Untitled Flashcards Set

Intro

- Water and energy are very intertwined with each other.

- Water is a molecule, and it is made up of 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atoms.

- The chemical formula is H20 (duh).

- Covalent bond (strong): a hydrogen atom shares a pair of electrons with the oxygen

atom.

- Hydrogen bond (weak): no electrons are shared.

- It is because of the covalent bond that the atoms that compose water stay connected.

- The 3 states of matter are solid, liquid, and gas.

- The boiling point of water is 100 degrees celsius, which is 212 degrees fahrenheit.

- The melting point of water is 0 degrees celsius, which is 32 degrees fahrenheit.

- Heating 1 kg of water by 1 degree celsius takes 4200 joules.

- Water has surface tension, meaning that there is strong cohesive forces between water

molecules.

- Water has capillary action, meaning that water can flow upward in narrow spaces.

- Water is transparent, as light can penetrate water.

- Light penetrating water serves to support aquatic ecosystems.

- Water is a solvent, meaning it can be used to clean.

- Snow and rain go into streams and then go into bodies of water to evaporate, before

becoming snow and rain again.

- Groundwater also goes into bodies of water to evaporate.

- Evaporation is the transfer of liquid water into water vapor. - Clouds are water vapor.

- Condensation is the change of water vapor into liquid water, which happens when it touches a cooler surface.

- Precipitation occurs when clouds get dense and full of water droplets, and thus fall back down either in the form of rain, snow, sleet, or hail.

- Runoff is the movement of water over land surfaces, either infiltrating into the ground or flowing into bodies of water.

- Groundwater is water that is found beneath the surface of the earth.

- One major concern in the world is water quality.

- Ways of testing water quality:

- Gravimetric: weighing of solids after evaporation.

- Instrument requirements: drying oven, scale.

- Volumetric: using titration techniques to determine concentrations of

designated substances.

- Instrument requirements: pipettes, burettes, reagents.

- There are multiple water-borne diseases, like cholera.

Water Fundamentals

- Water can be ice, water, and vapor.

- The dew point is where water vapor changes back to liquid.

- Oxygen by itself has 6 electrons, but by bonding with the hydrogen atoms to make water,

it takes one more from each of them to have 8.

 - Hydrogen by itself has one electron, but by bonding with oxygen, it takes one more to have 2.

- The two hydrogen atoms are arranged around a single oxygen atom at an angle of 105 degrees.

- Hydrogen atoms repulse each other due to a positive charge, and the two non-binding electron pairs on the oxygen atom also repulse hydrogen atoms.

- This leads to a special bipolar molecular structure that leads water molecules to want to associate with each other.

- Oxygen has 6 electrons in its outer shell (as well as 2 in its inner shell) but needs 8 in its outer shell to fill its octet.

- Hydrogen has 1 electron in its outer shell but needs 2 to be stable.

- Water molecules are bipolar, meaning that there is a positive and negative side to each

atom.

- The positive side: hydrogen.

- The negative side: oxygen.

- The weakness of the hydrogen bond means that it can be broken with the application of force.

- When water molecules separate, the water transitions into a gas—water vapor is formed.

- Heating water causes the movement of the water molecules, and this movement breaks

the hydrogen bonds that link them, which makes them transform into water vapor.

- Water has a high specific heat capacity, meaning that a large amount of energy is

required to break hydrogen bonds in water.

- The specific heat capacity is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of a

substance by a single degree.

- The specific heat capacity of water is 4.2.

- The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can not be created or destroyed, but

only transformed into another form.

- The energy absorbed by water particles while breaking the hydrogen bonds is

transformed into latent heat that is then released as sensible heat as the water returns to

liquid form.

- Water is often moved considerable distances in weather systems, taking the latent heat

with it.

- This accounts for around 70% of the lateral global transportation of energy.

- The heat we feel is sensible heat.

- Latent heat is absorbed in melting and evaporation and is released in freezing and

condensation.

- Energy is required for all water phase changes.

- When water moves from liquid to gas this is a negative flux (energy is lost, heat goes

down), and the opposite phase change of gas to liquid produces a positive flux (energy

is gained, heat goes up).

- The sensible heat flux is the rate of flow of sensible heat.

- Water is a very efficient heat sink.

- Solar heat is released by bodies of water at night or in winter.

- Moderating effect for coastal regions creating maritime climates.

 - Ex. San Francisco

- Water acts as a climate moderator.

- The energy required to break hydrogen bonds is also the mechanism by which large

amounts of energy are transported away from hot equatorial regions toward the cooler

poles.

- There is more incoming solar radiation closer to the equator.

- Water vapor is a powerful greenhouse gas.

- Short-wave radiation passes through the atmosphere and then may be absorbed by the

earth’s surface, and is reradiated back from the earth’s surface as long-wave radiation, which is absorbed by gaseous water molecules leading to the earth’s atmosphere heating up.

- Water vapor plays a similar role to carbon dioxide and methane.

- Cohesion is a property of water: it is that water molecules like to stick to each other,

- Adhesion is another property of water: it is that water likes to stick to other things.

- Surface tension (cohesive forces) is common to liquids.

- Water grouping together into droplets is cohesion, and water sticking to surfaces is

adhesion, and these properties are opposed to each other.

- Adhesive forces of liquids result in capillary action whereby liquids flow within narrow

gaps between solid material, no matter which way gravity acts.

- Water is a solvent because it quickly dissolves other substances that it comes into

contact with.

- Water molecules disassociate from each other to surround compounds contained in

them.

- Detergents speed up this action because they reduce surface tension.

- Water for human use only makes up a very small portion of the total water on Earth.

- Almost all water on Earth is in the world's oceans.

- The percentage of water on Earth in icecaps and glaciers has been changing the most

(decreasing).

- Most freshwater is in glaciers.

- Access to fresh water is a problem for much of the world and may be a developing problem in some other areas, such as the Western United States.

- Most water-poor countries are around the Persian Gulf.

- Desalinization of salt water is a way to get fresh water but the process is energy

intensive.

- In low and mid-income countries, the majority of water is used for agriculture, and in

high-income countries, the majority of water is used for industrial purposes.

- Water usage has increased tenfold between 1900 and 2000.

- Most of the growth can be attributed to agriculture.

- Consumptive water uses are one-time non-recyclable usages of water.

- Agriculture is an example of consumptive water usage.

- Usage of water on farms for certain meats, specifically beef, is consumptive, and

the amount of water necessary is very high.

- Even fresh water has some salt, and when evaporated, it leaves salt behind, making

agriculture in the future harder.

 - Icecaps and glaciers melting adds to the water in the ocean, which causes sea levels to rise.

- Flood mapping is a way to predict the impact of floods.

- Water quality mapping is a way to predict the quality of water.

- Algal blooming can greatly impact the quality of water, potentially making it extremely

hazardous.

