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CANADA'S WATER RESOURCES
WATER AS A RESOURCE
SOURCES of our WATER RESOURCES - Where do find freshwater in nature? Canada is Surrounded on three sides by the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic oceans and has over 243,000 km of coastline. This, combined with the characteristics of Canada's topography and climate, results in abundant freshwater resources.
WATER RESOURCES
•You cannot survive without water for more than a 7 days.
•Humans require about 2.5 litres of drinking water to remain healthy
•In dry parts of world, water is more valuable than gold.
•In Canada it is more expensive per litre than gas
•Canadians use an average of 330 litres a day for personal use
•Other activities also use water: agriculture, mining, manufacturing, cooling ,
electrical power generation etc....
•The grand total is_4500 litres of water per person in canada a day
WATER SOURCES - Where do we find freshwater? (not salt water in Oceans!!) • ¾ of the earth’s surface is covered in water, mostly salt water (oceans)
• Freshwater is non salinated water we find in lakes, rivers, glaciers and snow melt
• Freshwater (not salinated ocean water) is the source for our drinking water.
• Canada has 20% of the world’s fresh water in our lakes and rivers.
Water used up from groundwater, rivers and lakes is replenished by rain and snowfall.
•Precipitation – Rainwater makes up 70 % of our accessible freshwater sources- 30 % of that is snow rivers and lakes into oceans
•Surface run-off: water that runs off the land through
•Groundwater: water that soaks deep into the earth, through soil and layers of sand gravel
and porous rock.(source for wells, springs, aquifers etc..)
WATER CYCLE
•Transpiration (give off) by plants and evaporation, and then precipitation, all lead to water eventually returning to the oceans.
• This constant circulation of the earth’s water is called the hydrological cycle or water cycle. Hydro is the Greek word for water.
3 MAIN TYPES OF FRESHWATER RESOURCES
Freshwater is non salinated water accessible and stored in, or on, the earth's crust. It is not water from Oceans. It is "drinkable". in these locations:
1. Lakes and Wetlands
2. Rivers and Drainage Basins
(smaller tributaries: streams,
creeks etc..)
3. Groundwater: Water that soaks
deep in the earth.
WATERSHEDS AND DRAINAGE BASINS
The words watershed and drainage basin are often used interchangeably. For our purposes we will look at how River Drainage Basins are part of the large Watershed. Many different Drainage basins are part of a Watershed.
Watersheds are huge and collect water from many rivers and their drainage basins. eventually flowing to an Ocean. Each watershed contains many smaller river drainage basins. Water flows downhill, not North, East, West or South.
Drainage Basin: Watersheds are made up of many river drainage basins. Drainage basins collect water from areas of higher elevation, flowing from smaller streams to larger rivers as it nears its main watershed river.
DRAINAGE BASINS
• A basin is a large bowl. Land often acts like a basin, with higher areas and lower areas, and water drains downward. Mountain valleys are a good representation of a drainage basin.
• The drainage basin acts like a funnel, collecting all the precipitation that falls, or meltwater from snow, within the area covered by the basin and channelling it into a major waterway.
• The water collects in creeks/streams, and lakes.
• Creeks and streams eventually flow into rivers, which can flow into
bigger rivers and eventually end up in the ocean.
• River Drainage Basins are part of larger drainage systems sometimes called watersheds.
Canada's Major Rivers
TYPES OF MOVING (FLOWING) WATER BODIES
RIVERS: are flowing (moving) bodies of water.
What is the difference between rivers &
other forms of moving water?
• Brook - Often flows down rocky slopes, clear water
• Creek - Often found in lower areas flowing through
farmland and forested areas.
• Stream - Often spring fed, clear, clean water
• River - Fast moving water that moves large volumes
of water.
ANSWER: Each one is smaller than the other, funnelling water to the next level, and eventually into a larger river.
A canal also has moving water, but is man-made. Generally, the difference is size: you can step over a brook, jump over a creek, wade across a stream, and swim across a river. But the distinction between them (especially creek and stream) is somewhat hazy, and depends on who named them and when they were named.
River Drainage Basin
EXAMPLE: Part of the Ottawa River Drainage Basin
- Jock River near here gets water from stream and creeks and run
off from the surrounding land. It flows into the
- Rideau River which starts at the St. Lawrence River near
Kingston
- The Rideau River flows into the Ottawa River (near parliament Hill)
- The Ottawa River flows into the St. Lawrence river near Montreal
The St. Lawrence has many other river drainage basins that flow into it. rivers that flow into it, all on its way to the Atlantic Ocean near Quebec City
•
GO HERE - INTERACTIVE MAP: Ottawa River Basin
CHANGES IN DISCHARGE RATE
The discharge rate is the amount of water that flows through, or from, a drainage basin.
In the spring, melting snow and rain will cause river levels to rise. In late fall, or after a very dry summer, water levels in the river basin would be less. How much water enters and exists a river basin is the discharge rate.
