Introduction
Salinity intrusion is an increasing problem in the coastal region of Bangladesh. Climate Change and its associated hazards like sea level rise, cyclone and storm surge have been increasing the salinity problem in many folds. Although the coastal area covers about 32% of the country of which about 53% is affected by different degrees of salinity both water and soil salinity has increased in an alarming rate during the last couple of years. Hence, salinity intrusion has adverse effects on water, soils, agriculture, fisheries, and livelihoods of this region. In that circumstance, the dominating livelihood agriculture is affected severely including soil and ground water degradation, health problems and long term effect on ecosystem .Sea level rise (SLR) is considered one of the major reasons of salinity intrusion into soil and water in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. Salinity is an inevitable impact of sea level rise. I try to answer the
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After that, salinity affected a recorded 105.6 million hectares during 2009. In terms of soil salinity, about 1.2 million hectares of arable land are affected by soil salinity out of 2.85 million hectares of the coastal land.
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Soils of coastal areas are affected by varying degrees of salinity. For instance, in the south-western part of the coastal area, about 203,000 hectares are affected very slightly, 492,000 hectares slightly, 461,000 hectares moderately, and 492,000 hectares strongly. The severity of the salinity problem has increased over time with the dryness of the soil.
Furthermore, the saline affected area has increased by 35,440 ha (3.5%) during the last nine years whereas it has increased by 222,740 ha (26.7%) during the last 36 years (1973!1909) But the worst salinity conditions are reported in Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira, and Patuakhali districts of south-western
Water is the most relied upon resource on earth and if it disappeared life could not and would not exist on this planet. So if one of our main sources of water in South Australia, The Murray Darling-Basin, becomes unusable then we would need to find the problem and do everything possible to stop it or counteract it. This report investigates on salinity in the Murray Darling-Basin, using the issue question “Is there enough being done to counteract the effects of salinity in the Murray?” as the focus. Salinity is a key significant environmental challenge which the Murray faces and if left unmanaged it could cause serious implications for water quality, plant growth, biodiversity, land productivity, infrastructure and could lead to a loss of a water source that’s critical to human needs. In this investigation five different aspects of this salinity issue are presented and these aspects include what Salinity is and how it has become an issue, what the effects are, how salinity affects the rest of Australia, what can be done and is anyone doing anything and finally what the visions are for the future of the Murray and its salinity levels.
Water shortage in arid and semi-arid regions and declining its availability to a crisis ...
Africa has a regular coastline characterized by few indentations. Because of the smooth coastline, natural harbors were non-existent. Today, however, there are important coastal cities, such as Lagos and Dakar. With the exception of the Mediterranean coast, most of the coastline is low-lying , generally narrow and rising sharply to high elevations. The African climate and topography varies greatly. Although temperatures are usually high, due to being so close to the equator, rainfall, soil quality and elevations are of various degrees. Because most of the African continent has not been covered by water for millions of years, soils have developed according to their weathering e...
During times of war people can lose everything, yet still experience hope, family, and love. In the historical fictional novel Salt to the Sea, by Ruta Sepetys, a group of refugees escaping German and Russian forces during WWII are able to find love, hope, and family in one another. On the refugee's journey to the Wilhelm Gustloff, supporting characters Heinz (also known as the Shoe Poet) and Klaus discover faith and the aspect of family in each other. Similarly to main character, Emilia, who develops a strong relationship built by the building blocks of love and faith within her baby, Halinka. Despite the novel consisting of the pain and adversity, the characters endure during their escape to freedom; love, family, and hope are recurring themes that shine throughout the novel.
Human activity is one of the leading causes of the disappearance of coastal wetlands. As the human population increases in coastal cities so does the demand for more land. Urbanization is causing enormous amounts of devastation to the existing wetlands. Unrestricted development is causing the erosion of soil, which is dumping foreign sediments into the wetlands polluting the water and disturbing the ecosystem. According to Lee et al. (2006) “Urbanization is a major cause of loss of coastal wetlands. Urbanization also exerts significant influences on the structure and function of coastal wetlands, mainly through modifying the hydrological and sedimentation regimes, and the dynamics of nutrients and chemical pollutants”. Restrictions on the development...
“Much of Israel’s desert contains poor soil, the northern Negev, the coastal plains, and the interior valleys provide patches of productive soils. Twenty one percent of Israel’s land ...
The temperatures rise and the amount of rainfall decreases which disturbs the natural system of the Earth, causing ice caps to melt, sea levels to rise, plants and animal food sources to deplete which in turn affects humans food sources and agriculture, and natural disasters to occur more often. Similarly, climate change seems to have the greatest impact on the oceans and ecosystems along the coast. Many countries center themselves on their water supply; for instance, throughout history, population has always been the densest along rivers and lakes, but mostly along the coasts. People need water to survive, not only for drinking and their homes, but they also use water to import and export goods, and for transportation. “Many areas of the United States, especially the West, currently face water supply issues. The amount of water available in these areas is already limited, and demand will continue to rise as population grows. The West has experienced less rain over the past 50 years, as well as increases in the severity and length of droughts; this has been especially of concern in the Southwest” (“Climate Change Impacts”). Another concern of climate change is the rising of sea levels, which is caused by ice melting or the shifting of the land and the plates. When the sea level rises, it affects not only all of the human activities, but the quality of their water, as well as the plants
Observational records indicate that sea level has already risen between 10 and 25 cm globally over the past 100 years. In addition, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has projected a sea-level rise of 15-95 cm as a consequence of global warming. Sea-level rise will also increase the depth of coastal waters and increase inland and upstream salinity intrusion, both of which affect fresh and brackish water wetlands. Sea-level rise has the potential for increasing the severity of storm surges, particularly in areas where coastal habitats and barrier shorelines are rapidly deteriorating. These direct consequences of global- and regional-scale changes will increase the vulnerability of coastal wetlands which are already heavily impacted by human activities.
