPITATION
• At temperatures above the freezing point but below the boiling point of water, the
kinetic energy of water molecules changing so that hydrogen bonds keep
breaking and reforming.
• The result of this is liquid water.
• Evaporation occurs when energy from sunlight or an artificial source allows
molecules to break away from each other without reforming and enter the
atmosphere.
• The result of evaporation is water vapor, or water molecules in the gaseous state.
• Water vapor is a strong greenhouse gas that provides over two thirds of the total
warming.
• The amount of water vapor in the air is humidity.
• Humidity is usually measured by relative humidity, the amount of water vapor as
a percentage of what the air can hold at a particular temperature.
• Condensation is the opposite of evaporation and occurs when water molecules
rejoin by hydrogen bonding to form liquid water.
• If droplets form in the atmosphere, the result is fog.
• If the droplets form on the cool surfaces of vegetation, the result is dew.
• Condensation is regulated by the amount of aerosols in the atmosphere.
• Aerosols are microscopic liquid or solid particles originating from land and water
surfaces. They provide sites that attract water vapor and promote the formation of
droplets of water
• Purification is the process of evaporation and condensation that purify the earth
naturally.
• Evaporation and condensation are the sources of all freshwater on earth.

PRECIPITATION
• As warm air enters the atmosphere, it gradually cools as it expands, which is a
process known as adiabatic cooling.
• Adiabatic warming occurs as the air descends and is compressed by the higher air
pressure in the lower atmosphere.
• Precipitation ranges from zero in some areas to more than 100 inches per year in
other areas.
• The distribution of precipitation depends on the patterns of rising and falling air
currents

CONVECTION
• Two factors—global convection currents and the rain shadow—may cause more
or less continuously rising or falling air currents over particular regions with
major effects on precipitation.
• Global convections occur because the sun heats the Earth most intensely over the
equator, where rays of sunlight are almost perpendicular to earth’s surface.
• As the air rises, it expands creating precipitation and condensation.
 • Because of the amount of heat produced by the sun’s rays, this process is repeated
often.
• Hadley cells are areas of convection near the equator.
• Rain shadows are the dry regions downward of a mountain range where rain
never falls.
• One such rain shadow is located in the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

GROUNDWATER
• As precipitation hits the ground it m the may either soak into the ground through
process if infiltration, or run off on the surface as runoff, or a blue water flow.
• The amounts that soak into the ground and run off on the surface are compared in
the infiltration-runoff ratio.
• Runoff flows over the surface of the ground into streams and rivers, which make
their way to oceans and seas, contributing to the overall water content of the
world.
• Land areas that contribute to the overall amount of water in the oceans are
referred to as watersheds.
• All waters located on the surface of the earth are known as surface waters.
• Water held in the soil is known as capillary water, and it returns to the atmosphere
eventually through the process of evaporation.
• The combination of evaporation and transpiration is referred to as
evapotranspiration.
• Gravitational water is not held in the soil, but rather trickles through pores and
cracks under the pull of gravity.
• Eventually this water reaches substances it cannot penetrate, eventually building
up and becoming ground water.
• The upper surface of ground water is known as the water table.
• Gravitational water becomes ground water once it reaches the water table.
• Layers or porous materials through which ground water moves are called aquifers.
• The area where water enters an aquifer is known as the recharge area.

POOLS AND FLUXES IN THE CYCLE

• The hydrologic cycle consists of the four physical properties: evaporation,
condensation, precipitation, and gravitational flow.
• There are three principal loops of the cycle.
• The first is the evaporation loop, through which the water is evaporated and
returned to the ground as precipitation.
• The surface runoff loop consists of water running across the ground surface and
becoming part of the groundwater system.
• In the groundwater loop, the water infiltrates, percolates down to join the
groundwater, and then moves through aquifers, finally exiting through seeps
springs or wells, where it rejoins the surface water.
HUMAN IMPACTS ON THE HYDROLOGIC CYCLE
• A large share of the environmental problems we face today stem from direct or
indirect impacts on the water cycle.
• These impacts can be classified into four categories: 1) changes to Earth’s
surface, 2) changes to Earth’s climate, 3) atmospheric pollution, and 3)
withdrawals for human use

CHANGES TO EARTH’S SURFACE

• The direct loss of forests and other ecosystems diminish the goods and services
they have been providing for years before the start of human enterprise.
• As forests are cleared and land is overgrazed, the pathway of the water cycle is
shifted from infiltration and groundwater recharge to runoff, so the water runs
into rivers and streams almost immediately.
• This sudden rush of water into the rivers and streams may not only cause a flood,
but also numerous ecosystem problems.
• Floods have always been common in many parts of the world; however the
frequency and severity of these flooding are increasing.
• This is not occurring because of an increase of precipitation, but rather because of
an increase in deforestation.
• The increase of deforestation also increases the amount of erosion, since there are
no trees to anchor the soil in place.
• The soil is then deposited into rivers and streams, drastically increasing their
volume.
• Increased runoff also means less infiltration, and therefore less evaporation and
groundwater recharge.
• Because of the lowered moisture, there will be less precipitation forming,
meaning death for many ecosystems dependant on a certain average rainfall.
• Streambeds will also dry up, running ecosystems dependant on the flow of a
stream.
• Flooding pollutes the water due to excess debris being pulled into the flooded
body of water.
• After a large flood, most of the water is quickly evaporated, resulting a drought
for some areas

