The Hydrosphere

Impacts + evidence of climate change on our hydrosphere

Hydrosphere + You
• All living organisms need water
• Freshwater for human consumption + sanitation needs
• Freshwater for agricultural crops
• Industrial use

• In which forms (states) do we find water?

• Ice – freshwater ice, salt water ice
• Liquid water – freshwater, salt water, brackish water
• Water vapour – in atmosphere
Hydrosphere
Estimate of Global Water
Volume (1000 km3) Percent of Total Water Percent of Fresh Water
Distribution

Oceans, Seas, and Bays 1,338,000 96.5 -

Ice Caps, Glaciers, and

24,064 1.74 68.7
Permanent Snow

Groundwater 23,400 1.7 -

Fresh (10,530) (0.76) 30.1

Saline (12,870) (0.94) -

Soil Moisture 16.5 0.001 0.05

Ground Ice and Permafrost 300 0.022 0.86

Lakes 176.4 0.013 -

Fresh (91.0) (0.007) .26

Saline (85.4) (0.006) -

Atmosphere 12.9 0.001 0.04

Swamp Water 11.47 0.0008 0.03

Rivers 2.12 0.0002 0.006

Biological Water 1.12 0.0001 0.003

Total 1,385,984 100.0 100.0

Source: Gleick, P. H., 1996: Water resources. In Encyclopedia of Climate and Weather, ed. by S. H. Schneider, Oxford University
Press, New York, vol. 2, pp.817-823.
Water Cycle
Water Cycle
• Precipitation – products of condensation from water vapour that falls from clouds
• Snow, rain, hail, sleet
Components – Water Reservoirs
• Ground water – water stored below the Earth’s surface
• Aquifers
• In soil, rocks, sediments
• Surface Water – river, lakes, streams
• Oceans
• Ice, glaciers, permeant snow
• Atmosphere
• Water vapour in clouds
• Biotic components – forests, wetlands (mangroves, swamps, bogs), all organisms
Water Cycle
Processes – Water Fluxes
• Condensation – water vapour becomes liquid water
• Evapouration – water molecules from liquid water becomes water vapour in the
atmosphere
• Transpiration – release of water as water vapour from plants to atmosphere
• Evapotranspiration = evapouration + transpiration
• Infiltration + Percolation – water moving downward through soil and rock
• Plant Uptake – water moves from roots to leaves through capillary action
• Runoff – water not absorbed, flows over surfaces (surface flow)
• Snowmelt, fain not absorbed by soil
• Transportation of water molecules through the atmosphere in clouds
• Sublimation – ice to water vapour
Water Budget
Water cycling time
Water Cycle + Humans
• Think about
human
activities
that directly
impact the
water cycle
Water Cycle
• Human activity that directly impact the water cycle
• Agriculture water use
• Individual water use
• Commercial water use
• Pollution of water
• Dams
• Wetland drainage
• Deforestation
• Urbanization – making roads, cities and other impermeable surfaces
Water Cycle
• Human activity that directly impact the water cycle
• Agriculture water use
• Individual water use
• Commercial water use
• Pollution of water
• Dams
• Wetland drainage
• Deforestation
• Urbanization – making roads, cities and other impermeable surfaces
Climate Change compounds these impacts
Who will be impacted by Climate Change?
Who are the stakeholders?
• Think rural, urban
• Think social, economic, ecological
• Think which countries
• Think demographics
• Think which physical space – water, coastline, mountains, land

A project stakeholder refers to an individual, group, or organization, who may affect, be affected by,
or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project.
-Project Management Institute (PMI)
What will the impacts be?
1. Extreme weather events
2. Loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services
3. Melting of continental and polar glaciers and sea ice
4. Rise in sea level and loss of coastal communities
5. Ocean acidification
6. Reduction in available fresh water quality and quantity
7. Reduction in our food supply due to changes in crop production
8. Increasing threats to human health from new diseases and changes
in disease distribution
Impacts of Climate Change on hydrosphere
• Rising sea levels
• Heating of oceans
• Melting of ice
• Ocean acidification
• Due to interactions with carbon cycle and water cycle
• Droughts
• More water as water vapour because of higher air temperatures
• Less recharge into ground water
• Reduction on the availability of fresh water quality and quantity
Evidence + Impacts – sea level rise
• Links to Climate Change
• Increase in sea surface temperature and air temperature

