Freshwater - Issues and Conflicts 02/15/2017

Drainage basin: The area drained by a river and its tributaries. A drainage basin
is considered to be an open system because water can be added or lost from a
drainage basin.
Source: The beginning of a river. A river may have multiple sources. The source
of a river is normally found in upland mountainous areas.
Mouth: The end of a river. A river may end in a lake, but more normally in the
sea.
Tributary: A small river that flows into a larger river.
Confluence: Where two rivers meet.
Watershed: The border between two drainage basins.
Estuary: The tidal section of a river near the mouth.
Channel: The physical confines of the river, encompassing two banks and a bed.
Bank: The sides of a river channel. A river channel has two banks.
Bed: The bottom of a river channelA drainage basin is an open system that has
inputs, outputs, stores and transfers (flows).
Aquifers: rocks that hold water and provide an important store of water, regulate
the hydrological cycle and maintain river flow
Interception: the capture of raindrops by plant cover that prevents direct contact
with the soil.

Inputs: When water is added to a drainage basin.

Precipitation: Any moisture that falls from the atmosphere. The main types of
precipitation are rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog and dew.
Interbasin transfer: Water that either naturally (due to the alignment of the rock)
or with human involvement (pumps and pipes) moves from one drainage basin to
another.

Outputs: When water leaves a drainage system.

Evaporation: The process of water turning from a liquid into a vapour.
Evaporation only takes place from a body of water e.g. a lake, puddle or the sea.
Transpiration: The evaporation of water from vegetation.
Evapotranspiration: The combined action of evaporation and transpiration.
Potential Evapotranspiration: the rate of water loss from an area if there were
no storages of water
Interbasin transfer: Water that either naturally (due to the alignment of the rock)
or with human involvement (pumps and pipes) moves from one drainage basin to
another.
 River discharge via channel flow: Water entering the sea and leaving a
drainage basin. A very small amount of water also enters the sea via throughflow
and groundwater flow (baseflow).

Stores: When water is stationary and not moving in a drainage basin.

Interception: When water is caught and held by vegetation or man-made
structures like buildings.
Surface store: When water is held in the surface of the earth. This may be a
puddle, a lake or a garden pond.
Soil moisture store: When water is held in unsaturated soil.
Groundwater store: When water is held in saturated ground.

Transfers (flows): When water is moving within a drainage basin.

Stem flow: When intercepted water runs down the trunks and stems of
vegetation.
Canopy drip: When intercepted water drips off the leaves of vegetation (drip tip
leaves in rainforests are actually designed to allow this to happen).
Throughfall: Precipitation that falls directly through vegetation.
Infiltration: Water that moves from the surface of the earth into the soil below.
Throughflow: Water that travels through unsaturated ground.
Pipeflow: Water that travels through holes left by root systems and animals
burrows.
Percolation: Water that travels from unsaturated into saturated ground.
Groundwater flow (baseflow): Water that travels through saturated ground.
Capillary action (or rise): Water that may move upwards towards the surface.
Channel flow: Water that travels in a river.
Surface run-off (overland flow): When water travels across the surface of the
earth e.g. down a hill

Eustatic Change: refers to a change in sea level

Isostatic adjustment: land rising as a result of tectonic uplift or the removal

of an ice sheet.

Steric Effect (thermal expansion): seawater expands with higher

tempertures even if ice sheets do not melt

Explain the consequences of a decrease in the amount of water stores in ice

in the hydrological cycle at any stage [6 marks]
 The main places in which water is stored in ice are in ice sheets, glaciers and
ice bergs, located in and close to the polar regions of the earth. Climate change
causes an increase in global temperatures, which in turn is causing the water stored
in the ice to melt. There is little effect in the melting of water found in ice bergs as
they are already submerged in water and so there would not be a great change in
sea level.
Water from the ablation of glaciers, causing glacial retreat, due to rising global
temperatures runs off into the sea, causing Eustatic sea level rise.
The melting of ice caps and glaciers also results in isostactic adjustment, in
which land is uplifted due to the relief of pressure and weight. This also induces a
rise in sea level.

The rises in sea level may cause flooding in many coastal cities and low lying
countries such as the Maldives causing economic damage and people having to
relocate. Melting ice allows for further oil exploration into the artic ice sheets with the
absence of the ice sheets due to melting. This increases the wealth of the countries
exploiting this oil.