Water Fundamentals II

- Water is necessary for basic survival, agriculture, security, manufacturing, transportation

and trade, and energy.

- Water for survival:

- 72% of the human body is water.

- Water manufactures hormones and neurotransmitters in the brain, helps with

body temperature regulation (sweat and respiration), is a shock absorber for brain and spinal cord, helps with digestion, helps transport oxygen, lubricates joins, flushes body waste, helps cells grow and reproduce and survive, keeps mucosal membranes moist, and creates saliva.

- Not getting enough water leads to thirst and then subsequently dehydration, then fatigue and weakness, then changes in blood pressure which leads to dizziness, decreased saliva and dried skin, impaired cognitive function, negatively impacted digension system, inability to sweat and subsequent overheating, decreased blood volume and increased heart rate, and kidney problems, electrolyte imbalance, and then eventual death.

- Water for agriculture:

- Water is used for irrigation, soil moisture management, nutrient transport,

photosynthesis, temperature regulation, and frost protection.

- For food sources, water is used for crops, livestock, equipment, electricity, and

produce processing.

- Water for defense:

- Water can be used as a tool for defense: moats.

- Water scarcity and disagreements on water rights can be a critical factor in

human security.

- Water for manufacturing:

- Water is used for cleaning of raw materials, manipulation of materials, cooling towers for industrial production, and chemical processing.

- Chemical processing requires water as a solvent, reactant, or medium. - Water for Energy:

- Water is used for generating energy in a variety of ways.

- People have lived next to surface water for pretty much all of human history.

- This allows for access to water, access to waterways for trade and transport, access to fishing, and milder climates.

- Canals are used to move water.

- Bunds are small barriers in fields that serve to prevent runoff coming from upslope.

- Bunds slow down water sheet flow, and encourage infiltration and soil moisture.

 - In Southern Europe, thousands of years ago they utilized something called step wells, which involved going down steps to get water.

- Cisterns are underground reservoirs to capture and store rainwater.

- Tankas are cylindrical underground rainwater storage cisterns that collect rainwater from

rooftops courtyards, or catchment flows.

- Dams serve to divert water, store water, control floods, regulate river flow, control

erosion, and manage droughts.

- Southern California brings in water from the California Delta, and the Colorado River.

- Deforestation reduces water infiltration into soil, and increases runoff and erosion, and is

negatively impactful on biodiversity and water regulation, and increases vulnerability to

extreme events.

- Many industrial places are near water because they use a lot of water.

- The LA River was made of concrete so that the water will move faster, and surplus water

would move to the ocean as quick as possible in order to reduce the flood risk.

- Water is crucial for long-distance shipping.

- The surface water that we generally use is from lakes and rivers.

- Humans have managed water on small to large scales for thousands of years.

Virtual Water and Water Footprints

- Water is renewable but finite.

- There is variability across the world, and across time.

- Water is hard to come by in the Sahara, but abundant in New Zealand, for example.

- Prices do not affect the availability of water, water is underpriced. - Value cannot be accurately measured by the market.

- Water is a common pool resource, which creates the free-rider problem.

- A water footprint is the measure of total water consumption for creating and sustaining

something.

- A “something” could be an individual person, a corporation, a product, a sector,or

a nation.

- Three components of water footprint:

- Green water: rainwater taken up by plants and used in a product. - This is water that does not become runoff.

- Blue water: surface and ground water sources used in a product.

- This is more negatively environmentally impactful than green water.

- This is what makes up the additional water brought in, through irrigation,

for crops.

- Grey water: water used to dilute pollution.

- Ex. pumping in fresh water to dilute a polluted water source in order to put it back into the environment.

- Virtual water is water used to create a commodity.

- Virtual water is used in its manufacturing, packaging, and sale.

- Individuals that consume such products consume the virtual water within them.

 - Only 3% of an individual’s water’s footprint is at home, and the other 97% of it is virtual water, that is invisible, and is related to the products bought in the supermarket.

- 87% is agricultural, and 10% is industrial products.

- Coffee, chocolate, and beef are biggest water users.

- About 20% of the water we use in the US is consumed abroad.

- Internal water footprint of national consumption + external footprint of national

consumption = water footprint of national consumption.

- The US has the largest water footprint of all industrialized countries.

- China, India, and the US, account for 38% of the water footprint of humanity.

- However, the US uses a lot more per capita than China or India. - And we lead the world in water usage per capita.

- Farming claims the bulk of water usage globally.

- It takes more water to grow crops in hotter weather.

- It would be best then for crops to be grown in better climates and exported, as opposed to being grown in countries with hot climates.

- However, countries want to be self-sufficient, so this would be hard.

- Livestock are the largest anthropogenic user of land.

- Grazing uses 26% of the ice-free terrestrial surface of the Earth.

- Feed crop production requires 33% of the arable land.

- In all, livestock production uses 70% of all agricultural land and 30% of the land surface

of Earth.

- Consumption of meat and dairy somewhere may be related to water use elsewhere.

- Three possibilities (for animals):

- Trade in live animals.

- Trade in processed animal products.

- Trade in feed crops.

- The mean total water footprint for cotton is 10,000 liters of water per kilogram of cotton.

- Life cycle assessments (LCA’s) gives a systems-based quantitative method fir evaluating

the environmental impact of a product.

- Tools like LCA’s are used to assess the stages and impact of a product’s entire life, from

raw material extraction to waste treatment.

- LCA’s usually does not include social impacts or economic impacts.

- For jeans, the greatest energy and water impact was in cotton cultivation and consumer

care.

- The Netherlands is the cut-flower hub of Europe.

- But, most roses come from abroad rather than from Dutch producers.

- Kenya is a big producer of flowers.

- Growing flowers is a consumptive use of water.

- Nutrients used for producing flowers going into a lake create algae.

- This has become an issue for Kenya.

- Calculating water footprints for producers and consumers is difficult.

- Assessments have big implications for sustainability and human well-being.

- Large virtual water flows accompany international trade.

- Only 3% of water is freshwater.

 Global Water Cycle/Weather

- Places with more mountains around generally have more precipitation.

- Places with low pressure are likely to have more precipitation.

- High pressure = blue skies little rain.

- Low pressure = cloudy with rain.

- The lower the pressure, the lower the clouds. - Warm air rises above cold air, creating clouds.

- The warm air also becomes cold when it gets higher.

- Precipitation, evaporation, transfers from sea to land, and land to sea, all offset each

other, and do nothing to change the total amount of water on the planet.

- Plants carry soil water in through their roots for their sustenance.

- Water turnover is most common in the atmosphere, and most rare in deep groundwater.

- Evaporation is the transfer of liquid water into a gaseous state and its diffusion into the

atmosphere.

- Three requirements for evaporation:

- 1. An energy source.

- The main source of energy for evaporation comes from the sun.

