International water overview

1. International water overview NRES/GEOG 400/600 International Issues for Water Development

2. Why water? • Water is essential to all living things

3. Landslides Fort Collins Flood, 1997 Why water? • Water is dangerous

4. Why water? • Water is fun

5. Water is a renewable resource

6. Hydrologic cycle • Precipitation • Water that falls to the earth • Runoff • Water that flows across land surface after storm event or snowmelt • Infiltration • Water that seeps into ground

7. Hydrologic cycle (cont.) • Groundwater • Water contained below the ground surface • Evaporation • Process whereby water changes from a liquid to a gas • Transpiration • Process of a plant releasing water vapor through its leaves Evapotranspiration = Evaporation + Transpiration

8. Precipitation Dunne and Leopold (1978)

9. Runoff • Watershed • the area drained by a river or river system • Precipitation

10. Soil column Runoff • Watershed • the area drained by a river or river system • Precipitation • Infiltration runoff

11. Flow meter Linsley et al. (1982) USGS stream gage Runoff

12. weir Parshall flume Runoff

13. Brooks et al. (1991) float method Runoff

14. artesian well artesian aquifer Groundwater infiltration Dingman (2002)

15. Groundwater

16. Global water budget Jackson et al. (2001) Fig. 2.   The renewable freshwater cycle in units of thousands of km3 and thousands of km3/yr, respectively, for pools (white numbers) and fluxes (black numbers).

17. Streams and rivers • lotic waters • flowing waters • watershed (drainage basin) • land area drained by a river or river system Truckee River at Farad

18. north

19. Streams and rivers • lotic waters • flowing waters • watershed (drainage basin) • land area drained by a river or river system • perennial • describes a stream or river that flows all the time • ephemeral • describes a stream or river that is periodically dry Truckee River at Farad

20. headwaters confluences terminus Streams and rivers • stream order • hierarchical classification of streams • headwater • where a river starts • confluence • where rivers or tributaries join • terminus • where a river ends (lakes, oceans, sinks)

21. north

22. macroinvertebrates Streams and rivers Figure 6.6 (Ward and Trimble 2004)

23. floodplain riparian zone Streams and rivers • riparian zone • banks of a body of water • floodplain • normally dry land along a water body that is covered by water during a flood Dingman (2002)

24. Streams and rivers Giller and Malmqvist (2000) Ward and Trimble (2004)

25. Lakes and reservoirs • lentic waters • standing waters • reservoirs • store, regulate, and control water Becharof Lake Shasta Reservoir

26. Lakes and reservoirs • residence time • time required to completely renew a lake’s water volume Holdren et al. (2001)

27. Lakes and reservoirs Holdren et al. (2001)

28. Lakes and reservoirs Holdren et al. (2001)

29. can be measured in the field Water quality • Measure of the suitability of water for a particular use • temperature • pH • dissolved oxygen • conductivity • nutrients (constituents of nitrogen and phosphorus) • turbidity (measured in NTUs) • dissolved solids (calcium, sodium, bicarbonate, chloride, etc.) • trace elements or metals (selenium, chromium, arsenic, etc.) • bacteria, viruses, pathogens • organic contaminants (pharmaceuticals, petroleum products, pesticides, etc.)

30. Water quality • Issues • Drinking water • Sanitation • Water pollution

31. Water quality • World Water Monitoring Day • Local citizens conduct basic monitoring around the world on September 18 • Monitor for acidity (pH), water temperature, dissolved oxygen, clarity (turbidity) • http://www.wwmd.org/index.html

32. World situation in water Total global water ~ 1400106 km3 Total fresh water ~ 35106 km3 Source: Lee (1999)

33. Water use Is there a shortage of water? • ~ 40,000 km3 of freshwater available per year • ~15% of this is used • Remainder goes to streams and groundwater

34. Cech (2003) Available vs. usable • Distribution of water

35. Dingman (2002) Available vs. usable • Global circulation patterns

36. region of lessmoisture Manning (1987) Available vs. usable • Global circulation patterns

37. Cech (2003) Available vs. usable arid = climatic condition where average annual precipitation is < 10 in (25 cm) • Distribution of water

38. Usable water • Floods • overflow of water onto land not normally covered by water (temporary) • Droughts • extended and severe dry periods of below average rainfall (or streamflow)

39. consumptive use + reuse Cosgrove and Rijsberman (2000) Usable water • Available infrastructure

40. How much water do we use? • Measures • Water withdrawals • Domestic • Agriculture • Industry Problem: doesn’t account for water consumed for products produced in other countries Source: The Water Atlas (2004)

41. What is a dam? • dam • barrier built, usually across a watercourse, for impounding or diverting the flow of water http://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/gallery/picindex.html

42. Hydropower USBR (2001) Cech (2003)

43. Hydropower aspects • high efficiency: • the ratio of amount of work done by a machine compared to energy used • does not pollute air, land, water • amount produced controlled by flow of water • can easily be used for peaking demands

44. natural gas = 3,000 MW (M-F) coal energy = 20,000 MW Hydropower peaking USBR (2001)

45. Alternative hydropower Sources: DOE (2001); Natural Resources Canada (2004) • Conventional hydropower • >100 MW; linked to grid • 15-100 MW; usually linked to grid • Alternatives • Small-hydro: 1-10 MW; usually linked to grid • Mini-hydro: 100 kW-1 MW; sometimes linked to grid • Micro-hydro: <100 kW; usually remote http://www1.eere.energy.gov/library/pdfs/29065.pdf http://canmetenergy-canmetenergie.nrcan-rncan.gc.ca/eng/renewables/small_hydropower.html http://www.small-hydro.com

46. Smaller hydropower • Use heads of <10 m • Low dam • Weir • No dam (“run of the river”) • Higher costs (less ‘economy of scale’) • Requires large flow rates to run turbines • Best locations: steep perennial rivers http://www.nrel.gov/data/pix/Jpegs/04410.jpg