Geo Assignment

Devin Purcell February 25th 2013 GEO1050 Ryan Gibson Assignment #2: Growing Resource Consumption and Scarcity a) The baseline year of the data used in these models is 1985. b) The period of projection for these models range from 1985 to 2025 a 40 year span. c) The three components of total water demand are: Population growth, Economic Development and Projected changes in water use efficiency. ) DIA/Q refers to the ratio of Domestic, Industrial, and irrigated Agriculture used of water, to the total river discharge (Q), it is presumed to show the total sustainable water supply that is available to local human populations. e) If DIA/Q is less than 0. 1, there is very little water stress. f) If DIA/Q is greater than 0. 4, there is severe water stress. g) SC1 – diverse climate, but specific magnitude and spatial distribution of human population and water removal levels from 1985 SC2 – applied projected water demands for 2025 but used runoff and discharge based on contemporar y climate.SC3 – varied climate and water demand. Assumptions: Impacts of human growth under SC2 and SC3 will therefore generally show population growth and migration as compared to increasing water usage. Effect of SC1 produces little change from 1985. Collective impact of raising water demands for SC2 and SC3 is obvious. h) Smith is most scared by SC3 because it suggests that the weather and climate change in the world, human population growth, or both it will increase low levels of water.Low levels of water are almost guaranteed to become a bigger problem all to affecting a greater area in the globe. a) Smith suggests that the water scarcity levels in Canada are very low since everyone has free access to water. b) Many areas which were named by the boil advisory are in coastal regions and less populated communities as well. It is less effective by the Government to put money into these rural regions rather than larger more urbanized cities, where the water would be tight an d help support more people.The rural areas in cities do not get the same water treatment as urbanized areas and must boil their water c) Newfoundland should be fine with regards to water scarcity due to the fact that everyone in the province and surrounding areas has free access to water. Since, everyone around the province is able to access water almost anywhere freely and hassle free there is a very little chance of our province running low on water and it becoming a major problem throughout the province.