This may be direct radiation or it may be absorbed by the surface and re-radiated as longwave radiation.

- Net radiation: sum of the sensible, latent, and soil heat fluxes.

- 2. An atmosphere that is dry enough to receive any water vapor produced.

- The receiving atmosphere must not already be saturated with water vapor.

- Relative humidity is a measure of how much water vapor is in the atmosphere.

- The ability of water vapor to diffuse into the atmosphere is determined largely by wind speed and turbulence.

- 3. An available water supply from which liquid water is transformed into water vapor.

- Sensible heat causes the temperature of a substance to change but not the chemical composition or state.

- Latent heat flux is energy required to produce a phase change from ice to liquid water, or liquid water to water vapor.

- Liquid to gas = energy absorbed.

- Gas to liquid = energy released.

- Soil heat flux is the amount of energy required to heat the soil per unit of surface and

time.

- Positive soil heat flux = material receives energy = warms up - Negative soil heat flux = material loses energy = cools down - The soil heat flux matters to farmers.

- Most income radiation from the sun that hits the surface is shortwave radiation.

 - Energy reradiated back by Earth’s surface is longwave radiation.

- Longwave radiation is made up of infrared and longer wavelengths.

- The warmer the atmosphere, the more water it can hold.

- Transpiration is part of photosynthesis and respiration with rate controlled by the opening

and closing of stomata in leaves.

- This is the process by which water vapor escapes from plants into the

atmosphere from the leaves of the plant.

- Evapotranspiration is a combination of evaporation and transpiration.

- Types of precipitation:

- Rain: liquid water droplets between 0.5 and 7 mm in diameter.

- Drizzle: a subset of rain with droplets less than 0.5 mm.

- Sleet: freezing raindrops that are a combination of snow and rain.

- Snow: complex ice crystals agglomerated.

- Hail: balls of ice between 5 and 125 mm in diameter.

- The ability of air to hold water vapor depends on its temperature.

- The cooler the air, the less water vapor is retained.

Climate Variability

- Some places (notably the arctic) are too cold to sustain trees.

- The greater a place is from the equator, the greater the seasonal temperature variation

will be.

- Insolation = incoming solar radiation.

- Earth’s surface temperature is a balance between insolation and outgoing terrestrial

radiation.

- Peak temperature lags after peak insolation because surface continues to warm until

infrared radiation exceeds insolation.

- This is why the tempature is the hottest after the middle of the day as opposed to

the direct middle.

- The northern hemisphere has larger monthly average temperature fluctuations than the

southern hemisphere.

- This may be because the land area in the southern hemisphere is smaller.

- Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) is a robust recurring pattern of ocean-atmosphere climate variability cenetred over the mid-latitude pacific basin.

- Positive phase = heating up.

- Negative phase = cooling down.

- Milankovitch cycles describe the collective effects of changes in the Earth’s movements

on its climate over thousands of years.

- Three cycles:

- Eccentricity

- Earth encounters more variation in the energy it receives from the

sun when the Earth’s orbit is more elongated. - Axial tilt

 - The tilt of the Earth’s axis varies between 22.2 and 24.5, and the greater the tilt angle is, the more solar energy the poles receive.

- Precession

- This is a gradual change or wobble in the orientation of Earth’s

axis that affects the relationship between Earth’s tilt and

eccentricity.

- The cycles impact the seasonality and location of solar energy around the Earth,

thus impacting contrasts between the seasons.

- Milankotich cycles occur over thousands of years.

- Climate defines the average weather over a period of time.

- Climate change is the change in the average weather over time.

- Decades, centuries.

- Climate variability is the variability in general climate patterns that occur.

- Months, years, decades.

- Weather is the state of the atmosphere at a particular time.

- Hours, days, months.

Climate Change

- Anthropogenic climate change = human-caused climate change.

- Increased levels of C02 and CH4 in the atmosphere leads it to hold more radiated heat

rather than letting it escape into space.

- CH4 warms the planet 86x more than CO2 but survives in the atmosphere for only 10-20

years before converting into CO2, which then lasts for centuries.

- Human caused climate change causes more re-emmited heat, more greenhouse

gasses, and less heat escaping into space.

- Greenhouse gases have difference radiayive efficiency and different lifetimes.

- Methane warms the planet far more than carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide warms far

more than methane, and fluorinated gases warm far more than nitrous oxide.

- But their commonality is inversely proportional to their warming effect.

- A lot of methane release occurs in wetlands, meaning that rice causes a lot of methane gas release.

- Amount of C02 today is way higher than it has ever been.

- 2020 and 2016 are the warmest years on record.

- The amount of intense weather events have been rising greatly, largely due to climate

change.

- The California drought was largely due to the fact that the ridge of high air pressure

blocked storms from reaching California.

- Statistical studies showed this pattern had almost no chances of occurring.

- The ocean is a big carbon sink.

- Ocean acidification occurs when the ocean absorbs too much carbon.

- This causes the PH level to lower.

- Ocean acidification poses threats to krill, plankton, shellfish, and corals, and their loss

would impact almost every ocean creature and shorebird.

 - Coral loss is particularly detrimental because coral serves a role as a place in the ocean where fish spawn.

- IPCC is the intergovernmental panel on climate change.

- The IPCC produces researched estimates of impacts.

- Five reasons for concern are for categories of risks, and are as follows:

- Unique and threatened systems, extreme weather events, distribution of impacts, global aggregate impacts, and large-scale singular events.

- Climate scientists must develop scenarios for future not knowing if or when human-caused emissions will be brought down.

- Figures from the UN’s IPCC show climate change estimates based on four different scenarios (called representative concentration pathways or RCPs).

- These are:

- Global average surface temperature change.

- Northern Hemisphere September sea ice extent.

- Global mean sea level rise.

- Global surface ocean pH.

- Storms are significant and climatically controlled events.

- Patterns of past storm events are used to estimate or model the likelihood, location and

intensity of future storms.

- The middle of the ocean is warmer, and this leads to there being more storms there.

- The planning and provision of water for community, environmental, and economic needs

is based on probability.

- Patterns in past water levels in reservoirs, precipitation, and snowmelt are used to

estimate or model the amount and timing of water availability in the future.

- Hydrologic systems naturally contain huge amounts of variability, but we usually assume

that the hydrological regime is stationary over long periods of time.

- Past events help us foresee future events.

- When past climate patterns do not apply to our current and future climate, it is difficult or

impossible to predict storm events and plan for water provision.

- More extreme events may become the norm while the number of storms holds steady, or

the whole probability chart shifts, meaning more storms overall.

- It is difficult to make specific predictions of changes in local hydrology based on changes

in global patterns.

- Local water balance is an example.

Physical Water Risk

- A drought is when there is too little water.

- At the current morning, California is relatively well-off, with most of the state being either

just somewhat dry or in moderate drought, as opposed to most of the state being in

significant drought.