According to the World Bank Development Report 2013 there has been an increase in global surface temperature of 0.4 to 0.9 Celsius (C) in the past 100 years. This change in temperature largely caused, according to the IPCC, by the release of GHGs through human activities. There are several effects associated to the change in global temperature, mainly affecting ecosystems and populations worldwide. Among these effects or consequences are sea-level rise, drought, floods, loss of mangroves, and the intensification of storms and climate processes such as El Nino and La Nina. Recent studies have focused on sea-level rise and the global effects. Over the past 100 years, sea levels have increased by 10 to 20 centimeters (World Bank, 2003). Moreover, arctic sea-ice has continued to shrink up to 10 percent or more of its total mass and by 40 percent of its thickness. Glaciers and small ice caps are rapidly melting, causing several changes in the flows of rivers and ecosystems, as well as adding to the increase of sea levels. Sea level rise will most likely severely affect unprepared, developing countries and their populations. Concomitantly, developed industrial countries with higher levels of GDP are likely to cope more efficiently with the effects of sea level rise. This paper will focus on the prognosticated socio-economic costs of s...
Water Issues in South Asia If there is any single most important issue that mars bilateral relations among the countries of the subcontinent, it is water. The issues of cross-border water distribution, utilisation, management and mega irrigation/hydro-electric power projects affecting the upper and lower riparian countries are gradually taking centre-stage in defining interstate relations as water scarcity increases and both drought and floods make life too often miserable. Thanks to its location, size and contiguous borders with other South Asian countries, it is India, in its capacity as both upper and lower riparian, that has come into conflict with most of its neighbours, except Bhutan, on the cross-border water issues. Given an atmosphere of mistrust, an upper riparian India has serious issues to resolve with lower riparian Pakistan and Bangladesh and, despite being lower riparian, with the upper riparian Nepal.
People in Bangladesh aren’t educated enough to build any appropriate flood protection and to maintain them. The problem concerning Bangladesh is that most of the land is only a few feed above water and very unstable. No amount of river control can change this. To alleviate the impact of flooding Bangladesh’s only choice has to be severe population controls to reduce the density of people on this land and also to encourage a movement away from the lowest lying areas. It is also believed that Bangladesh will each year run a three-times higher risk of suffering an exceptionally wet monsoon compared with the probability today, thus it is also expected that parts of Bangladesh face the risk of more frequent, major floods in the latter half of this century because of global warming.
Agriculture also leads to soil erosion, both through rainfall and wind. This soil can damage the aquatic ecosystems it ends up in, an...
One of the major effects of global warming is the rise of sea level due to thermal expansion of the ocean, in addition to the melting of land ice. Now there are dozens of land areas that sit well below sea level and the majority of those land areas are very well populated. At least 40 percent of the world 's population lives within 62 miles of the ocean, putting millions of lives and billions of dollars ' worth of property and infrastructure at risk. (Juliet Christian-Smith, 2011) This means if the sea level rises to the projected level of 25 meters (82 feet) half of the world will retreat back to the ocean. (Rohrer, 2007) Also rising sea levels means higher tides and storm surges riding on ever-higher seas which are more dangerous to people and coastal inf...
The problem of water scarcity has increasingly spread throughout the world as of yet, The UN reports that within the next half- century up to 7 billion people in 60 countries which is more than the whole present population will face water scarcity (Sawin “Water Scarcity could Overwhelm the Next Generation”). As well the demand for freshwater has tripled over the past 50 years, and is continuing to rise as a result of population growth and economic development. 70% of this demand derives from agriculture which shows the influence of water on food supply globally as well not just drinking water (Sawin “Water Scarcity could overwhelm the Next Generation”). But increasing water use is not just a matter of the greater number of people needing it to drink and eat; it also comes from pollution and misuse of water supplies, by either dumping or runoff of bacteria or chemicals into water. This also “causes other pollutions as well such as soil and air pollution, accelerating wetland damage and human caused global warming” (Smith and Thomassey 25). According to UN report, recent estimates suggest that climate change will account for about 20 percent of the increase in global water scarcity in coming decades.
Water is an integral part of not only human beings but all other creatures in the world. We use it every day for different purposes such as domestic, agricultural and industrial. Water has always been a prestigious resource. However, the majority of people do not appraise water’s worth since they do not face water scarcity; whereas, in third world countries it is one of the most serious problems. Nearly 2.4 billion people have a lack of water resources in the world, shows the investigation done by the Pacific Institute, an Oakland, California-based non-profit scientific research group. Moreover, every year this number is growing gradually and more people are suffering (Bloomberg News, 2010). There are certain causes which deteriorate current situation. The most influential reasons are global warming, pollution by human-beings and overpopulation. It is known that India is one of the countries which face water scarcity so this essay will consider the possible ways of solutions of water shortage in India.