CHANGES IN THE DISCHARGE RATE CAUSE PROBLEMS
• FLOODING: too much water OR • DROUGHT: Not enough water
1. FLOODING
•FLOODING is a result of excessive water volume from rain ,or spring thaw runoff overflowing river or lake banks onto nearby land. A flood plain is part of every river system. It is low lying areas where every spring, due to the melting snow pack and increased rainfall, the excessive water would escape, creating a flood. The problem is, in modern times, flood plains are easy to build on and attractive for people to build homes because they want to live "near" the water. Unfortunately, during record flood seasons, these same people end up living "in" the water, not near it!
•
2. DROUGHT : SEVERE lack of water during the dry season: called drought
A drought or drought is a natural disaster of below-average precipitation in a given region, resulting in prolonged shortages in the water supply, whether atmospheric, surface water or ground water.
CALIFORNIA DROUGHT
Dams can solve problems: Dams are built to solv
e the problems of drought or flood.
Dams block the river's natural flow. Water is stored (held back) behind the dam in the giant human made lakes called reservoirs. In times or flood water can be held back to decrease flooding down river. During times of drought, the gates open wide to allow more water out to increase the amount of water downstream.
FLOOD PREVENTION : In wet times, water held back by dam to prevent flooding downstream.
DROUGHT PREVENTION : in dry times, more water let out by dam to avoid drought downstream.
RESERVOIR: is usually an artificial lake created behind the dam. When the river is blocked, the river permanently floods the area behind it, creating a human made lake. A reservoir is used to store water to prevent natural disasters if possible.
- The Ottawa river is not technically a reservoir, but we do have damns all along it that can hold water back if needed
CANADA’S WATERSHEDS
Water from the catchment basins in each watershed regions will flow in a certain direction and will eventually drain into an ocean.
WATERSHED: Canada has 5 Watersheds.
CANADA'S 5 MAJOR WATERSHEDS |
In the technical sense, a watershed refers to a divide tha
t separates one drainage area from another drainage area.
•The Atlantic (Great Lakes/St. Lawrence River)
•The Arctic
•The Gulf of Mexico
•Hudson's Bay
•Pacific OCean
•A Watershed - an area of highland surrounding many river basins, which eventually drain to an acean
•A river catchment Basin is an area of land drained by a river and its tributaries.
There are many basins in a watershed.
RIVER DRAINAGE SYSTEMS
TRIBUTARIES
A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean.
•Tributaries – Make ap a River Network.
The creeks, streams, small rivers etc, that collect water and funnel
it all towards a major river.
•Confluence - where a river joins another river
(Ottawa River empties into the St. Lawrence).
•Source – The can be more than one source; the start of a river also
known as headwaters.
•Mouth – Where a river drains /r meets a lake, the sea or an ocean.
LAKES: A lake is an area filled with water, that is surrounded by land.
•Canada is famous for its lakes and wetlands
•There are more than 31 000 lakes in Canada
•9% of Canada’s land mass are lakes
•Lakes and wetlands hold water but they are also
continuously discharging it into streams and rivers.
•Lakes are large open pools where water collects on the surface.
WETLANDS •Wetlands are areas of land that have become saturated (soaked) with water.
•Commonly called marshes, swamps, or bogs, they cover about 14% of Canada's area.
•Wetlands store water like a sponge. They are vital for drought prevention
•When there is a lack of water (drought), water can be drawn from them to fill streams and aquifers in the summer.
Wetlands Habitat
•Wetlands are important because of the habitat they provide for plants, insects, birds, reptiles and mammals (moose, racoon etc..)
GROUNDWATER: Not all freshwater is stored or "found" on the surface of the crust.
•An aquifer is water that is water that is stored underground and in some cases deep in the earth's crust. It is essentially an underground lake. The water in an aquifer can be thousands, and even millions of years old.
SATURATION ZONE
•When the ground is completely saturated and the water sinks no more and collects in a pool deep underground, it has reached its saturation zone.
•This pool of water is often referred to as an underground aquifer. Aquifers can be a few meters to several hundred meters below the surface
The water table is the top of this saturation zone
•– groundwater does not need to be treated for impurities because impurities are filtered as it moves through soil and rock
•– it is important to protect water table– wetlands and wells can go dry.
AQUIFER
• An aquifer is an underground layer of permeable rock, gravel or
sand that is soaked with water.
• Essentially an underground pool/lake of water.
• We drill a well (hole/tube/shaft) down to the water below.
• An artesian well (not man made) is groundwater that may be
confined under pressure and may even flow onto the land
surface.
• It can also creates lakes, ponds, and streams at the top of a hill.
WATER USES
Canada is the among the largest user of freshwater in the world
Instream Use: when water is used without removing it from lakes or rivers, or putting back the same amount we took..
- hydro electric power generation, waste disposal (flushing), , recreation, fisheries
Withdrawal Use: actually removes the water from the water body and return much less or none of it back to the environment than they take out.
Manufacturing, Mining, Livestock and Crop Watering, Bottled Water...
•IT HAS BEEN ESTIMATED THAT THE CURRENT USE OF
•____130 BILLION ________L/DAY IN CANADA COULD JUMP TO OVER
•____200 BILLION________L/DAY BY THE YEAR 2015
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