- Types of tropical storms: hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons.

- Steps for tropical storms:

- 1. The warm ocean heats the air above

- 2. Rising warm air evaporates and starts to spin

 - 3. The air then cools and condenses to form a towering cumulonimbus cloud

- 4. Intense low pressure sucks in air, causing very strong winds

- Impervious surfaces are manmade surfaces that do not allow water to pass through.

- Loss of wetlands and increase of impervious surfaces make flooring more likely and

more expensive as more structures are impacted.

- We see this in Houston which is called the flood capital of the U.S.

- The growth in flood hazard in Houston has coincided with population growth.

- King tides are tides from storms that come on shore. - This occurs when storms happen at high tide.

- Digital Elevation Models (DEM’s) are digital models of the Earth’s surface that can show elevator.

- These can also show watersheds, which are points where smaller bodies of water flow into bigger bodies of water.

- Tornados form when two large air masses with different temperatures and humidity collide.

- A cold dry air mass is forced over a warm, humid air mass.

- The warm, humid air begins to rise, forcing its way through the cold air, creating an

upward funnel.

- If the funnel reaches down to the ground, it can pull up, carry, and destroy large,

heavy structures.

- A tsunami is a very big and powerful wave that is caused by undersea earthquakes.

- Tsunamis have longer wavelengths and higher energy than normal waves.

- Creating a massive reservoir of water with a dam is dangerous, as dam failure would

send the water downstream with great force, and it can pick up objects along the way. - This happened with the Oroville Dam.

- Floods have long-term impacts on human life.

- These may include: loss of shelter, loss of infrastructure, and subsequent

population movement and civil unrest.

- There can be major post-disaster negative impacts on agriculture and wildlife.

- There can also be very bad pollution that results.

- Many post-disaster risks can be solved through the provision of clean water.

Characteristics of Surface Waters

- The precipitation that falls on land percolates over and through vegetation and soil,

picking up solutes (dissolved matter) and sediment along its route to surface waters.

- Rivers move both water and sediment.

- Sediment is a key measure of water quality.

- Conveyance of suspended sediment in a river is part of natural erosion and sediment in transport processes in watersheds.

- The more sediment there is in water, the harder it is for fish to survive.

- When some compounds (usually inorganic) are dissolved in water, they break down to

form ions.

 - 8 major dissolved ions found in surface water: bicarbonate, sulphate, chloride, celsius, magnesium, sodium, potassium, silica.

- TDS: Total dissolved solids.

- Many fish require dissolved oxygen.

- It’s harder for fish to survive and thrive in places with less dissolved oxygen. - Fish will gills generally require 5 mg/L.

- Generally, drinking water is treated with dissolved oxygen.

- Biochemical Oxygen Demand test is a test that measures the effects of pollution.

- Spills of sewage and milk often cause great bacteria growth.

- When nutrients (usually nitrogen and phosphorus) enter into water, algae will form.

- These nutrients usually come from agriculture, but can also come from sewage and some other sources.

- Three layers in lakes: Epilimion (highest), thermocline (second), hypolimnion (lowest). - The higher levels have more dissolved oxygen than the lower levels.

- Types of variations in surface water chemistry: hourly, diurnal, seasonal, annual.

- Temperature and dissolved oxygen tend to have an inverse relationship.

- Human influence on surface waters is very big.

- Dams, reservoirs, diversions, extraction, agriculture/industrial effluents, and temperature

changes with human use of water for heating and cooling are very impactful.

Water Use and Water Quality Deterioration

- Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological properties of water that are

influenced by geology, climate, local environment, and people.

- Water quality is relative.

- A water quality failure occurs when the water is no longer suitable for its designated use.

- pH scale runs from 0-14, with 0 being the most acidic, and 14 being the least acidic

(alkaline).

- Pure distilled water has a pH of 7, and rain pH is 5.6.

- Turbidity is a measure of how much water can penetrate through.

- Aquatic plants need light, meaning that dissolved substances that make the water less turbid are harmful to them.

- Main

- Bacteria

types of pollutants:

- Nutrients

- Trace metals

- Organic chemicals

- Natural organic matter

- Sediment

- Heat

- DDT

- However, DDT has very adverse effects on the environment.

is a chemical that can lead to huge decreases in insect-born disease.

- Cow

big cause of algae.

urine from pasture-based animal feeding operations going into the ocean can be a

 - Fences and/or riparian vegetation to keep cows away from streams can be used as a water-pollution mitigation strategy.

- Mining is also a big cause of water pollution.

- Acid rain is caused by sulfur oxide and nitrogen oxide emissions in the air.

- Pollutants are transformed into acid particles that may be transported long distances.

- Coal mining causes sulfur oxide to release into the atmosphere, which in turn causes acid rain.

- Increasing acidity has a negative effect on aquatic ecology.

- A lot of pollutants enter into drainage systems in urban areas.

- This includes sediment, debris, bacteria, oil, nutrients, and trash.

- Point sources are discrete places where pollutants originate (ex. Sewage treatment

plants).

- Diffuse sources are places spread over a much larger land area where pollutants

emerge (ex. Excess fertilizers and pesticides from agricultural production).

Human Modification of Aquatic Ecosystems

- Freshwaters contain at least 6% of known species of plants and animals.

- Organisms inhabiting freshwaters can be grouped according to their trophic role in

aquatic food webs (trophic = related to eating).

- Producers are organisms that synthesize biomass from inorganic compounds

and light.

- Consumers are organisms that feed on producers and other consumers.

- In ecology and biology, the term production or productivity refers to the rate of creation of biomass in an ecosystem.

- There is a circle of life in aquatic ecosystems.

- Changes in the circle of life will have consequences.

- The water needs to be clear enough for the sun to penetrate into the water to feed producers underwater to create organic matter, and thereby feed the organisms higher up on the aquatic food chain.

- Sustaining large urban populations involves the movement of water from external sources.

- Humans use dams for water storage (for irrigation and urban water supply), for electricity generation, for navigation, and to decrease flooding.

- The long-term effects of dams are decreased water velocity and flow, decreased sediment load, decrease in the number of changes in patterns of species in and near the river or stream.

- Deforestation impacts watershed processes.

- Without trees, the movement of water through a catchment is more variable and

intense, which affects stream, sediment, and biota levels.

- Deforestation is often the first step to converting land to agricultural production.

- Runoff can be detrimental.

- Urbanization impacts watershed processes in similar ways to deforestation, largely due to concretization.

 - There is a lot more runoff in urban areas, and less evaporation and infiltration.

- Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) change natural water flow and also

produce a large amount of animal waste.

- 90% of water used to flush out the oil from sand in tar sand processing is dumped into

giant toxic lakes called tailing ponds.

- Lead, mercury, arsenic, and benzene are in these tailing ponds.

