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what problem are associated with drought
Causes and effects of drought
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Introduction
The following is a report on Australian drought situation. It will identity the definition of the drought, describe the causes of drought, represent impact of drought in Queensland and introduce management to help farmers cope with future drought occurrences.
The definition of drought
A drought means there is not enough precipitation. It is a period of unusually dry weather that keeps on long enough to cause environment or economic problems which result in a water shortage and destroy vegetation, animals and crops. Drought can happen even if there is some rainfall. Bushfires and heat waves will occur because of drought. (Francesca.F, 2000)
Causes of drought
There are many causes of drought. The first element is about the water cycle. The moving clouds and moisture over the atmosphere cannot make a place receive the normal amount of rainfall during a period of time. ( Lincoln, 2014). It means there is not have enough moisture to create precipitation. If residents who live near a river, most of their water comes from this river. And their drought might because of the less precipitation at upstream. (ibid). As a result of the drought there will be a shortage of water in the region. The most important climatic phenomenon that causes drought is Southern Oscillation. “Southern Oscillation is a primary air pressure change which is a seesawing of atmospheric pressure between an area just to the north of Australia and the central Pacific Ocean.” (Study Guide 23). It is also linked to El Nino and La Nina. “El Nino is a complex interaction between air and sea in tropical Pacific. “(Robert, 2013). El Nino means little boy in Spanish and also means unusually high atmospheric pressure and sinking air through Northern Australian w...
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...the El Nino air pressure. The drought also has many impacts on economic, social and environmental. Manage drought comes from daily life and the government measure.
Works Cited
Andrew, B. (2013). Drought relief for Queensland farmers. The Queensland Cabinet and Ministerial
Directory, p1
Amanda, M.(2011). How to prepare for a drought. [On-line]. Available : www. Kiwihow.com/Prepare
-for- a-Drought.
Ballard, J.(2012). The drought. England. Liveright Publishing Corporation
James. R. (1989). El Nino and La Nina. El Nino, La Nina and the Southern Oscillation, (46), 12-13.
Lincoln. (2014). Causes of drought. [On-line]. Available: http://drought.unl.edu/Droughtforkids/what
Isdrought/Causesofdrought.aspx.
Oblack, B.(2014). What causes drought. [On-line]. Available: weather.about.com/od/drought/f/
Droughts.htm
In North China, there is high temperature and low rainfall. High summer temperature is due to continental climate. Also, hot dry winds occasionally blow towards Loess Plateau from Gobi Desert in the north. Summer temperature of Less Plateau is high, e.g. Xian ever reached 42.5℃. High summer temperature causes the high evaporation and lead to dryness. The precipitation reduces. Finally, it causes the expansion of dry areas and drought. Water scarcity becomes worse.
The weather in this novel controls their crops and the river flow; which controls their food and water supply. They depend on adequate rainfall to help their crops to grow and for the river to be full. They also depend on the sun to warm things up and make the crops grow. However, if there is too much rain or too much sun it can cause many problems, such as a drought or a flood. These things are significant in this novel, because t...
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Climate change has the potential to devastate millions in Australia. Rising temperatures will impact the landscape of Australia by decreasing Australia's forests. Australia is going to have to spend billions of dollars to make sure their safety from climate change. The people in Australia will need to be strong and flexible to make it through this tough time they're going through, and Australia will have to find a way to fix this problem before it's too late. Climate change is something that will affect the entire world and it's not an issue to take lightly. Australia’s solutions are not simple at all and in order for them to work everyone will have to work together. Climate change in Australia will impact the environment, the economy, and the lives of Australians, an example of a solution is to cut down on carbon emissions.
Water is used for many things, including food and energy production. If policies are set in place and the water supply is cautiously monitored, then we can meet the food, energy, and water needs. These policies must plan for water reduction used by the economy and the population while maintaining streams and lakes required as habitats for the ecosystem [3]. If policies are not done correctly, the American Southwest could collapse. Not only would water be limited but food production would decline as well as energy. The population would have motives to move, resulting in a declining and unstable economy if a huge losses occurred. Without plentiful water, a severe drought could become a motive for terrorist attacks aimed either at the unstable population or any water supplies to create further problems [3]. Wildfires could wreak havoc on the area and result in loss of habitat for the ecosystem. If extensive enough, life could become scarce as people and species
Drought is a phenomenon that has become characterizes a majority of Australia’s climate. It can be detrimental to the population of Australia especially on agricultural productivity. Within the region of drought southeastern Australia there are three main occurrences that cause drought, El Niño Southern oscillation, Indian Ocean dipole and variability and the Southern annular mode. Since drought in Australia can become so severe, the federal government has accepted drought as a feature of the climate and has emergency funding for those affected in times of ‘exceptional circumstances’ (textbook).
One resource that thoroughly explains the effects of a drought are websites and these couple of websites were very thorough in their explanation of the causes and effects of droughts.
Meteorological drought is referred as a precipitation deficiency, in comparison to normal or base line condition. We use Standardized Precipitation index (SPI-n, where n = 3, 6, 9 and 12 months accumulation period) as an index of meteorological drought. SPI represents a statistical z-score or the number of standard deviations (following a probability distribution, usually Gamma and back transformed to standard normal distribution) above or below that an event is from the mean (McKee et al. 1993; Sims et al., 2002). SPI is spatially invariant and probabilistic in nature and able to capture different drought states ranging from short, medium and long-term drought conditions depending on the length of the accumulation period. SPI has number of advantages, such as (Lloyd-Hughes and Saunders, 2002); (i) The SPI is based on precipitation and requires computation of only two
My topic is the extreme cases of droughts that are occurring throughout Africa. Drought is a local or regional lack of precipitation such that ability to raise crops and feed animals is seriously impaired. Our Environmental Science textbook covers this topic in chapters 9 and 20. Environmental Science is the branch of science concerned with environmental issues. My topic relates to environmental science because in developing countries such as Africa, food, water, clothing, medicine, and many other essential needs for life is extremely limited and situations such as droughts make it even harder for people to live and go through life.
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Vidot, A & Barbour, L 2014, ‘Dry argument: Australia's drought policy dilemma’, National Rural News, Canberra. From web: www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-21/drought-assistance-in-australia/5269062