BHASVIC Geo: Water cycle and water insecurity Week 3

Wetland

An area of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt.

Groundwater flooding

Flooding that occurs after the ground has become saturated from prolonged heavy rainfall.

Surface water flooding

Flooding that occurs when intense rainfall has insufficient time to infiltrate the soil, so flows overland.

Flash flooding

A flood with an exceptionally short lag time - often minutes or hours.

Jökulhlaup

A type of glacial outburst flood that occurs when the dam containing a glacial lake fails.

Urbanisation

The increase in the number of people living in towns and cities compared to the number of people living in the countryside.

Morbidity

A state of ill health.

Eutrophication

Excessive richness of nutrients in a lake or other body of water, frequently due to run-off from farming land, which causes a dense growth of plant life and death of animal life from lack of oxygen.

Players

Individuals, groups or organisations with an involvement or interest in a particular issue.

Fracking

Hydraulic fracking or oil/gas well stimulation is a technique in which rock is fractured by a pressurised liquid.

Virtual water

The hidden flow of water when food or other commodities are traded.

Green Revolution

The use of high yield varieties (HYVs) of crops along with the use of agrochemicals and irrigation to increase yields and improve food supplies; begun in the 1960s.

Structural adjustment programmes (SAPs)

Neoliberal policies promoted by the World Bank and IMF to help developing countries overcome their debt problems. These are now superseded by poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs) as for many countries SAPs resulted in unacceptable hardship and little progress with solutions to debts.

Nimbyism

'Not in my backyard' - people protesting about developments which they see as detrimental to their own neighbourhood.

Top down

Large-scale capital intensive development schemes, usually developed by government.

Grey water

Refers to waste bath, sink or washing water. It can be recycled, resulting in savings in water usage.

Hydroponics

A method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions without soil.