The Adverse Affects of Climate Change

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1.0 Climate change For a significant number of years it has been evident that global temperatures were rising and that human activity is a major contributing factor to this rise. The rise in temperature is not only heating the planet but having an adverse effect on the global climate. 1.1 Global Global temperatures have noticeably been rising since the mid 1800’s.The average temperature has increased by 0.6 ± 0.2°C since 1860 according to (John Sweeney, 2003)with accelerated warming apparent in the latter decades of the 20th century. The legitimacy of global warming had long been debated, however in a report by (IPCC, 2007) it states that warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising global average sea level. Simulations on models such as EC-Earth provide us with predictions for future climate change. Depending on levels of emissions an increase of 1 to 5.5 degrees celsius is expected in average global temperatures by 2100. The warming of the air brings with it a change in weather patterns across the globe. This change in weather patterns will include an increase in weather extremes such as, storms and drought. The type of extreme depends on a specific region with drought expected to increase in the dry tropics and with the frequency of tropical storms and rainfall expected to increase in the wet tropics. The rise in temperature is having a significant impact on levels of rainfall, which in turn effects water run-off. Satellite observations since 1987 have shown that, as global temperatures have increased, global mean precipitation has increased in parallel at a rate of 7.4 ± 2.6% per ◦C ... ... middle of paper ... ...NR, 2009) it states that the effectiveness of a swale in both reducing the flow rates and volume of runoff, and removing pollutants, is a function of the size and composition of the drainage area, the slope and cross section of the channel, the permeability of the soil, the density and type of vegetation in the swales, and the swale dimensions. Retrofitting The idea of retrofitting suds into existing developments was introduced to tackle the problems assiocated with traditional drainage systems which were designed to convey stormwater from the devlopents to receiving enviorments as quickily as possible to minimize flooding at the development. These however cause enviormental problems in receiving enviorments The validity of retrofitting suds howerever is dependant on land availability, in piticular on high density urban developments where space is limited.

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