1 / 36

PATTERNS IN ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

PATTERNS IN ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AND SUSTAINABILITY. definitions. Biodiversity. This term means biological diversity. It is the variety of all forms of life on Earth – plants, animals and microorganisms. Physical water scarcity.

jonathankdavis
Download Presentation

PATTERNS IN ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. PATTERNS IN ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

  2. definitions

  3. Biodiversity This term means biological diversity. It is the variety of all forms of life on Earth – plants, animals and microorganisms.

  4. Physical water scarcity Where water resource development is approaching or has exceeded unsustainable levels; it relates water availability to water demand and implies that arid areas are not necessarily water scarce.

  5. Economic water scarcity Where water is available locally but not accessible for human, institutional or financial capital reasons.

  6. Enhanced greenhouse effect A result of human activity (burning fossil fuels), which increases the amount of atmospheric greenhouse gases and causes heating of the atmosphere.

  7. Global climate change The changes in global patterns of rainfall and temperature, sea level, habitats and the incidences of droughts, floods and storms, resulting from changes in the Earth’s atmosphere, believed to be mainly caused by the enhanced greenhouse effect.

  8. Soil degradation A severe reduction in the quality of soils. The term includes soil erosion, salinization and soil exhaustion (loss of fertility).

  9. Describe the functioning of the atmospheric system in terms of the energy balance between solar and solar long-wave radiation.

  10. Your answer may be enhanced by a well-labelled diagram showing radiation balances in the atmosphere.

  11. Explain the changes in this balance due to its external forcings (changes in solar radiation, changes in the albedo of the atmosphere and changes in the long-wave radiation returned to space).

  12. Discuss the causes and environmental consequences of global climate change.

  13. You should be prepared to discuss the implications of changes induced through human activities. Remember that this section focuses upon global climatic change rather than just global warming.

  14. Explain the causes of soil degradation.

  15. Explain the causes of soil degradation.

  16. Discuss the environmental and socio-economic consequences of this process, together with the management strategies.

  17. Case study: The Loess Plateau in China

  18. You should understand the general processes to soil degradation together with the interplay of human and physical factors. Greenfield

  19. You should understand the general processes leading to soil degradation together with the interplay of human and physical factors. The African Sahel provides several examples of countries where difficult physical circumstances are exacerbated by exploitative human activities resulting in soil degradation.

  20. Identify the ways in which water is utilized at the regional scale.

  21. Examine the environmental and human factors affecting patterns and trends in physical water scarcity and economic water scarcity.

  22. Examine the factors affecting access to safe drinking water.

  23. Canada

  24. You will need to show an appreciation of the relationship between water utilization and wealth. You should be able to define both physical water scarcity and economic water scarcity, and provide an example of each. You should also be able to recognize the regional pattern of water utilization (this means global regions, such as Asia-Pacific or Latin America). You should also be able to explain the trends in water utilization over time.

  25. Explain the concept and importance of biodiversity in tropical rainforests.

  26. Examine the causes and consequences of reduced biodiversity in this biome.

  27. You should know the location of tropical rainforests within the equatorial zone, and its associated climatic characteristics. You should also be able to describe the layers of the rainforest and its various ecological niches. Loss of biodiversity should be explained through at least two examples, citing the value of biotic materials and the long-term consequence of their destruction. Greenfield

  28. Examples: The Amazon rainforest and forests in southeast Asia (page 70 in IB CC) .

  29. Define the concept of environmental sustainability.

  30. Evaluate a management strategy at a local or national scale designed to achieve environmental sustainability.

  31. There are a number of possible case studies you could use from your local area, the most likely beings strategies of waste recycling or energy and water conservation.

  32. Environmental Sustainability Definition: Improvements in the standard of living that do not cause long-term damage to the environment that impact future generations. What does it include:Protecting biodiversity Stopping human caused climate change Elimination of acid rain Elimination of damage to ozone layer Reduction of pollution (air, water, noise, etc.) Management of resources e.g. fish, water

  33. Case studies: The Loss Plateau in China, the London Congestion Charge, Excellent Development in Kenya.

More Related