CLIMATE CHANGE
• Groundwater is also known as fossil water, as it is reminiscent of water from
wetter and cooler time periods.
• Earth’s climate is now rising because of the greenhouse gases present in the
atmosphere.
• As the global heating of earth occurs, the water cycle will also be drastically
disturbed.
• A warmer climate means a greater amount of evaporation from Earth’s ocean and
seas.
• The amount of evaporation also increases drastically with each degree of rising
temperature.
 • A wetter atmosphere due to increased evaporation means more and more flood
occurrences, which can be devastating to communities and ecosystems.
• A warmer climate will also generate more hurricanes and more drought which
will bring once profitable farming enterprises to a standstill.

ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION
• Aerosol particles form nuclei for condensation, meaning the more aerosol
particles in the atmosphere, the more clouds for precipitation will form.
• Excess aerosols in the atmosphere suppress the formation of rainfall even though
they support cloud formation.
• Suppression of rainfall results in a drier climate and increase of dust in debris in
the atmosphere, reducing the quality of breathing air in the atmosphere.

7.3
WATER: A RESOURCE TO MANAGE A THREAT TO CONTROL
• The uses for fresh water in the United States are irrigation, electrical power
production, industrial use, and residential use.
• Nonconsumptive water is water, even after use, that is still available for later use.
• Consumptive water is water that is no longer available for use after its initial
purpose is fulfilled.
• The largest use of water is for irrigation (70%) industry (20%) and personal use
(10%)

SOURCES
• Half of domestic water in the United States comes from ground water, while the
other half comes from surface waters.
• Because surface waters and wells are often filled with runoff, they often
contaminated with pollutants from the surface.
• These wastes include animal excrement and human sewage, which can lead to
diseases, as these wastes are likely to contain pathogens.
• About 90% of this waste water is released back into the surface waters without
any treatment, resulting in pollution spreading worldwide.
• This water is often the only water available for about 1.1 billion people living in
developing countries.

SURFACE WATERS
• Lake Powell is the second largest reservoir in the United States and is apart of the
Glen Canyon Dam, which closed its gates in 1963.
• The dam was designed to strictly generate hydropower, while the reservoir stores
water for human use.
• Operation of the dam had seriously damaging effects on the downstream ecology
of the Colorado River.
• As a result, The Grand Can Monitoring and Research Center was opened and
provides scientific monitoring of the delicate ecosystem of the Grand Canyon.
 • The United States is home to at least 75,000 dams at least six feet in height as
well as 2 million smaller structures.
• These dams were built to control floods run mills and provide water for municipal
and agricultural use.
• When a body of water is dammed, freshwater habitats, as well as its inhabitants
are unable to adapt to the change and are lost.
• These ecological problems are extended to estuaries, which are bays in which
freshwater mixes with seawater.
• Estuaries are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth, being rich
breeding grounds for many species of fish.
• Human interfering continues to deplete these natural breeding grounds and
delicate ecosystems.

7.4
WATER STEWARDSHIP: PUBLIC POLICY CHANGES
• The hydrologic cycle is entirely adequate to meet the human needs for freshwater
because it processes several times much water as we require today
• However, the water is often not distributed where it is most need, and the result of
this is a persistent scarcity of water in many parts of the world.
• In the developing world there is still a deficit of infrastructure, such as wells,
water treatment systems, and large dams for capturing and distributing safe
drinking water.
• Despite the growing negative impacts of overdrawing water resources, expanding
populations create and ever-increasing demand for additional water for irrigation,
industry, and municipal use.

MORE DAMS TO CAPTURE RUNOFF

• About 260 new dams come online each year around the world to aid in water
distribution.
• With the increase of dams, there is an increase of opportunities to capture more of
the seasonal flood waters.
• An increase of the number of dams also serves as an increase to the number of
areas relying on hydropower.
• The construction of the Three Gorges Dam is taking place across a scenic stretch
of the Yangtze River in China.
• This project is part of the Chinese effort to industrialize and join the modern
world.
• The dam is scheduled for completion in 2013.
• Even though dams provide an increase of capture area for seasonal flooding, the
disruption and destruction of delicate ecosystems cannot compare.
• Because of this, 500 dams have already been dismantled in the United states with
more dams to follow suit in the later years.
• Removing a dam also causes a problem, as a large amount of resources are
required and destruction of a dam can result in the disruption of ecosystems that
have adapted to their new environments.
TAPPING MORE GROUND WATER
• More than 2 billion people depend on groundwater for day to day needs, as well
as industrial needs.
• In many areas, groundwater use exceeds aquifer recharge, leading to shortages as
the water table drops below pump levels.
• Groundwater depletion is considered the single greatest threat to irrigated
agriculture.
• Exploiting renewable groundwater is the only option in place at the moment, but
it is unlikely that renewable groundwater will provide a great water table increase.
• Another option being looked at is the desalination of saltwater.
• The process of desalination removes salt from ocean water and makes it available
for public use.
• If this project is successful, it will produce an extra 6.8 million gallons a year of
water.