Chapter 6: Review Questions

185

Question 1

1. How many liters are contained in 1 km3 of water?

  1. 100,000 liters

  2. 1,000,000 liters

  3. 1,000,000,000 liters

  4. 1,000,000,000,000 liters

Question 2

2. How do El Niño and La Niña affect Australia?

  1. El Niño brings wet conditions; La Niña brings dry conditions.

  2. El Niño brings dry conditions; La Niña brings wet conditions.

  3. El Niño brings wet conditions, while La Niña has no effect.

  4. El Niño has no effect, while La Niña brings dry conditions.

Question 3

3. How many countries included in Figure 6.7 have per capita water consumption rates less than Gleick’s proposed 50-liter-per-day human right?

  1. One country

  2. Seven countries

  3. Nine countries

  4. Eleven countries

Question 4

4. How much of global runoff is now appropriated for human use?

  1. About 17%

  2. About 31%

  3. A bit over 50%

  4. Nearly 100%

Question 5

5. The arid regions of the world support what percentage of the global population?

  1. Less than 1%

  2. Approximately 10%

  3. Approximately 20%

  4. Over 50%

Question 6

6. Which of the following are problems with groundwater pumping around the world?

  1. Falling water tables

  2. Land subsidence

  3. Low recharge rates

  4. All of the above

Question 7

7. What fraction of large rivers in the Northern Hemisphere has been altered by dams and water diversions?

  1. About one-tenth

  2. About one-third

  3. Approximately half

  4. Approximately three-fourths

Question 8

8. What aspect of New York City’s water conservation program resulted in the greatest water savings?

  1. Meter installation

  2. Installing low-flow toilets

  3. Detecting and repairing leaks

  4. Home inspections

Question 9

9. What factor most limits the use of desalination as a means of supplementing water supplies?

  1. A sufficient source of saline water

  2. The lack of effective technology

  3. The cost of energy to run the process

  4. A general lack of interest in the process, even in water-scarce regions

Question 10

10. Although there are remarkably successful examples of river and wetland restoration, what factors make such restoration very difficult in many situations?

  1. Severe pollution

  2. Intensive urban development

  3. Local or regional groundwater depletion

  4. All of the above

Critical Analysis

Question 1

1. Use the information in this chapter and other resources, such as Singapore’s national water agency, the Public Utilities Board (PUB, www.pub.gov.sg/Pages/default.aspx) to discuss the ways in which Singapore’s water supply issues and solutions are similar to or very different from those of Earth as a whole.

Question 2

2. Use the information in the text to trace the potential paths a water molecule travels from the oceanic subcycle to the terrestrial subcycle, back to the oceanic subcycle.

Question 3

3. Apply the general principles of the hydrological cycle and the regional patterns of water table fall or rise (see Figure 6.15) to develop a long-term conceptual plan for sustainable use of the Ogallala Aquifer, which occurs mainly under the temperate grassland biome.

Question 4

4. Using a variety of sources, design a sustainable water-management plan for a region, such as the American Southwest, Northwest, or Southeast, in which precipitation and temperatures are strongly influenced by El Niño and La Niña.

Question 5

5. Compare river or wetland restoration projects that have been successful with those that have failed. Propose the best predictors of success or failure. An Internet search will yield abundant examples.