SEE: Water: 5.4B
- Created by: MaggieNaylor
- Created on: 10-03-22 20:06
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- 5.4B: Human activity causing drought. CASE STUDY: BRAZIL 2014-2015 DROUGHT
- Human causes
- Over abstraction of surface water stores and aquifers
- Illegal well drilling because it is expensive to drill wells. This goes unmonitored and leads to over-abstraction
- 70% of wells in Brazil are illegal
- Illegal wells are shallower and so have not percolated deep into bedrock, it may contain industrial and agricultural pollutants
- If water is not filtered further then it can cause water-borne diseases
- Positive feedback loops
- Deforestation causing increased CO2, causing climate change, causes drying of vegetation, increases wildfires (trees burn down again)
- Deforestation activities in the Amazon basin has been linked to a reduction of rainfall in the south of Brazil
- Physical causes
- Reduced rainfall due to high pressure systems diverting moist air further north, causing dry air above Brazil
- The cool, sinking air cannot form clouds and produce precipitation
- 2014-2016 El Nino event meant drought was worse in south-eastern Brazil
- Reduced rainfall due to high pressure systems diverting moist air further north, causing dry air above Brazil
- Impacts
- 4 million people had to water ration
- Brazil's heavy reliance on HEP meant there were power cuts
- Brazil is usually 70% reliant on HEP
- In turn, Brazil's ghg emissions were up 2015-2017
- Brazil is usually 70% reliant on HEP
- Global impact: coffee prices up 50% because Brazil is largest producer of Arabica coffee bean, which could not be produced
- By 2015 reservoirs had reached 5% capacity
- Human causes
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