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“DAVID PRODAN” NATIONAL COLLEGE, CUGIR

ALBA, ROMANIA

The International Comenius Project


2008-2010

Coordinating teacher, Maker :


Vlad Viorica Tecşa Simona – Mihaela
Geography Teacher Student 11th A

Coordinating teacher,
Vant Lilica
English Teacher
Water - the source of life
“Water is the joy of life”
African saying

I. Importance of water in environment

Water - at least the fresh one - is more precious than oil and more necessary than wheat or
rice .Water is life and at the same time it is its quality, or, as specialists emphasize, in the
environmental planetary system, water is the indispensable condition for life and for the variety of
human beings, it is that fundamental natural resource, which any area of economic activity depends
on.
Hydrosphere represents a real blood system of geographical structures because water
relates closely with other geospheres offering the environment a new and unique quality.
Thus, as a component related to environmental existence, water flow in nature is essential
to its functionality and dynamism. Water circuit is a permanent- at a planetary scale- transformation
process of a large amount of sea and ocean water which, through its conversion due to evaporation –
turns into fresh water, a process carried out by a huge plant that is Nature itself.
It is this process which creates and sustains life on Earth. The transformation from inorganic
substance to the organic one is produced in and by water.

II. Fresh Water Resources – “A rare treasure, desired by those who do not have
it, and unvalued by those who have it.”
Fresh water, unlike salt water, represents limited and reduced resources overall and
extremely unleveled in comparison with the dry land. Geographically, fresh water resources are
massively concentrated in certain areas, while highly rare in others. Lakes and rivers are abundant in
some regions (Northern Europe, Northern South America, and Equatorial Regions), however almost
inexistent in other areas. Precipitations also vary sensibly from year to year, season to season, in the
same ballpark region. In addition, due to the existing temperatures in these environmental areas,
evaporation is growing less or more intense and, as a result, the precipitations differ sensibly.
From an economic point of view, the significance of the uneven natural distribution of fresh
water resources is strongly emphatic. This distribution however, clashes with that of necessity. Not
only does a large part of fresh water resources remain blocked in glaciers, but also the most abundant
resources of fresh water are located in relatively cold regions, improper or less proper for
agricultural cultivations. On the other hand, in warm regions, where the necessity is far larger, the
resources of fresh water are scarcer. There is a separation between the distribution of fresh water
resources and the distribution of agricultural fields, territorial distribution between the population
and industrial regions.
There is also added the limitation of water resources to which its quality is still affected. It is
affected due to: the phenomenon of the growth of population, the extracting of water supply,
chemical fertilization, pesticides coming from intense agricultural activities, and industrial water.
The technical-economic capitalization of the fresh water resources has both a quantitative
dimension and a qualitative one, which are strongly bound. In well-developed countries the technical
means and financial resources allowed them to eliminate or to adjust a series of existing constraints,
through complex hydrotechnical establishments, flood control, water purification systems, in order
to supply the urban concentrations. Special issues are present in developing countries where
considerable collectivities haven’t got access to fresh water, with all the repercussions on their
health. As a consequence, the assurance of the necessary consumable water is an actual problem –in
some areas- not only due to its amount, but also to its quality.

• The distribution of water resources on Earth


Latin America is the region with the richest water reserve, detaining 1/3 of the total of fresh
water on Earth.
Asia is on the second position, with 25 % and the last position is scored by North Africa
and Middle Asia. Figures are more relevant if we make a comparison between resources and
request or consumption. For example, China, which detains 7% of the total amount of fresh
water in the world, has a number of population which represents 22% of the whole population of our
planet. Canada, in its turn, has got 9% of the world wide fresh water resources and a population
which represents only 0.5% of the worldwide one.
The effects of the uneven distribution of fresh water resources are worsened by the
economical level of each country, and, not the least, by the living standard of each individual. The
recent international studies show that, in 22 African countries, water isn’t enough for the half of the
population.
Yet, there are solutions to ensure the existent water resources. In 2002, there were 10,000
desalinization equipments which produced 5 million m³ of fresh water, but 70% of them belonged to
those countries, rich in oil, situated in Middle Asia and North Africa, countries which can afford to
pay a price of $1 up to $4 / 1 m³ of water as a result of marine water desalinization.
Europe confronts with the water crisis, especially in the Mediterranean area, too.
The lack of water, existent in a world, where the population grows from 6.5 billion people
to probably 11-12 billion people, represents a global issue of the up-date society. Irrigation
represents 84% - 90% of the total amount of consumed water. Meanwhile, agriculture is considered
to be the most important water consumer – 64% - in Europe, shows the analyze of the foremost
water users.

III. The characteristics of water environment refers to the chemical and physical
attributes of water, as well as to the capacity of self-purification, which is very important in order to
preserve its quality. The organic substances’ decomposing activity made by bacteria, turns all the
substances which enter this circuit in nature into mineral, which is determinant in the self-
purification process of water. But the phenomenon of water pollution manifests itself when the
amount and quality of the polluting substances outrun the limits of tolerance.

