Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources - Essay Example

CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS ON WATER RESOURCES Author’s Name Course Instructor Institution City Date of Submission Climate Change and Water Shortage Introduction Water systems are essential to the ecosystems and more important to human beings. Sustaining health requires the people to drink clean water from reliable water sources. Water is also essential for the purposes such as agriculture as it is the major factor influencing the crop yields in the agricultural sectors. Water is also needed for energy production, especially the hydroelectric power sources. Water is also important for industrial purposes, for recreational and for navigation as the riverine communities primarily depend on water bodies for transportation purposes. These uses exert pressure on the water sources causing the water to be small in different regions of the world including Australia. Nevertheless, the major source of water stress in the world is the climate change. The demand for water is continually increasing, and the supplies are diminishing on the other hand. The water inadequacy is posing a challenge to the water managers, especially in Australia to meet all the needs of water consumers, including the ecosystem, the farmers, the industries and other water requirements. The water shortages in Australia are signified by the droughts which have been striking the land due to shortages in the precipitation volumes. Water Cycle and Demand The water cycle is characterized by the equilibrium between the evaporation and the precipitation. Warm temperatures increase the rate of evaporation, thereby increasing the capacity of the atmosphere to retain water. Evaporation has different effects in Australia; water is drawn in some areas and fall as precipitation in other different locations. Australia has been experiencing a shortage in the volume of water during the rainy seasons. The decrease of water is already an indication of the fluctuations in the water cycles (EPA 2017, p. 3; Milan 2006, p. 55). Water Resource Change in Australia Water availability is a challenge in Australia, and it is continually intensifying with the climate change. There are some risks which are associated with climate change that continually affects the use of water. 89% of the rainwater which collected from rainfall in Australia evaporates into the atmosphere while the rest is transpired by the plants. About 9% of the rainwater gets into the streams, rivers and other storages. The reaming water is drained into the aquifers and the groundwater and eventually ends up in the rivers. The amount of rainfall that gets back into the atmosphere and the amount of water which is retained by the root system and the ground level is highly depending on the energy of the sunshine. Additionally, the management of the land use practices, the type of soil and the type of vegetation are also determining the water availability (Morrison 2009, p. 11; Machethe 2011, p. 5) The annual plants do not use as much water as the perennial vegetation as they have a short season of growing and they are also characterized by the short root system. The plantation and native forests in Australia are characterized by canopies which increase the level of evapotranspiration. Australia extracts about 65% of water, and it is used for agricultural purposes such as irrigation. The industrialization activities in Australia utilizes 14% of the water in the land, and 11% of water is used for urban household consumption purposes while 3% is used for domestic uses. The water balance and availability is continually becoming unpredictable, especially with season variability, which is becoming a common event in Australia. However, the land malpractice and the water extraction also contribute to the shortage of water and the imbalances. The climate change in Australia is quite tremendous. Since mid of the twentieth century, the temperature has risen with 1-degree centigrade. The increases in the temperature have significant effects such as lack of rainfall. The prolonged temperature increase, for instance, led to the longest drought in the history of Australia between 2002 and 2007. The prolonged increase in temperature is as a result of climate change in Australia, and it leads soil dehydration as well as increased crop and animal stress. Different parts of Australia are continually getting warmer than they were in the twentieth century. Similarly, the water tables are continuously going down, and the water volume is decreasing in other reservoirs day by day (Mercer 2014, p. 4; Oki 2006, p. 1071). Drought Intensity in Australia due to the Water Shortages Water scarcity is predicted to increase in Australia, especially the urban water supply. The climate Council predicted that the volumes of the inflows in the Sydney dams might decrease by 25% by the year 2017. The Warragamba and the Shoalhaven dams are likely to decline in water volumes with increasing greenhouse gas emission in Australia. Moreton catchment is also continually drying up due to the long breaks between one fill up to the other characterized by the decline of rainfalls (Stefen 2015, p. 7). The annual water demand is likely to overweigh the Perth dam supply as the dam is expected to decrease by 85 billion liters by the year 2030. The water that the country will have lost to the climate change will be enough to occupy 34000 swimming pools which have a capacity of Olympic stadiums. The four major reservoirs in Melbourne are predicted to decrease by 7% in the year 2030 and even worse by 2050 (McFarlane 2013, p.1). Climate change in Australia is likely to worsen the drought in the Southeast and Southwest of Australia. The Southern Ocean in Australia is shifting on the Southwards due to the increase in temperatures resulting from climate change in the country. The rainfall is continuously decreasing, and the water shortages in the water tables and the soil cycle could lead to more drought disasters in Australia. By the mid-1990’s, the Southeast of Australia was experiencing a 25% decrease in rainfall during winter. The average rainfall, which used to be experienced between April and May is no longer experienced nowadays. The Perth’s dam, on the other hand, has had a decrease in water volume by 80% since the middle of 1970’s. Climate change is continually increasing the frequency as well as the intensity of the heat waves due to water shortages and therefore the drought in continuing to improve (Stefen 2015, p. 1; Rinkesh 2009, p. 5; National Agriculture and Climate Change Action Plan 