It seems as if when the apocalypse happens, the epicenter will be in Haiti. The location and weather patterns of the island have plagued the island with natural disasters. Haiti has had many recorded hurricanes, earthquakes, and storms. The country has a disproportionately large coastline which makes it very susceptible to hurricanes. Haiti also has large rivers that overflow in the rainy seasons and dry up during the dry season.
Assess the relative importance of physical and human causes of river flooding (15) Floods can be caused by certain human activities such as urbanisation. The build up of impermeable surfaces like concrete pavements and buildings means that when there is high levels of precipitation, infiltration is not possible and rainwater flows straight to the river channel as surface runoff, increasing river discharge and potentially causing a river to flood. Also, deforestation is another human cause of flooding; deforestation reduces interception and evapotranspiration. This means more water reaches the river, increasing discharge. However, physical causes can also have large impacts and can be the main cause of a flood.
Lake Huron is one of the Great Lakes and a major part of our fresh water system, which contains many wildlife and species. The lake however, is in a real danger, adversely effecting habitats, fish, wildlife, and human lives. Lake Huron has become a dumping ground for many companies, dumping waste that contains many pollutants. Bacteria levels have increased in the lake which can cause serious illness. These pollutants have reduced water quality, contaminated soils, and damaged the Lake’s ecosystems.
Describe how, and explain why, channel characteristics change downstream. (15 marks) Channel characteristics are changed when the river flows downstream by many factors such as cross-profile of a river, wetted perimeter, erosion, hydraulic radius, roughness and efficiency. Channel characteristics change as the river flows from upstream to downstream. In the upper course the river tends to be more narrower, steep and uneven due to the deposition of large boulders it also has a larger wetted perimeter. The bank of the river channel becomes worn away as a result of vertical erosion, due to the processes of hydraulic action which is the forces of flowing water against the river bed and banks caused by the volume of flowing water compared to kinetic energy and attrition which is the material being carried in the river colliding which then breaks the loads down into smaller pieces.
The results were that the chance of developing a cold correlated with stress index scores. The life event lowered the immune function and increased vulnerability to the virus. However there were several problems with this research, one of which was that it was an indirect study- there was no direct measure of the immune system for example no blood test or medical test was taken as evidence. Consequently we cannot determine how far the participant’s immune system was affected in relation to the stress. Another key problem was that there were was no direct manipulation of the independent variable so the study doesn’t tell us which element of the stress index is most important and related to the decrease in immune function.
Hoses can be undone, gaskets can fail, pits leak and liquids always hit the ground, repeatedly in large quantities. Fracking needs a lot of work to be done before it can begin obtaining oil. The fracking fluids have a lot of toxic chemicals and become even more contaminated when pumped down a hole as they travel through rock formations before returning to the surface as flow back. The liquids can cause ground contamination and even in small portions can contaminate shallow aquifers with hydrocarbons, toxic chemicals, heavy metals and radioactive
In the US, fracking is also exempted from six other key pieces of regulation relating to hazardous waste and pollution. One of the biggest factors in the legal battles is what they use in chemicals inside the fracking process. The loophole allows them to keep that as a ‘guarded’ secret and they do not have to disclose all the chemicals that are used while fracking. There reservoirs over time have shown wear and tear and even possibly a defect in manufacturing of the well. There have been reports of the well collapsing and creeping into other water sources where the ecosystem around it has become a ‘dead zone’ for any type of life animal or vegetation.
This would be terrible for the people and creatures that rely on this mighty river to live. Dams, diversions and evaporation losses from reservoirs also contribute to the lessening of water available from the river, causing ecological consequences to wildlife living in and along the river. The Colorado River used to carry up to 85 to 100 million tons of silt or sediment to the Gulf of California where it deposited into the sea. The sediment helped things along the river path grow and flourish. Over the years, the silt has been collecting in Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, and it is predicted that over the next few hundred years this lake will fill up with silt.
Power outages, deaths, destroyed cities, and underground subways are the effects of Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy destroyed portions of the Caribbean, Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, and Eastern Canada. This storm left major damage with its powerful winds and flooding rains that left many residents without electricity, blew roofs off buildings, flooded streets, caused food shortages, left many people homeless, and killed many innocent lives. Hurricanes are strong rotating oceanic weather systems that bring maximum wind speeds and powerful rain that can cause a lot of damage. With all the damage that took place there's a lot of organizations that are stepping in to help people in need from the damage of Hurricane Sandy.
Water is essential for healthy living and is important in meeting with Agricultural, Industrial and Domestic needs in both urban and rural areas. It is a common denominator required by all classes of society. However, due to an overburden of population, unplanned urbanization and industrialization, the quality of water has gone through high levels of degradation caused by the release of contaminants, detrimental to human health, into waterways such as streams and Rivers (Kumarasamy, 2015). When pollutants enter into a water system, they cause distortions within the water body as it moves downstream. It is common to consider pollution to streams as being transported from industries and cities which release waste water into water courses such as lakes, rivers and streams through designated and established point sources.