- These seep into the ground and contaminate aquifers and evaporate with H20, degrading air quality.

- Point sources of pollution include discharge from industrial and wastewater treatment facilities and storm-drain runoff.

- Long-term effects of chemicals and pharmaceutical pollutants are introduced to aquatic ecosystems without clear understanding of their effects.

- The North Pacific Gyre is a zone in the Pacific Ocean that has a large amount of trash within it.

- A dead zone formed in the Gulf of Mexico that killed fish due to a massive influx of nutrients.

- Invasive species such as water hyacinth can negatively impact native ecologies by out-competing native species and reducing space, sunlight, and nutrients.

- The same is true with certain invasive animal species, including zebra mussels and American bullfrogs.

- In the U.S, a lot of invasive species are found in the south.

- Aquaculture is fish farming.

- The fish farm industry has grown heavily.

- Marine aquaculture poses many environmental risks.

- This includes bringing in non-native species into an enviornment, formation of parasites, giving drugs to prevent the sicks from getting sick, removing predators from the enviornment, and feeding them certain things that cause waste, and excrement from the fish.

- Warming sea temperatures decrease primary productivity, which then leads to decreases of productivity higher and higher up on the food chain.

- Ocean acidification in the shortrun is very volatile and cyclical, but is on a general steep upward slope over a longer period of time.

- The ocean mirrors the atmosphere and vice versa.

- The seawater PH has been decreasing over time, in a much more volatile—yet less

cyclical—manner than ocean acidification increases.

- Seawater pCO2 behaves inversely to this, going up over a long period of time, in

a similar pattern to that of seawater PH.

- Ocean acidification increases kills corals.

- Ocean acidification increases negatively impacts the food web by negatively impacting

those at the bottom: shellfish, as well as the aforementioned corals.

Chemical Contaminants

- Main causes of marine pollution: waste water, industrial and agricultural effluents,

plastics and microplastics, global warming, and nuclear waste.

 - Many chemicals, such as arsenic, fluoride, radon, and cyanobacteria are derived from the environment.

- There are also human-made contaminants, including: nitrates, phosphorus, pesticides, and heavy metals.

- There are billions of liters of sewage pollution dumped into the Great Lakes each year.

- PFAS are a group of synthetic chemicals that are used in many industrial and consumer

products.

- These are referred to as “forever chemicals,” because they do not break down

easily.

- These are included in many consumer products.

Infectious Diseases

- Types of infectious diseases related to water:

- Water-borne: microorganisms ingested via contaminated water supply

- Water-carried: microorganisms carried in the air or accidentally ingested

- Water-washed: infections spread by unsanitary conditions and lack of water for

personal hygiene - skin and eye infections and biting invertebrates

- Water-based: (come back to)

- Something else (come back to)

- Cholera is a bacterial infection of the intestines.

- It can survive on plankton when outside the body, and is caught by ingesting

contaminated water.

- The main symptom is diarrhea and it can cause dehydration.

- It infects about 1-4 Million people and kills 21-143 thousand people annually

worldwide.

- This is likely underreported.

- Clean water provision and sanitation systems can eliminate this disease. - Hepatitis A is a viral infection of the liver.

- It can exist outside the body for months.

- It is caught by ingesting contaminated water.

- This usually occurs with contaminated food and water.

- The main symptoms are nausea, vomiting, and/or diarrhea which can be very

dangerous for health-compromised individuals.

- The disease has about 1.5 million cases annually worldwide.

- Clean water and general health support, aswell as avoiding alcohol with fatty

foods.

- Cryptosporidiosis is a parasitic infection of the small intestines.

- These exist in water and soil.

- Usually caused by ingestion, often from contaminated drinking water.

- The main symptom is diarrhea, but other symptoms are malabsorption, vomiting,

and dehydration.

- This is very widespread but most cases are underreported because not all

infected are symptomatic, and those with symptoms don’t always seek care.

- Legionnaires disease is a bacterial infection.

 - It exists in soil and water.

- The disease is caught by entering the lungs, often from mists.

- The main symptoms are those of pneumonia because the disease itself is a form

of pneumonia.

- This becomes dangerous when it enters human water systems because therein it

multiplies.

- This is treated with antibiotics.

- Hookworm is a parasitic worm infection.

- This worm can exist outside the body for months.

- It is caught by dermal contact in contaminated water.

- Often attaches to the bottom of the feet, and then enters bloodstream, and is coughed up and swallowed before attaching to intensities and reentering the environment through eggs in feces.

- It causes iron deficiency, protein deficiency, coughing and chest pain, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting.

- Can be cured by antibiotics, but long-term effects may still persist.

- Malaria is a vector-borne disease

- Malaria is a single-celled parasite that cannot exist outside the host.

- It survives in hosts (mosquitos, reptiles, birds, and mammals).

- It leads to a variety of fatal symptoms including fever and chills.

- Around 400k people die per year from malaria, that number has declined from

what it was before.

- Most Malaria cases are in Africa.

- Climate change can potentially make malaria less common, but other diseases

might increase.

- Water infrastructure, water treatment, and sanitation are important to relieve the burdens

of infectious diseases.

Hydrologic Pathways

- The size of a river is determined by the volume of water it delivers to the ocean each

year.

- The Amazon is the biggest river in the world.

- Tributaries are smaller rivers that feed into larger rivers which in turn feed into the ocean. - The Ohio River, therefore, is a tributary, as it does not put water in the ocean, but

instead puts it into the Mississippi River.

- Same with the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers.

- The river basin is the broader area of water by which a river collects water. - Sub-basins exist within basins.

- The Mississippi River exists only in the U.S.; however, its basin stretches into Canada.

- The continental divide separates North America’s river systems.

- Runoff is the movement of water to a channelized stream after it has reached the ground

as precipitation.

- Movement can occur on or below the surface at varying velocities.

- Overland flow (surface runoff) occurs when rainfall exceeds infiltration.

 - Overland flow travels as a thin sheet of water moving across the surface.

- 3-D models can be used to show the effects of overland flow on land, which can be

instrumental for architects and others in their planning.

- Throughflow is the horizontal flow of water through the soil layer.

- Three types of throughflow:

- Matrix flow: slow and variable

- Macropore flow: fast but restricted to certain locations

- Pipe flow: fast but rare

- Within soil, there are soil particles, water, air, and organic matter.

- High porosity in soil is high amounts of water, low porosity is low amounts of water.

- The wilting point is the point at which a plant wilts.

- Field capacity is the stable point of saturation after rapid drainage of soil.

- Saturation is when the soil is full of water.

- Factors that increase runoff:

- Urbanization

- Deforestation

- Land drainage

- River channel alterations

- Climate change

- Runoff occurs in both natural and human-dominated landscapes.

- People may alter the sources, quantities, and space & time dynamics of runoff.

