...A drought is a prolonged period of below-average precipitation that causes a water deficit in a particular area. Capable of lasting for months to years, the degree of drought severity and its duration depends on a number of compounding factors, including precipitation, soil moisture, stream flow, ground water and reservoir levels, agricultural health, local geography, and snowpack. Humans also play an important role in drought through factors such as water demand and water management policies. Additionally, droughts also increase the chances of flash floods, wildfire, and landslides. The severity and physical characteristics of a drought vary drastically from region to region. Resultantly, drought and the impacts that it can have in these...
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...In discussion of the crisis of the drought, one controversial issue has been the conflict between water reductions. On the one hand, Justin Sullivan argues that this drought has been a difficult burden since people will argue about who cuts more of their water usage. He states, “People will say, ‘What about the farmers?’ Farmers will say, ‘What about the people who water their lawns”. As we all know outdoor use of water wastes much more water that is not even necessary. Some examples include: watering lawns, washing cars, watering gardens, and cemeteries over watering their grass. Sullivan argued that Mr. Brown stated that California would enforce these water restrictions and have a 25 percent cut in water consumption. People should value the importance of water and it should not be wasted on the contrary, it should be used in only the most necessary things. On the other hand, Damon Winter contends that the 25 percent of water reduction does not apply to farms and they are the ones who consume a great amount of the state’s water. Others like for example Mark Hertsgaard, maintain that the water is priced more cheaply than it should be; therefore, it encourages over consumption which leads people to waste water. My own view of this drought is if we the people don’t make changes and save water the drought will eventually worsen since their won’t be any people cooperating and trying to make a difference. When it comes to the topic of who has the right of using most of the state’s...
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...Jim Jordan 3/10/13 Environmental Planning Risk Management and Drought In order to be able to discuss the components needed for a risk management approach to a drought, it is important to first understand what risk is. How likely is it? What can happen? What are the impacts? Questions like these are very useful in understanding what risk is, and how to evaluate the risk. By taking both the possibility of an event happening as well as the possible consequences of such an event, such as a flood for example, can help rank how big of a risk is involved. It is also important to realize that risk affects different people differently, so the risk perception and concern is different from one person to the next, so therefore the needs for reduction is different from one individual to the next. These needs can apply to any event, but are particularly important when it comes to managing a drought. A drought is defined as a deficiency of precipitation from expected or “normal” that extends over a season or longer period of time. It is important to note that a drought is not a permanent feature of climate, but instead is a temporary feature or an aberration. Aridity on the other hand is a permanent climate feature that is primarily dry, and is often found in the Southwestern part of the United States. Another distinct feature about a drought is that unlike other climate phenomena, it is a very slow onset, sometimes referred to as “creeping” or non-event. The impacts tend...
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...In this essay I shall be focusing on the economic, social and environmental impacts of the big Australian drought on the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) in south-eastern Australia, extending from Queensland to South Australia (2002-2009). In this context the term drought means an acute water shortage caused by a period of long continuous dry weather. The 2002–2009 drought, or ‘big dry’, was caused by an El Nino. The trade winds reversed, causing Australia to experience very high pressure. The Murray-Darling Basin usually provides 40% of Australia’s agricultural produce; the basin makes up more than 70% of Australia’s irrigated cropland and provides 75% of Australia’s water. Not only did the 2002-2009 drought significantly reduce farm production during the event but ongoing social, economic and environmental effects continued to be felt in many regions following the return of normal rainfall patterns. A big social impact of the Australian drought was farmer’s crops failing due to the barren conditions, meaning a loss of income for the producers and higher prices for the consumers. Also many farmers had to sell up and move to the cities. This in turn affects the profitability of many small businesses in rural communities, which lose much of the customer base. An enormous problem during the Australian drought was the environmental impacts. The drought caused severe loss of vegetation which promoted soil erosion in a lot of areas, as well as dams and watercourses drying up leading...
