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Water in the landscape KGA171 The Global Geography of Change Presented by Associate Professor Elaine Stratford Semester 1
Water in the landscape
KGA171 The Global Geography of ChangePresented by Associate Professor Elaine StratfordSemester 1
VulnerabilityL vulnerare – to wound; capable of being wounded; open to attack or damage; assailable
Geographical imagination
Management responses – harnessing water’s power – the environment ‘speaks back’
Unknown, Outer right wing of an altarpiece with the St Elizabeth’s Day flood, 18-19 November 1421, with the broken dike at Wieldrecht
LOOKING FORWARD, LOOKING BACK
Part 1
Revising Module 6 Lecture 11. How do Burton and Kates define the term ‘natural
hazard’?2. Name and describe six geo-hazards.3. What happens to ground stability in conditions of
permafrost melt? How would you represent that diagrammatically?
4. List and briefly describe the twelve categories of the Mercalli scale. To what does this scale refer?
5. Name and describe eight atmospheric hazards.6. What does the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale
measure? How many classes does it have?7. What are five steps when considering how to
manage in situations involving hazard?8. Individual responses to hazard may be seen as a
function of at least five variables. What are they? 9. List and describe the characteristics of four main
phases of hazard response.
Man thinking
Learning Objectives
Module 6 Lecture 2Be able to:• describe and explain the movement
of water through the landscape in gaseous, liquid and solid forms, and comprehend the transformative effects of such movement [noting that sometimes movement is slow and sometimes involves lengthy storage]
• understand physical and human geographical dimensions of damming and its strategic use to manage water’s potential and actual hazard status
KGA171• demonstrate knowledge of
geographical concepts, earth and social systems and spatial patterns of change
• create and interpret basic maps, graphs and field data
• identify and analyse different viewpoints to contribute to debates about global development
• communicate in reflective and academic writing, referencing literature when needed
Textbook Reading Burke, M., Jorde, K. & Buffington, J.M. (2009) in
Journal of Environmental Management 90(3) S224-S236
Tilt, B., Braun, Y. & He, D. (2009) in Journal of Environmental Management 90(3) S249-S257
Critical reading1.What is the author’s purpose?2.What key questions or problems does the author raise?3.What information, data and evidence does the author present?4.What key concepts does the author use to organize this information, this evidence?5.What key conclusions is the author coming to? Are those conclusions justified? 6.What are the author’s primary assumptions?7.What viewpoints is the author writing from?8.What are the implications of the author’s reasoning?[from Foundation for Critical Thinking]
Man reading a book
WATER IN THE LANDSCAPEPart 2
Revisiting the hydrologic cycle
Phases of waterGaseous LiquidSolid
Sources of waterConnateJuvenileMeteoric
Ice landscapes may render human landscapes vulnerable
Langmoche flash-flood
A climate of change
Liquid water etches the landscape, forms soils
Water is unevenly distributed –and reliance on groundwater may be unwise
There are many deliberate and inadvertent human influences on hydrological processes
Dammed if you do …
The costs and benefits of dams
Large dams• Some implications
for geomorphological processes
• Some social benefits
• Some social dis-benefits
CASE STUDY – THE MEKONGPart 3
Asian rivers
Existing and planned dams on the Mekong
The Mekong continued
• Fresh silt deposited along river banks each wet season• Agriculture highly focused on fertile fresh silt as wet
season floods decline
The Mekong in Cambodia
Natural process – social and cultural space
Tonle Sap
Vietnam: life on the lower Mekong delta
Seasonal flooding is the natural process that has built-up the delta sediments