Rivers and Floods

- The intensity, size, shape, volatility, and route varies from river to river.

- Hydrographs show the precipitation and runoff of a river.

- Seasonal river regimes:

- Arid zones:

- These places are generally dry, but can experience rare but intense

rainfall (and subsequent river flows). - Areas where snow and ice melt dominate:

- In these areas, the river flow peaks in late spring and early summer when the ice melts.

- Temperate, oceanic areas:

- Precipitation occurs year-round in these places.

- Rivers in equatorial regions:

- These tend to have a fairly regular regime.

- There is a delay between precipitation and the peak flow in rivers.

- Large rivers will stop flowing without tributary inflows.

- There are many layers of variability - seasonal variations, global climate change.

- River channel serves as both a storage system and path to move water out of the

watershed.

- Rivers will more than likely reduce flood magnitudes as well.

Groundwater Flow Principles and Abstraction

 - Groundwater is always in motion.

- Factors that affect infiltration: initial moisture content, condition of soil surface, hydraulic

conductivity of soil profile, texture, porosity, degree of swelling of soil colloids, organic

matter, vegetative cover, duration of irrigation and of rainfall, viscosity of water.

- Consolidated rock is rock that is hard and solid and is often made up of only one material

or mineral.

- Unconsolidated rock is a mixture of materials such as sand, silt, and clay.

- Aquifers are layers of rock that store or transmit sufficient water for extraction.

- They can either be layers of consolidated or unconsolidated rock.

- Aquitards are geological formations that transmit water at a slower rate than aquifers.

- Aquifuges are totally impermeable rock formations.

- When water gets infiltrated through the unsaturated zone it becomes groundwater.

- This water moves slowly, and thus it has a long residence time.

- Darcy’s law tells us how water flows.

- Darcy’s Law:

- Discharge = saturated hydraulic conductivity cross-sectional area hydraulic pressure

- Discharge is the volume of water extracted from an aquifer.

- Saturated hydraulic conductivity is a measure of the permeability of the

materials of an aquifer.

- Hydraulic pressure is the change in height of the water table at two

locations.

- Water in a confined aquifer is usually under pressure, and if it is intersected by a

borehole, it will rise up to the piezometric surface.

- Extracting water causes the water table to drop.

- With the drop in the water table, the soil can compact due to space left in the soil by the removal of water and the pull of gravity.

- The compaction of soil can lead to a drop in the surface of the land itself, which is referred to as (land surface) subsidence.

- The Ogallala aquifer is a major aquifer in the Great Plains.

- Soil is a combination of sand, clay, and silt.

- Sand has the largest grains.

Groundwater Chemistry and Pollution

- The chemistry of natural groundwater is a result of the chemistry of the rainwater, the soil

and rocks through which the water has passed, and the residence time in the aquifer. - Natural groundwater chemistry also depends on weathering or mineral

dissolution reactions which affects the groundwater chemistry of the rocks, which

in turn affects the chemistry of the natural groundwater.

- Some things that groundwater contains come from rainfall and soil water.

- Ex. Contains oxygen and carbon dioxide dissolved in it.

- Rainfall usually contains <20 mg of TDS.

- Dissolved carbon dioxide dissociates to form bicarbonate and hydrogen ions, which

increases acidity.

 - The equilibrium of the pH of rainwater in contact with carbon dioxide at current atmospheric levels is pH 5.6.

- High levels of sulfur cause acid rain.

- Most acid rain in the United States is in the rust-belt, where there is a lot of

manufacturing that utilizes the burning of coal, and the burning of coal creates sulfur,

thereby creating acid rain.

- Acid rain is at a lower pH (usually 3 or 4).

- Dissolved oxygen also makes rainwater an oxidizing solution.

- When well-developed soil is present, bacteria in the soil produce carbon dioxide and

increase the amount that is dissolved in water, thus reducing the pH of the water further.

- Mineral dissolution reactions:

- Carbonate dissolution

- Gypsum and halite dissolution

- Silicate weathering

- Cation exchange

- Oxidation reactions

- Clean meteoric water supplied from the atmosphere is found near the Earth’s surface.

- Saline brines occur at depth because if water remains in contact with rocks for very long

periods, the minerals in the rock dissolve and increase the salinity.

- From an extraction and management perspective, we need to be careful not to mix these

brines with fresher groundwater.

- Another property of groundwater resulting from geology is its hardness, which reflects its

calcium and magnesium content.

- More calcium and magnesium = harder water.

- Groundwater dominated by carbonate dissolution is common in the shallow subsurface and in groundwater with short residence times.

- Groundwater pollutants can harm humans, animals, or plants, and have detrimental effects on natural ecosystems where water emerges in rivers.

- Pollutants can enter groundwater due to human activities (mining, industry, waste & sewage disposal, agriculture, or where excessive water is pumped out for supply purposes, causing an influx of naturally contaminated water.

- Detrimental effects of groundwater contaminants vary based on the extent of the interaction and attachment to the Earth’s materials, and the rate of transformation of contaminants into less harmful substances, for example, by biological processes.

- The U.S. has implemented many regulatory frameworks to make sure that drinking water is safe.

- Certain relevant acts:

- Clean Water Act, 1972

- Safe Drinking Water Act, 1974

- Resource Conservation & Recovery Act, 1976

- This regulates hazardous waste generation and transportation. - State-level Groundwater Protection Programs.

- California has a state water resources control board, and 9 regional water quality control boards.

 - The local boards develop water quality control plants issue permits for discharge, conduct monitoring, and implement prevention programs.

- GAMA: Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment Program.

Cadillac Desert Documentary

- Dams were initially built without thoughts about the potential consequences.

- LA historically lacked water.

- Superintendent Mulholland wanted LA to live within its means, but its great population

growth prevented this, leading him to realize he needed to find another place to get

water from.

- Mayor Eaton and Superintendent Mulholland went to Owens Valley, where Owens Lake

is, to take water from there and bring it to Los Angeles to support the rapidly growing

population.

- The Owens River was able to carry water to Los Angeles by gravity.

- The publishers of the Los Angeles Times were big supporters of the plan, but kept it

secret for a while, before eventually publishing an article gloating over the plan.

- Funding the aqueduct was very popular, and LA residents voted heavily in favor of it.

- Teddy Roosevelt helped support the aqueduct.

- Water brought the land value within Los Angeles up an incredible amount.

- There ended up being battles over the water flowing down the aqueduct.

- Parts of the aqueduct were blown up with dynamite by residents of the Owens Valley.

- Muholland sent police to defend the aqueduct.

- The Saint Francis dam broke, and this caused a lot of death and destruction.

- William Mulholland was held responsible.

- Eventually, the aqueduct stretched upward to take water from Mono Lake.

- Mono Lake included water from ancient streams, which were now used to provide Los Angeles with water.