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...Research paper nt1320 The State of California is in its worst water drought to date, many are affected by the water shortage including farm crops, and small cities. The management of the states water resources are not up to standards; however; their efforts of water conservation are improving. The state of California has issued state-wide regulations for water use, but many cities are taking it a step further. The City of Fresno is in a stage two storage contingency plan, which regulates outdoor water usage. According to the city of Fresno's website (www.fresno.gov) the watering schedule allows residences and local business to water outside on specific days Depending on the last digit of their street numbers. For example; street numbers ending in ODD numbers can water on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Street numbers ending with EVEN numbers can water on Wednesdays and Sundays. Also watering can only happen from the hours of 7:00pm to 6:00am. Anyone who is caught not following the water restrictions in the City of Fresno can face a $500 daily fine. In Madera county, the city has declared a stage four plan to conserve water. This means that watering outdoors is prohibited, even parks and other recreational facilities. Their goal is to reduce water usage in half. If water usage is being abused the board of supervisors can increase the penalties. The states government is also trying to request a bond that will allow the state to build reservoirs and aboveground water storages...
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...children, at least two deaths per 10,000 people every day and access to less than four litres of water a day (CARE, 2012). Therefore, this paper will examine the possibly long-term solutions in economic, social, and political sectors to overcome the root of this problem. Food shortage in Somalia occurred as a result of natural and human factors. There are three major factors that cause this problem, which is dominated by human factors. First, Somalia has experienced civil war and political unrest as a result of the domination of an organization called Al Qaeda, which is led by Al Shahaab. Al Qaeda prohibited any deliveries of food aid from any organizations and agencies (Erdenemunkh, 2013). Second, the problem is also caused by severe drought. As a result, the Somali could not harvest any crops and produce foods for themselves. Third, serious piracy attacks in Somali waters also take part in causing this problem. The pirates hijacked almost all food aid from other countries that distribute the aid to Somalia. Therefore, those foods can’t be distributed to starving and needy people in...
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...the food crisis has hit Somalia so bad is down to the fact has effectively suffered from a double blow, escalating hunger and civil war. The civil war which is taking place makes it that much harder for charities such as World Food Programme to reach vulnerable people. The fighting in Somalia has created a viscous cycle as it has forced people off their land increasing the number of refugees by 40%. This then leads to these refugees being unable to provide for themselves impartially becoming chronically hungry. Somalia isn’t the only country who is suffering a food crisis by a long stretch. Neighbouring Kenya who even though aren’t at war, but both people living in rural and urban settlements are going hungry as a result of drought. Kenya has suffered droughts for more than 3 consecutive summers, this ruins the land making it unsuitable to farm on and this in turn increases food prices in local markets. Future doesn’t look hopeful for Kenya with predictions that conditions are only to get worse. Which leaves Kenyans no little choice to rely on international aid – the crisis in Kenya lead to the food agency appealing for over $230million to provide emergency funds for nearly 4million Kenyans who cannot produce, or afford, daily...
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...Kenya VN Term Paper 3 Introduction The republic of Kenya is located on the equator along the east coast of Africa, with a population size of 44.86 million and a population growth rate of 2.6%. The per capita GDP for the country is around $2,818.00, but with a Gini coefficient of 47.7 the wealth of the country is not evenly dispersed, leaving many to survive on much less (Cite 3,5). Forty-two percent of the population lives in poverty and 30% of them were considered undernourished in 2014 (Cite 7). There has been in a demographic shift over the past 10 years, with the crude death rate dropping to eight and the crude birth rate slowly decreasing to 35 (Cite 6). Because the death rate is slowing faster than the crude birth rate, there will be a major change in the demographic of the country through the next few generations. The country faces many hardships that can accompany population growth, such as natural resource demand, food scarcity, poverty and malnourishment. The population growth in Kenya has increased demand on food and has exacerbated the problems that the current food shortage has already created. We can project the percentage of growth in food demand as a function of percent change in income multiplied by the income elasticity, then add the sum to the percent change in the population for the country. With this information we can estimate the amount of food demand increase that a country will be facing. Kenya’s growth in food demand is 6.79%, which creates...