IV. Hydro constituent and its functions in environment

1. The environment function


2. Water has the function of supplying life environment for many
organisms – from plankton, which represents the foundation of
the food chain, up to the Cetacean order, with the biggest
terrestrial inhabitants. In salted pelagic waters, fish are
endowed with a desalinization system situated at the level of
their gills, where specialized cells absorb the excess of salt, which, mingled with a very
concentrated mucus, is released in water, afterwards. Specialized cells take the in excess-salt and,
with the help of the very concentrated mucus, they release it in water.
There have been created different ecosystems, some of them very rich in organisms, in oceans
and seas, according to environmental conditions (temperature, pressure, salinity, light, dissolved
oxygen).The most complex marine ecosystems are made up of coral formations that stretch the area
of more than 200 million km². Given the sensitiveness of corals at environmental factors (hot, clean,
well oxygenated, shallow, well lighted waters) they represent an indicator of the quality of marine
environment. Marine coral formations shelter many creatures: crustaceans, shells and fish, because
there are rich resources and a variety of food there.
2. The hydration function is important because water is present in all the other elements of the
environment, in different proportions. Within this component, the hydro one runs out the substance
and energy in the environment, contributing to its global dynamics.
The spreading of organisms at the ground surface is dependent on both thermic level and on
that of rainfall, that resulted in the existence of bio-geographic areas and floors laid at specific
latitude and altitude.
According to their necessity of humidity plants differentiate into xerophytes, resistant to
drought, to which water loss through sweating is limited in various ways – e.g. cacti, widespread in
America, which present a layer of wax.
Another category of plants is the tropophytes, which grow in south Asia and in the south-east
Asia, in the mosoon forest, where trees lose their leaves in dry season. Among the species that reside
in compact forests in the monsoon region, we can mention the common teak. In areas with
excessive moisture - in rain forests and swamps – there are the hygrophytes with a wide variety of
species: palm trees, ficus, lianas, orchids – which are so called apophytes.
In aquatic units there are hydrophytes which are very famous: algae, water-lilies and reeds.
Water is not only a constituent of living organisms, but also a component which plays a very
important part in thermal regulation and irrigation of tissues. The resistance of organisms in
restrictive terms of water environment is different. Rodents of deserts cannot live without drinking
water, but they take it from food. Camels can produce water by burning fat that is retained in their
humpback.
Man himself, the most complex organism, could not exist without water. Nothing would be
more relevant than without water, for example a human body who weights 70 kilos, without water
would weight only 13 kilos. The biological human body is addicted to water and the social structure
of humans even more. The progress of human society cannot but be conceived in strict subordination
with water.

3. Another features of water environment


Water plays an important part in the climate of different regions from Earth, where there are
types of oceanic climate, such as the tropical humid climate, the
monsoon climate and the temperate oceanic climate.
The permanent action of both warm and cold oceanic stream
influences the clime along the coastline area. For instance, the Gulf
Stream, which comes from the area of the Gulf of Mexico, is about
500 kilometers broad and has an average water temperature of
25°C .
This stream reaches the North of Europe where it generates the greatest thermo- anomaly on
Earth considering that within this zone the average temperature a year is about 10°C bigger than the
temperature corresponding to this latitude. Such a phenomenon has favorable consequences
especially for Norway, where there is no risk of sea water freezing and, thus, the activities in the
harbors never cease during the year. Beside this, Norway can dispose at its maximum potential of
hydro energy.
Unlike the Gulf s Stream, the cold
Stream of Peru, that is present along the
western coast of South America, generates air
temperatures lower than those corresponding
to the latitude. The presence of cold waters
there damages the vertical movement of the
air flow which is responsible for the rain
conditions. That is why in this area of South
America, the aridity pole on Earth - the
Atacama Desert- makes up, where, the only
positive aspect, due to the proximity of the ocean, is the frequency of mist which acts beneficially
upon plants (cacti) coping with minimal use of water resources.
In addition to this, the influence of water as a shaping agent
is also visible at the level of the relief components which are
submitted to geomorphologic processes of erosion, transport,
accumulation, and dissolution.
The continental water system represents “the artisan” of the
terrestrial landscapes, whose different forms of relief are in close
connection with climatic factors and the characteristics of the
substrate of rocks. We distinguish different types of gorges cut in
limestone, as narrow canyons, in which the narrow sectors
alternate with broad sectors, for example the Danube gullet which
measures about 100 m on the Cazane sector or Portile de Fier, and
5 km on Moldova Veche sector. Moreover, the canyon has
developed in the horizontal sedimentary structures, as the Colorado
Canyon, where the maximum depth of the gorge reaches 1.6 km.
The mouth of the rivers vary in seize when they flow into the sea or ocean. We mention the
most representative ones: deltas, estuaries, smooth water and maritime rivers.
The function of waste storage is a new function in the terrestrial environment, a man made
function, which sometimes introduces, at a local, regional or even global scale, a series of disturbing
factors. In this context water evacuates, assimilates or stores different substances or wastes. Let's not
forget that some of these substances enter the substance circuit in nature, gathering in every trophic
chain, affecting the ecosystem balance, and the human health.
Unfortunately some aquatic units have
become an industrial and wastewater substances
collector of the chemical substances generated
by the use of fertilizers in agriculture.
The most striking example of the
environmental crisis in the USA is the Erie Lake
, a huge inner sea large enough to symbolize
the permanence in nature. The Erie Lake has been a major natural reserve for a rich region with a
few large cities,with a varied industry, a very developed one, with fertile agricultural lands and a
profitable fishing industry, or in the process of creating this wealth , the lake has changed becoming
so polluted that the initial biological ecosystems, which preserved the social value of the lake, have
been mostly destroyed. The Erie Lake helps us measure the damage which we bring to our natural
resources, creating the wealth of a nation.

Bibliography

1. Commonner Barry, The Circle which Closes, Bucharest, Political


Publishing House, 1980
2. Mac Ion, The Science of Environment, Cluj-Napoca, Europontic Publishing
House, 2003
3. Negut Silviu , A single Earth, Bucharest, Albatros Publishing House, 1978
4. Rosu Alexandru, Terra - life geo-system, Bucharest, Scientific and
Encyclopedic Publishing House, 1987
5. Stugren Bogdan, Theoretical Ecology, Cluj-Napoca, Sarmis Publishing
House, 1994
6. Serbanescu Ilie, Terra – Portrait in Black and White, s.l. Albatros Publishing
House, 1984

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