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Ian Gabrielson

The Mekong | The Economist - 1 views

www.economist.com/...erways-survive-its-development

Freshwater The water system Drainage basins and flooding Competing demands for water global_perspectives student_resources teacher_resources water_conflicts water IB Global Politics Management issues and strategies Power Sovereignty and International Rela

shared by Ian Gabrielson on 12 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • The Mekong region is Asia’s rice bowl: in 20
  • support the world’s biggest inland fishery, accounting for a quarter of the global freshwater catch, feeding tens
  • millions of pe
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • 14 lower Mekong countries (Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam) produced more than 100m tonnes of rice, around 15% of the world’s total.
  • The region’s fertile soil depends on nutrient-rich sediment that the Mekong carries downriver, mainly during the rainy season from June to October;
  • The region boasts remarkable biodiversity; only the vast basins of the Congo and the Amazon compare to or surpass it
  • here are more than 20,000 types of plant and nearly 2,500 animal species; freshwater dolphins and giant catfish; spiders 30 centimetres across and, in a limestone cavern in Thailand, a day-glo pink, cyanide-secreting millipede
  • he human diversity is striking, too: Tibetan monks pray; Burmese traders buy and sell; Cambodian fishermen cast nets; Thai farmers reap; Vietnamese markets float. The history is as rich as the soil. The Bud
  • a smiled while resting at the northern Lao city of Luang Prabang. Angkor Wat on the Mekong-fed Tonle Sap lake was among the biggest cities of the preindustrial world. The Khmer empire that built it dominated South-East Asia for longer than there have been Europeans in the Americas.
  • s its currents are rechannelled down copper conduits to power far-off cities the river itself will be trapped behind a series of concrete walls. Its fisheries, agriculture and biodiversity will suffer; the lives lived on its banks will be reshaped with scant regard for the feelings of those who lead them
  • t least 86,000 have been built over the past six decades, providing 282 gigawatts (GW) of installed hydroelectric capacity by 2014
  • y 2020 it wants an astonishing 350GW of installed hydropower capacity; in the European Union that would be enough to meet about three-quarters of total electricity needs. The dam at Wunonglong, about 300 metres long and more than 100 metres high, will provide a smidgen less than one of those extra gigawatts. The other 13 are expected to add 15.1GW mor
  • Downriver countries intend to build another 11 large dams on the Mekong, with dozens more planned for its tributaries
  • he dams will change the quality of the water in the river and the rate at which it flows. Some of this change could be for the better. Dams can prevent flooding by regulating the flow of water downstream. But some Mekong riverbank agriculture would not welcome too steady a flow
  • Increasing water in the dry season would shrink riverbeds, leaving less space for crops—millions of Mekong-basin dwellers grow vegetables on riverbanks. Reducing water in the rainy season produces smaller floodplains with less sediment deposited in them, impoverishing the soil.
  • According to International Rivers, an environmental NGO, the full cascade of dams planned for the Lancang would trap nearly all of the sediment coming from China, cutting the water’s sediment load in half.
  • And the dams lower down could worsen the problem; the clear, “hungry” water that flows from them in spates will carry away existing sediment in riverbanks and riverbeds. Some of that will be deposited farther still downstream; some will wash uselessly out t
  • Ian Gabrielson on 12 Feb 16
     
    Excellent set of articles about the situation in the Mekong
Ian Gabrielson

Water: All dried up | The Economist - 2 views

www.economist.com/...are-potentially-disastrous-all

water china economist ib_geog2009 Freshwater The water system Competing demands for water Management issues and strategies Drainage basins and flooding water_scarcity water_conflicts water_resources

shared by Ian Gabrielson on 28 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Ian Gabrielson on 28 Oct 13
     
    "All dried up Northern China is running out of water, but the government's remedies are potentially disastrous"
Richard Allaway

geographyalltheway.com - AS / A2 / IB Geography - The Water Balance - 2 views

www.geographyalltheway.com/...water-balance.htm

ib_geog2009 Freshwater The water system water balance australia

shared by Richard Allaway on 26 Jul 11 - No Cached
  • Richard Allaway on 26 Jul 11
     
    Produced July 2011
Ian Gabrielson

Five Controversial Dams ~ Introduction | Wide Angle | PBS - 3 views

www.pbs.org/...3103

Conflict_and_Peace global_perspectives student_resources ib_geog2009 Freshwater Management issues and strategies Competing demands for water

shared by Ian Gabrielson on 29 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Ian Gabrielson on 29 Nov 12
     
    "For many developing countries hungry for energy sources, hydropower is an attractive option. But dams also can place heavy burdens on surrounding populations and eco-systems. While China touts its Three Gorges dam - the world's largest - as environmentally friendly, the United States has begun tearing down a number of its own structures for safety, economic, and environmental reasons. To broaden your knowledge of dams around the world, explore below the economic, environmental, social, and political aspects of five big dam projects in Turkey, Brazil, Laos, Lesotho, and China. "
Matt Podbury

International Rivers: The State of the World's Rivers - 6 views

www.internationalrivers.org/worldsrivers

The water system Drainage basins and flooding Management issues and strategies Competing demands for water

shared by Matt Podbury on 28 Aug 14 - No Cached
  • Matt Podbury on 28 Aug 14
     
    Brilliant resource for freshwater and river management strategies.
Richard Allaway

File:The Distributed Water Balance of the Nile Basin.ogg - Wikimedia Commons - 3 views

commons.wikimedia.org/...index.php

ib_geog2009 Freshwater The water system

shared by Richard Allaway on 09 Nov 14 - No Cached
  • Richard Allaway on 09 Nov 14
     
    [Submitted by Ali Bowers]
Timothy Swan

How the The Great Artesian Basin works - YouTube - 0 views

www.youtube.com/watch

great basin works youtube Freshwater Drainage basins and flooding The water system

shared by Timothy Swan on 03 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Matt Podbury on 03 Oct 10
     
    Artesian Basin Formation - Australia Case Study
  • Timothy Swan on 13 Feb 13
     
    A short video about the creation of the great artesian basin...
Richard Allaway

China's Yellow River, Part 1 - Video Library - The New York Times - 0 views

video.nytimes.com/...ina-s-yellow-river-part-1.html

ib_geog2009 Freshwater Drainage basins and flooding Management issues and strategies The water system

shared by Richard Allaway on 27 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • Richard Allaway on 27 Apr 11
     
    [Submitted by Sally Smith]
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