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...California’s Water Problem Introduction: Water Sources in California In her book entitled Managing Water: Avoiding Crisis in California, the ecologist and historian Dorothy Green describes the complicated and intricate California water system (University of California Press, October 9, 2007). Green’s description and analysis becomes more important to the people of California with every week that passes/ This is because California is now in the fourth year of drought in which no rain, snow, or hail has fallen (“California Drought”, CA.gov. Online at: http://ca.gov/drought/). In her work on the topic, Dorothy Green describes very carefully the system by which the rain, snow, and hail that fall in northern California move downwards in a flow of water that serves the entire state thanks to the power of gravity. The river systems of California include Colorado River and the Sacramento River. These great river systems move the water southwards, (to Los Angeles) and westwards (to San Francisco), respectively. In addition to these well known rivers to the system of rivers in California includes more than thirty rivers including the Klamath, the American, the Tolumne, the Merced, the Yuba, the Kern, the Russian, the Tule, and right here in Los Angeles the Los Angeles River which runs right through the industrial section of downtown Los Angeles in a cement channel : In addition to the river systems of California, Green describes a network of dam release channels, canals...
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...Water Crisis Impact in California Monica Mois Essentials of College Writing/COMM/215 October 6, 2014 Carolyn Geiser Water Crisis Impact in California Due to the lack of rain in the past few years, and particularly in the last few months, California faces severe drought. This is the worst drought in more than one hundred years. The impact of California drought affects community, agriculture, organic ranchers, and dairy farmers. Because of these facts, the United States must rethink the way it uses water. Californians alone are asked to reduce their water usage by twenty percent to prevent water waste. Communities, Agriculture, Organic Ranchers and Dairy Farmers Many communities in California struggle with shortage of drinking water. One example is “the small community of Cameron Creek Colony in Tulare County is struggling due to severe drought. About ten percent of its residents have no access to water because their wells have run dry. Others have only intermittent access” (USDA, 2014). In other communities, residents are urged to avoid wasting water. The Waterboards.ca.gov (2014) website has a list of emergency water conservation regulations stating that every citizen is prohibited to use potable water to wash sidewalks and driveway, to use hoses with no shut off nozzles to wash their cars, water the lawn more than two times a week, and reduce the amount of watering time for each station using an automatic sprinkler system. Residents could face...
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...Freddie Johnson John Clark English 201C 13 May 2015 Man-Made Water Crisis Over the past several years the state of California has been suffering from a drought that has left behind many farmers in the dust with their fallowed crops. The Central Valley, located in the heart of California, is home to a vast variety of crops that feed the world. The valley has taken the blunt of the hit caused by the recent drought as many farmers have received zero allocations of their contracted water along with many water wells drying up. The lack of water not only has an affect on farmers but anyone else that enjoys the succulent foods that articulate from California’s farms. As the lack of rainfall has had an influence on the current shortage of water, it is not the only factor contributing to it. “In 2009, the department of Fish and Wildlife ordered restrictions on the water run-off, which began the now six-year-old policy of sending billions of gallons of fresh water annually into the Pacific Ocean” (Hill). With California’s extensive need for water, legislation needs to transpire in order to use what precipitation we do receive to be allocated effectively and efficiently. California has been known for many substantial reasons, ranging from the Gold Rush of 1849 to its beautiful coast line that attracts many tourists. One important piece that always seems to be overlooked is the agricultural industry that thrives in the Central Valley. California produces much of the nations...
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...included. According to “Climate”, the civilization of Angkor was splendid and presiding as they enjoyed the unprecedented water system, where there were colossus water tanks and canals, and connecting waterways. Werner, at the same time, claims the advanced civilization of Maya, which possessed complicated buildings, such as pyramids, and inscription to record history. However, these high civilizations collapsed into desolated areas and drought, as both of the authors indicate in their articles, are definitely responsible for the results. Strongly detected by the analysis of tree rings, the drought has been confirmed as a severe change in climate that collapsing the civilization. Based on the analysis of “Climate,” the tree rings can be either thick or thin because of sufficient or scarce nutrition respectively. As the researcher Buckley, who is referred in “Climate,” compared the tree rings sample in southern Vietnam, he could tell the thin patterns and track the date when the civilization of Angkor collapsed, which are exactly evidence for a severe drought as poor nutrition. On the other hand, the anthropologist...
