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Water Resources

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17 views26 pages

Water Resources

Uploaded by

Jatin Soniya
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Water Resources

Freshwater Resources

Surface Water

Sub-surface Water

Ground water
Surface Water Sources
• Surface water is any body of water above ground, including streams,
rivers, lakes, wetlands, reservoirs.
• Surface water is constantly replenished through precipitation, and lost
through evaporation and seepage into ground water supplies.
• There are three types of surface water: perennial, ephemeral, and
man-made.
• Perennial (permanent) surface water persists throughout the year
and is replenished with groundwater when there is little
precipitation.
• Ephemeral (semi-permanent) surface water exists for only part of
the year. Ephemeral surface water includes small creeks, lagoons,
and water holes.
• Man-made surface water is found in artificial structures, such as
dams and constructed wetlands.
• The total land area that contributes surface runoff to a river or lake is
called a watershed, drainage basin, or catchment area.
Rivers/Streams/Creeks
• A river forms from water moving from a higher elevation to a lower
elevation, all due to gravity.
• When rain falls on the land, it either seeps into the ground or
becomes runoff, which flows downhill into rivers and lakes, on its
journey towards the seas.
• Flowing water finds its way downhill initially as small creeks. As
small creeks flow downhill they merge to form larger streams and
rivers.
• Rivers eventually end up flowing into the oceans. If water flows to a
place that is surrounded by higher land on all sides, a lake will form.
• All rivers have a starting point where water begins its flow. This
source is called a headwater. The headwater can come from rainfall
or snowmelt in mountains, but it can also bubble up
from groundwater or form at the edge of a lake or large pond.
• The other end of a river is called its mouth, where water empties
into a larger body of water, such as a lake or ocean.
The longest Rivers of the World

Drainage Flow at
River Name Location Length (miles Length (km Area mouth
approx) approx) (sq miles) (cubic m per
second)
Nile Africa 4,160 6,695 1,170,000 1,584
Amazon South 4,000 6,400 2,270,000 180,000
America
Yangtze Asia (China) 3,900 6,240 698,000 35,000
Mississippi USA 3,870 6,192 1,247,000 17,545
Ob Asia (Russia) 3,459 5,534 1,154,000 12,600
Yenisei/ Asia (Russia) 3,440 5,504 996,000 19,600
Angara
Yellow River Asia (China) 3,440 5,504 290,000 1,365

Congo Africa (Zaire) 2,900 4,640 1,440,000 42,000


Amur Asia 2,800 4,480 730,000 12,500
Parana Uruguay 2,795 4,472 1,197,000 19,500
• The River Nile is the longest river in the world. It
measures 6,695 kilometres from its source in Burundi,
along the White Nile, to its delta on the Mediterranean
Sea.
• The biggest river in the world, measured by the amount
of water that flows down in it, is the Amazon. On average
120,000 cubic metres of water flows out of its mouth
every second.
Lakes-

• A lake is a body of water that is surrounded by land.

• Lake, any relatively large body of slowly moving or standing water that
occupies an inland basin of appreciable size.

• There are millions of lakes in the world. Although lakes are to be found
throughout the world, the continents of North America, Africa,
and Asia contain about 70 percent of the total lake water.

• These lake basins are formed as a result of tectonic activity (movement


of plates, tectonic uplift, land subsidence due to earthquake,
depressions formed due to faulting), volcanic activity (craters formed
due to explosion of underground magma), glaciation, fluvial and
marine processes, wind action or man-made depressions
 Lakes, both natural and human made, are present in many different parts of
the landscape and can have complex groundwater flow systems associated
with them.

 Lakes interact with ground water in one of three basic ways:

 some receive ground water inflow throughout their entire bed;

 some have seepage loss to ground water throughout their entire bed;

 and others, perhaps most lakes, receive ground-water inflow through


part of their bed and have seepage loss to ground water through other
parts.

 Lowering of lake levels as a result of ground-water pumping can affect the


ecosystems supported by the lake, diminish lakefront aesthetics, and have
negative effects on shoreline structures.
• The world’s deepest lake is Lake
Baikal, in Russia. Its bottom is
nearly 2 kilometers below the
surface in places.

• Lakes exist at many different


The water in lakes comes
elevations. One of the highest is from rain, snow,
melting ice, streams,
Lake Titicaca, in the Andes and groundwater seepage.
Mountains and is about 3,810
meters (12,500 feet) above sea
level. The lowest lake is the Dead
Sea, between Israel and Jordan
and is more than 395 meters
(1,300 feet) below sea level.
Wetlands-
Wetlands are present wherever topography and climate favor
the accumulation or retention of water on the landscape.
Wetlands occur in widely diverse settings from coastal margins
to flood plains to mountain valleys.
Similar to streams and lakes, wetlands can receive ground-
water inflow, recharge ground water, or do both.
Wetlands have beneficial functions such as wildlife habitat,
floodwater retention, protection of the land from erosion,
shoreline protection in coastal areas, and water-quality
improvement by filtering of contaminants.
Wetlands can be quite sensitive to the effects of ground-water
pumping.
Springs-
Springs typically are present where the water table intersects the
land surface.
Springs serve as important sources of water to streams and other
surface-water features, as well as being important cultural and
aesthetic features in themselves.
The constant source of water at springs leads to the abundant
growth of plants and, many times, to unique habitats.
Ground-water development can lead to reductions in spring flow,
changes of springs from perennial to ephemeral, or elimination of
springs altogether, also affecting the resultant chemical
composition of the spring water
DAM
• Dam is a solid barrier constructed at a suitable location across
a river valley to store flowing water.

• Storage of water is utilized for following objectives:


• Hydropower
• Irrigation
• Water for domestic consumption
• Drought and flood control
• Navigational facilities
• Aquaculture
Sub-surface Water
Aquifer
Aquifer---from the Latin words aqua, meaning water, and ferre,
meaning to bear---is a term used to designate a porous geological
formation that:
contains water at full saturation (i.e., the entire interconnected void
space is filled with water), and
permits water to move through it under ordinary field conditions.

 It is generally a layer of rock or sediment that contains enough


accessible water.
 Whether a geological formation can be referred to as an aquifer, or not,
depends on its ability to store and transport water relative to other
formations in the vicinity.
 Aquifers can be either consolidated rock (such as sandstone) or
unconsolidated (such as the sands and gravels).

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