• Impacts to hydrosphere + society

• Melting glacier ice in ocean
• Melting glacier ice on land – run off into ocean
• Less available fresh water in glacier
• Thermal expansion in the ocean.
• Sea level rise = more flooding
Evidence + Impacts – sea level rise
• Total Sea
Level
Change
Since 1993
Evidence + Impacts – sea level rise
Melting ice evidence
• Antarctica ice loss 2002 – 2016
• Avg loss – 125 Gigatons/year
• Greenland ice loss ice loss 2002 – 2016
• Avg loss – 281 Gigatons/year

• Video: NASA Antarctic Ice melt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jbMCyE3eUU
Evidence + Impacts – sea level rise
Evidence + Impact – flooding
Evidence + Impact – flooding
Links to Climate Change
• Rising sea levels
• Tropical cyclones

Impacts to hydrosphere + society

• Example: Bangladesh
• Coastal flooding
• Salt incrusion + groundwater
contamination
Evidence + Impacts – ocean acidification
Links to Climate Change
• Increased CO2 is absorbed by the ocean

Impacts to hydrosphere + society

• Oceans are normally slightly basic, decreasing pH
• More H+, less available Ca++
Social impact – less sources of food from marine systems
• Many humans rely on ocean for a source of food (protein)
Economic impact – loss of jobs in fisheries, increase in price of food
Evidence + Impacts – ocean acidification
Links to Climate Change
• Increased CO2 is absorbed by the
ocean

Impacts
• CO2 dissolved in the oceans is
forming extra carbonic acid
which is causing a decline in pH
and other ecosystem problems

22
Evidence + Impacts – drought
• Links to Climate Change
• Drought = long periods of low precipitation
• Reduced precipitation in some areas prolonged due to climate change
• Increase in water vapour due to increase in average air temperature

• Impacts to the hydrosphere + society

• Reduced water availability
• Reduction in recharge to groundwater (aquifers)
• Water insecurity
Evidence + Impacts – drought
Evidence + Impacts – drought

• Reduction in
ground water
storage in
California
from 2002-
2014
Impact – water insecurity
• What is water security?
• The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities
of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-
economic development for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and
water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and
political stability (UN- Water)

• The availability of a reliable and secure access to water over time (UNESCO)

• Who suffers the most from water insecurity?

Impact – water insecurity
• What is water security ?

• Who suffers the most from water insecurity?

• 2.2 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water services.
- WHO/UNICEF 2019

• 12 million people die each year from lack of water, including 3 million
children from waterborne disease. More than 113 million children in the
developing world are without access to basic education; 60 percent of them
are girls.
- UN Food and Agriculture Association
Impact – water insecurity

Ref: Unesco.org
World Water
Development
Report 4. 2012
Impact – water insecurity
Who suffers the most in water insecure regions? - Women + girls

• Women + girls are responsible for water collection in 8 of 10 households with

water off premises
• Women and girls are more vulnerable to abuse and attack while walking to
and using a toilet or open defecation site
• In a study in Tanzania, reducing the time to fetch water from 30 mins to 15
mins increased girls attendance by 12%.

• Ref: Unwater.org
Impact – water insecurity
• Who suffers the most from water insecurity? - Children

• It is estimated that by 2040, 1 in 4 children under 18 (600 million) will live in

areas of extremely high water stress
• Climate change will have its most direct impact on child survival due to 1)
changing disease environments, greater food insecurity and threats to water
and sanitation

• Ref: UNICEF 2017, UNICEF 2019

Impact – water insecurity + future
Water use has been growing globally at more than twice
the rate of population growth over the past century.
- UN Water
• Taking a five-minute shower uses more water than the average person
in a developing country slum uses for an entire day.
• "[The water and sanitation] crisis claims more lives through disease
than any war claims through guns."
• More people have a mobile phone than a toilet.
- http://water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/water/
Impact – water insecurity + future
Climate Change will
Water use has been growing globally at more than twice
the rate disproportionately
of population growth over effect the areas
past century.
that are already water insecure - UN Water
• Taking a through drought,
five-minute shower uses moreflooding
water than(salt the average person
in a developing country slum uses for an entire day.
water intrusion of ground
• "[The water and sanitation] crisis claims more lives through disease
water),
than any war claims and
through depletion of
guns."
• More people have a mobile phone than a toilet.
freshwater basins - http://water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/water/
Learning Objectives
• Describe the relevant components and processes of the water cycle
• Understand how water fluxes can change and identify direct impacts
to the water system as a result of these changes.
• Define water security
• Identify human activities that impact the water cycle and threaten
water security. Recognize how climate change compounds these
threats.
• Describe the role climate change has in effecting the water cycle.
Indicate the evidence to support this.
• Evaluate and interpret data/evidence of impact to the water cycle.
• Identify the socio-economic impacts of changes to the water cycle.