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...these women feel in these societies. “Foucault and Young, 1981, M. Foucault, The order of discourse, R. Young (Ed.), Untying the text: A post-structuralist reader, Routledge, London (1981), pp. 48–79.” I have chosen the reference above as my group project will use Foucault’s discourse. We intend on using discourse to understand the EU and Nigerian governments stance on women trafficking and what they have done to prevent it from happening, by reviewing the different policy documents. A. SUMMARY: The text focuses on desertification in Ghana and northern Burkina Faso. It’s focus is on the droughts and floodings that happen in the region due to climate change, also how these issues are interlinked. The main argument in the text is concerned with, which of the two, droughts or floods, is the greater issue. The empirical case mainly focuses on desertification related issues. drought has the upper hand in the battle of discourse in the regions, as that seems to be more of a problem that they can solve compared to flooding which is usually associated with a religious connotation i.e. “act of God”. The government and NGO’s also find it problematic and expensive to apply methods to tackle flooding.The concept that is used is discourse, to get a sense of the public opinion on the matter. They also noticed that people were just repeating what others...
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...8Th -18Th June 2015 8Th -18Th June 2015 PARTICIPATORY DISASTER RISK ANALYSIS Kilifi County Technical Team National Drought Management authority Kilifi County Technical Team National Drought Management authority ADU WARD, KILIFI COUNTY WATER SCARCITY HAZARD PDRA FIELD REPORT ADU WARD, KILIFI COUNTY WATER SCARCITY HAZARD PDRA FIELD REPORT Contents Contents i LIST OF TABLES ii List of Figures iii List of Photos iii 1.0 BACKGROUND 4 1.1 Geographical Information 4 1.2 Administrative and demographic profile 5 1.3 Livelihoods 5 1.3.1 Livestock asset base 6 1.3.2 Crops grown 7 1.4 Social amenities 7 1.4.1 Health facilities 7 1.4.2 Schools 8 1.4.2.1 Early childhood development centres 8 1.4.2.2 Primary schools 8 1.4.2.3 Secondary schools 8 1.5 Water resources 8 1.6 Infrastructure 9 1.6.1 Roads and bridges 9 1.6.2 Markets and sale yards 9 1.6.3 Cattle dips and community crushes 9 1.6.4 Communication 10 1.6.5 Energy sources 10 1.7 Community Resource Map 11 1.8 Seasonal calendar 12 2.0 Hazards 13 3.0 OBJECTIVES OF THE FIELD PRACTICUM 14 4.0 METHODOLOGY 15 5.0 OUTPUT OF THE PDRA 16 5.1 HAZARD ANALYSIS 13 5.2 VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT 13 5.3 CAPACITY ADDRESSING HAZARD 14 5.4 CAPACITIES ADDRESSING VULNERABILITY 15 5.5 COMMUNITY DISASTER RISK ANALYSIS 17 5.6 Disaster Risk Reduction Plan 20 5.7 STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS. 22 5.8 CONTINGENCY PLANNING 23 6.0 CHALLENGES 13 7...
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...Running head: Cloud Seeding Negligibility of Cloud Seeding Don Jackson Angelo State University November 13, 2012 Cloud Seeding How is there a water shortage, if there is no water leaving earth? Foremost, accessible freshwater accounts for a very small amount of the earth's water. Ninety-seven percent of all water is salt water and most of the remaining three percent is locked in polar ice caps, glaciers, and deep underground aquifers (McCaffrey, 2000). The problems arising from a shortage of freshwater are beyond human and crop needs. Significant percentages of power in numerous countries are provided by hydroelectric turbines, efficiency of a cloud seeding operation will continue to be negligible because scientists cannot know exactly what rainfall would or would not have occurred but for their efforts. Clouds and precipitation are paramount meteorological processes in the general public's concept of “weather” (Lin, Wang, Schlesinger). Since the mid-1940s, countries have used cloud seeding to attempt to control the rain. As would be expected, these programs have met with mixed responses. The world is on the brink of a water crisis, due to expanding populations, evident climate change, and pollution causing much of the existing freshwater unusable, the demand for freshwater has never been more immense. Presently, cloud seeding operations have been successfully conducted by about 40 countries during different periods during the last 50 years. Even though cloud seeding...
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