- Because they realized they had to continue switching rivers, they eventually hatched the idea of taking water down from Alaska, where there is a near functionally endless supply of water.

Water Rights and Conflicts

- Under the Clean Water Act, the EPA implemented pollution control programs like setting

wastewater standards.

- EPA and authorized states make decisions about compliance monitoring based on

implementing an EPA or state plan or as a result of tips complaints, or as a follow-up to

previous monitoring activities.

- Pumping of groundwater is subject to varying regulations across states that are generally

very lenient.

- Types of groundwater pumping rights:

- Overlying rights: landowners have the right to pump water from under their land. - Reasonable use restriction: the law only approves reasonable uses.

- It is difficult for this restriction to be enforced.

 - There are no real impediments to pumping.

- There were no reporting requirements concerning groundwater pumping in California

until recent droughts.

- Like groundwater pumping, surface water pumping is also subject to varying regulations

across states that are generally very lenient.

- Types of surface water diversion rights:

- Riparian rights:

- Common law: landowners of land abutting water have rights to use the

water.

- Land and water rights are linked.

- Appropriative rights:

- These were created by gold miners, and were codified by the legislature.

- Land and water rights are not linked. - Two sets of additional rights specific to California:

- Prescriptive rights and Pueblo rights.

- The U.N. ruled in 2010 that access to clean water and sanitation is a human right.

- This means that states have a duty to provide water for basic needs.

- But in many places, this responsibility is not taken on by anyone. For

instance, in Los Angeles we do not provide homeless people with clean

water and sanitation.

- There needs to be between 50 and 100 liters of water per person per day, the

water source needs to be within 1000 meters from home, and the water cost

should not exceed 3 cents, and the collection time should not exceed 30 minutes.

- California was the first state to recognize that every human being has the right to safe,

clean, affordable and accessible water.

- Most people have daily challenges accessing basic water services, and some of these

people practice open defecation as a result.

- Water availability is becoming less predictable in many places.

- Droughts are exacerbating water scarcity and negatively impacting people’s health and productivity.

- They are also threatening sustainable development and biodiversity worldwide.

- Ecosystem services models do not speak to conflicting uses and values of water.

- Types of water conflicts:

- Pollution - Supply

- Territorial

- These categories are not mutually exclusive.

- Climate change is implicated in a wider range of human conflicts than loss of territory from sea level rise.

- A drying climate makes previously inhabited regions uninhabitable and previously tenable water supplies untenable.

- This could lead to conflict.

- There are arguments over what parts of the Ocean are territories of certain countries.

 - This gave birth to the International Seabed Authority and other conflict-resolution mechanisms, such as the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.

Water Demand Planning and Management

- Irrigation uses the most water

- Industrial uses the second most water

- Domestic uses the third most water

- Livestock uses the fourth most water.

- Increases in the amount of water used over time is directly proportional to this ranking.

- Of all domestic uses of water, clothes washing uses the most water.

- But front-loading uses less water than top-loading.

- Factors affecting demand for water:

- Industrial and rural development

- Water changes

- Population growth

- Consumer preferences

- Weather

- The US and Australia use the most water per person per day.

- The typical approach to water demand management has been to predict the future water

demand and then provide sufficient supply for demand.

- This approach would assume a secure supply with a large enough surplus to

deal with supply issues.

- OECD: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

- The worst water scarcity is in Northern Africa and parts of the Middle East.

- The Colorado River Compact was an agreement that apportioned 7.5 million acre feet of

water to the upper basin (Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming), and 7.5 million acre feet to the lower basin (Arizona, Nevada, and California), and then a later treaty was signed with Mexico that would give 1.5 million acre feet to Mexico.

- However, this treaty overestimated the amount of water in the Colorado River.

- The Mekong River in Southeast Asia has had a lot of dams installed, which has changed and will continue to change the personality of the river, involving how much water comes

down, which therefore affects the supply of water downstream. - The case is the same with the Nile River.

- The Irvine Ranch Water District has been celebrated for a recycled water scheme it put in place in 1977.

- Instead of focusing on looking for more water, they have instead focused on reusing water.

- Environmental benefits of recycled water

- Decreases diversions from sensitive ecosystems - Decreases discharge to sensitive water bodies

- Strengthens wetlands

- Saves energy

- Dual flush toilets can be a good tool for conserving water.

 - Distanciation is a large distance between the causes and effects of a problem which makes the relationship between them hard to see.

Portable Water and Wastewater Treatment

- Portable water is the water that we use for everyday purposes, including drinking.

- 3 main systems for managing water and maintaining water in cities:

- Portable water - Wastewater

- Stormwater

- Portable water comes from multiple sources.

- Could be lakes, could be rivers, could be groundwater pumping.

- Ensuring a safe supply of portable water involves removing three types of contaminants:

- Microbial (ex. Certain pathogens)

- Inorganic chemicals (ex. Arsenic, fluoride, and lead)

- Organic contaminants (ex. Pesticides, and chlorinated hydrocarbons)

- Several processes are assembled to form a flow train through which water passes, becoming cleaner with each stage.

- Screening and aeration

- Coagulation and flocculation

- Clarification

- Filtration

- Activated carbon

- Disinfection

- Wastewater has soluble and particulate fractions with organic and inorganic constituents.

- Filtration is necessary even for wastewater.

- Reimagining cities is important.

- We need sustainability, equity, and resilience.

Water Economics

- Water can either be a common pool or pubic good.

- A public good is a product that an individual can consume without reducing its availability

to another induvidual, and from which no one is excluded.

- Water is sometimes thought of as a public good, but there are hindrances to this,

especially since freshwater is limited.

- Common good resources are finite, and must be shared in common over a variety of

uses and geographic areas.

- Water is better characterized as a common good resource.

- Water demand comes from consumption and production demand.

- Here, water is an ecosystem service, and an economic good.

- Water supply comes from surface water and groundwater.

- Three tiered approach to valuation of an environmental resource:

- First, recognize that the resource has a value, but that people may value it differently.

- Second, choose an appropriate way to set an economic value.

 - Third, make sure the valuation is ongoing by appropriate resource and economic management.

- Ecosystem services are the benefits provided to humans by a particular ecosystem.

- The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment framework recognized four categories of

ecosystem services:

- Provisioning

- Food

- Raw materials

- Water

- Medicine

- Regulating

- Local climate air quality

- Carbon sequestration and storage

- Moderation of extreme events

- Waste-water treatment

- Supporting

- Erosion protection and maintenance of soil fertility

- Pollination

- Biological control

- Regulation of water flow

- Habitat for species

- Maintenance of genetic diversity

- Cultural Services

- Recreation for mental and physical health

- Tourism

- Aesthetic appreciation and inspiration for culture, art, and design

- Spiritual experiences

- Monetary valuation for ecosystem resources methods:

- Direct market valuation

- What the market values it - Stated preference valuation

- Asking people what they value it - Revealed preference valuation

- Seeing how people value it through their choices

- The World Bank values the world water market at $800B.