2008, p. 1). Challenges Experienced in Australia in Battling the Water Shortage The state and the territory governments of Australia are committed to ensuring equity in the distribution of water for different purposes in the country. The governments are faced with a challenge of maintaining the equilibrium in the natural resource distribution due to the overexploitation. The governments have, however, agreed on certain issues concerning the water scarcity in the country. Some of these issues include the water prices, trading, and allocation, environment as well as the water quality. The major challenge, however, is the land degradation problems which have led to problems in the water allocation and distribution. Water extraction in Australia has put much pressure on River Murray, and the natural floods are hindering the efforts of rehabilitating the river to recover its capacity as a source of water in Australia. Changes in vegetation cover in Australia and the land use practices are increasing the challenges in countering the water scarcity problems. Deforestation is a major driver of climate change, and it is highly being experienced in Australia. Most of the wetlands in Australia have been altered. The deforestation, on the other hand, increases the soil salinity thereby adversely affecting the available fresh water for domestic use when the effluents get downstream. Water quality has been degraded in Australia causing water scarcity among the people (WWF 2015, p. 1). The attempt to use the water trade to counter the problem has been a subject to a broad range of vulnerabilities. Some of the challenges of water trades include the technical issues such as lack of accountability for the water use caused by lack of the relevant registers political issues are also a major vulnerability as well as the social issues characterized by water barons. Culture and managerial issues are also a hindrance to the water trade in Australia (Fargher 2011, p. 17). Methods of the Responding to the Challenges of Countering the Water Scarcity in Australia Countering the issue of water scarcity in Australia is possible through the use of data. Use of the mass and original data is a reliable tool of countering water issues in Australia and also in the world. Data is especially efficient in the explanation of the cause and effect. The solution of specific problems can hence be put in place. The data about Australia will also provide the factors which are contributing to the water scarcity in the land. For instance, through data, the level of gaseous emission which accelerates the global warming in Australia is determined. The data is hence a foundation to the solutions to the water scarcity problem and factors. Visual data analysis is also efficient in assessing the relationship between the hydrology, climate and human consumption of water. The effects of the relationship, both regionally and nationally are determined. Data-driven discussions on the water management strategies are effective as it solves the problems from the roots. For instance, the country will come up with the right strategies to decelerate the rate of the climate change and in the long run rehabilitate the country’s catchment areas (Napier 2015, p. 3). Water trade is also an effective measure which the Australia as a country is using in countering the water shortages and should be conducted sustainably to overcome the threats facing the strategy. The water trade in Australia is primarily meant to counter the drought, which has been striking the area unpredictably. The water trade involves the country’s economy, and more importantly, the water trade increases the sustainability of food and water supply both in rural and urban centers (Collett 2011, p.1). The water trade will lead to management of the risks of urban water supplies, ensure that the ecosystems are healthy and promote the regional economy (Fargher 2011, p. 17). The National Water Initiative was developed by the Council of Australian Government to counter the issue of the water use productivity and efficiency in the country. The NWI is helping Australia with the water issues through various methods. Firstly, the organization is applying the whole system thinking strategy as the government has failed to manage the water scarcity issues. The NWI also uses the water reuse mechanism and water return to the natural water bodies in the country. The stream flows as well as the ground water in Australia is often utilized independently for urban purposes. The sewage treatment, the urban flow, and effluent reuse are also used differently in the country (Kenway 2008, p. 28). The water cycle interactions are being recognized in Australia as a major way of countering the water shortages in the area. The main operating principle is the integrated catchment management (The Territory Government 2016, p. 4; Sherry 2011, p.12). Technical innovation is also another strategy being employed in Australia as a solution to the failure of the government to manage the water scarcity issue. The innovation includes the cheap ways of treating the waste water and efficient ways of reusing the treated water. The strategies also include the leak detection method, especially in the system of the irrigation effluent. There is also the use of the remote sensing methods and solar energy, particularly in the desalination of water. The remote sensing techniques are important in helping the organization to understand both vertical and horizontal distribution of water to the citizens (Charters 2006, p. 21; Chidlow 2017, p.1; Opray 2016, p.1). Conclusion The impacts of the climate change are already being experienced in Australia. The current decade seems to be worse than the previous decades. The sea levels are increasing, and the heat waves are continually being experienced in a Southern part of Australia. Additionally, the region water tables are going down due to the long-term dry periods. The climate in Australia is continually deteriorating, especially with the greenhouse emission in the region. The carbon emission is increasing the temperatures in the atmosphere which in return increase the rate of evaporation., the reservoirs are decreasing in the water volumes and are expected to continue getting worse than they have been in the last decades. The water shortage is likely to overwhelm the capacity of the state and the territorial governments to distribute the resource among the citizens equally. The global average temperature is increasing by 0.85 and continually depleting the water tables causing increased water scarcity especially in Australia. References Read More