- Bottled water arrived in the U.S with Perrier in the 1970’s, but vastly expanded with the

accessibility of lightweight plastic bottles made with PET.

- Concerns with local water quality and marketing campaigns highlight health benefits of

bottled water; helps create huge consumer market.

- Some services deliver bottled water in reusable plastic containers.

- Natural Resources Defence Fund found regulated compounds in 22 brands of bottled

water.

- They also said bottled water was no more safe than public water.

- Single-use bottled water has caused environmental degradation.

 - Potential sources of bottled water:

- Tap water

- Surface and groundwater

- Some private companies work for public municipal entities to source, treat, and provide

water.

- Advantages of privatization

- Market discipline and efficiency

- Access to private capital to expand - Conservation

- Disadvantages of privatization

- Muni bonds are a cheaper way of funding

- Private companies have expenses that public companies do not

- Service worsens

- Profit is the main goal, which contrasts with the goal of providing water for

humans.

- The U.S. uses steam mitigation banking.

- Rosgen system uses ratios rather than direct values so both large and small water systems can be in the same class.

- Ecosystem services and policy and land use management involves mapping and assessing ecosystems and their services.

Company Town

- In a small community in Arkansas—Crossett—a large amount of people have cancer.

- This is largely due to pollution from factories nearby, particularly from Georgia Pacific, which is owned by Koch Industries.

- Koch Industries produces a lot of oil, gas, chemicals, and paper products. - It is one of the largest privately traded companies.

- The cancers that the people in the town are suffering from are directly tied to the chemicals from the Georgia Pacific plants.

- Many people in the town cannot say anything, because they likely know someone who work for the company, who would be at risk of being fired.

- There is a river that turns black and incurs and odor once it flows into Crossett.

- Many people in the town sold their health rights to Georgia Pacific.

- Lots of poisonous materials would enter into the groundwater.

- Georgia Pacific put up fences to prevent people from witnessing the processes.

- Water in a Crossett home was tested, and the results came up showing benzene and 60

other chemicals.

- Benzene is a cancer-causing agent.

- Koch Industries is one of the worst violators of air quality in the U.S.

- Often, a lot of pressure is on the EPA to not do their job.

- State agencies are often under even more pressure. Water Energy Nexus

 - Both water and energy are dependent on each other.

- Energy production requires water.

- Water extraction, treatment, processing, and distribution require energy.

- If either water or energy were abundant, the problem could be solved.

- The rapid increase in the world’s population creates a greater need for water and energy.

- The world population is moving more toward urban than rural.

- More urban residents mean more water transfers.

- More water transfers means more energy is required.

- We have built artificial lakes in Northern California to store water that melts from the Sierra Nevada and surrounding mountains.

- We have a variety of deltas that we have built in California to transport water.

- Using water indirectly uses energy.

- The deeper below the surface one goes to pump groundwater, the more energy is

necessary.

- Sludge from wastewater treatment can actually be used to create energy.

- The more steps something requires to transfer energy, the more energy is lost.

- Water-related electricity consumption accounts for around 20% of California’s total

electricity consumption.

- Desalinization uses a lot of energy.

- Desalinization involves seawater intake, screening, pretreatment, reverse osmosis to

remove salt and other impurities, and post-treatment.

- Ethanol production tends to require the most water of all types of energy production, and

this is largely because it uses plants.

- Hydropower involves using water to generate electricity, and often involves the

installation of large dams,

- Once installed, hydroelectric plants have less of an impact on the environment

than thermoelectric power.

- Most water in the hydropower process is released back into the source in the

same condition, but some water is lost to evaporation in reservoirs.

- Geothermal energy involves getting heated water from below the ground to produce

steam, which generates electricity.

- The water is then taken to a cooling tower, and then it can be taken back

underground.

- Geothermal energy plants can only work in places with volcanic activity, like

Yellowstone national park, where “old faithful” is.

- First generation biofuel production involves the fermentation of carbohydrates

containined in food crops, which turns them into ethanol, and then processing oil from oil crops turns them into biodiesel.

- Biofuel production is often in conflict with food production.

- This has substantial water requirements for the growing of the crops, aswell as in

the process of turning it into energy.

- Second and next generation biofuel production converts things not used for food (like

algee, and waste) to create biofuels.

- This is also called biomass.

 - Thermoelectric power involves the heating of water to create steam which drives a turbine.

- Like geothermal energy, the water is likewise cooled down afterwards.

- A significant amount of water is used to produce gasoline.

- It is estimated that it takes 3-6 gallons of water to produce a single gallon of gasoline.

- The water used in creating gasoline is primarily used in the refining process to wash and clean the crude oil before it is separated into different components like gasoline.

- Gasoline production is one of the most water-intensive steps in petroleum refining.

- A lot more water is required for transportation in ethanol-powered vehicles than for gas-powered vehicles.

- Biofuel is much better than ethanol in terms of water efficiency, but it is not as efficient as gasoline.

- Fracking uses a high-pressure water-based fluid to break up rock formations underground which contain methane—a natural gas—within them.

- This requires aquiring water, chemical mixing, well injection, water handling, and then wastewater disposal.

- These many steps can cause a lot of energy to be lost along the way.

- This has been a rapidly growing business in the last decade, and contributes

greatly to the U.S’s self sufficiency.

- A lot of fracking wastewater added back into the enviornment can be extremely

damaging.

- Fracking can lead to an increase in earthquakes (small, but frequent) due to

disposal wells.

- 2019 was the first time that renewable energy exceeded coal in the U.S.

- However, petroleum and natural gas were much more common than renewables. - Some possible solutions to the Water-Energy Nexus Problem could be:

- Changing the narrative of doubt.

- Share available information.

- Conserve both resources.

- Improve infrastructure to be more robust.

- Invest in new technologies in the nexus.

Water Models and Sustainability

- Water is a wicked problem.

- Wicked problems are problems that are difficult to or impossible to solve because of

incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize.

- The water cycle interacts with the greenhouse effect.

- Outgoing infrared information is absorbed by water vapor and ither gases, and this is a

process that is one of the components of the greenhouse effect.

- Mangroves protect and reduce flood risk.

- Mangroves are coastal wetlands.

 - Cities can be built around building clusters that make them water-centric sustainable ecocities.

- Ecocities are cities that teka action to combat social, economic, and ecological challenges.

- We are in a planetary crisis, and thus, as we continue urbanization, we need to build ecocities.

- Ecocities will involving green architecture, tree planting, green streets, urban food, and water sensitive urban design.

- Spongecities would be environments that naturally absorb water.

- China has been starting to build sponge cities.

- These cities can help against natural disasters.

- Solving wicked problems require thinking outside the box.