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Lecture 7: Streams and River Systems

The Hydrological Cycle
- Continuous interchange of water between the spheres (biosphere,
geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, Cryosphere, etc.)
- Water will not be depleted
- Energy is neither created nor destroyed but it can change from one form
to another (e.g. liquid to gas, solid to liquid)
- All rivers flow into the sea but the sea is never full because of the water
cycle
- Benefits
o Redistribution or transfer water from one land mass to another
o Purification of water
 If you have contaminated water on land, freshwater
evaporates leaving the contaminants behind
o Nutrient recycling
 Helps dissolve minerals in soil
o Integral part of lifecycle
 Nourishes humans, plants and animals
- Largest river is the world is the Amazon River in Brazil
- Mississippi River in the U.S. is the second largest
- Congo River is the third largest
- Longest river is the Nile River that goes through Sudan, Egypt and Africa
- 70% of the world’s surface area is water
- Oceans account for 97.5% of the volume of water in the world also it is
salty due to large amount of dissolved minerals such as sodium chloride,
potassium and magnesium
- 2.5% of water are in icecaps like the Greenland icecaps and major lakes
including the Canadian Great Lakes
- 0.01% are rivers

Key Characteristics of Stream Flow

Stream flow and velocity
- Speed of the river flow
- The steeper the slope, the greater the velocity of the current
- Often rains on the windward side
Gradient
- Upper course
o Mountains serves as a barrier to most air masses
o When rainwater gathers in channel, they go into V shaped valleys
o Rivers flow swiftly in the upper part and undercut in the valley
o Results in erosion
o Truncated spurs: moves through the valley and can interlock with
each other
o Waterfalls are an example of upper course river landforms
 Ex. Niagara Falls

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- Middle course
o Occurs where stream erodes laterally (edges and sides) to form U
shape valleys
o Development of rapids along the valley. Rapids are obstacles along
the bed of the river which cause water to experience turbulence
o Open U-shaped valleys
o Water can rise and fall swiftly
- Lower course or flat plane
o Characterized by deposition of sediments which are transported
across streams over several dispenses
o Known for flat plane level
Discharge
Stream channel

Processes of Stream Erosion

Hydraulic action
- Also known as mechanical action
- Occurs when streams use their shared force or velocity to erode the banks
and carry them in the current
- Running water will smash against the obstacles and the air cavities in the
rocks will contract
- When the water retreats, the rocks expand and are eventually dislodged
from the beds of streams
Abrasion
- Occurs when the sediments that are transported by streams act as
projectiles as they collide with the edges and banks of the river valley
- Collision of the loose sediments and the rocks on the bends of valleys
Stream capacity
- Ability to transport large amount of sediment through the current to low
lying areas
Downcutting at the base level
Lateral erosion

River Transportation
Solution
- When rocks are dissolved and transported by rivers
- Very common in regions that are made up of limestone or calcium
carbonate (calcite) rocks or Halites (large amount of NaCl)
- Bedrock are limestone rocks
- Evidence is when the surface of the water changes color based on the
minerals dissolved in the water
- Physical particles are not visible but the chemicals are
Suspension
- Occurs when very light sentiments (such as silt, mud, alluvium) are carried
along with the stream currents to a low line area
- Particles need to be fine and very small and lighter in weight

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- Water will be very murky

- Common after heavy rainfall
- Ex: Red River, Mississippi
Saltation
- Derived from salten (hops or jumps)
- Occurs with particles of sand, stones and pebbles
- Particles that are slightly heavier or lightweight are lifted from the bedrock
and often carried along the current for short distance
- As the velocity of the carrying reduces, they drop down the particles to the
bedrock again
- Once the water dislodges materials from the bedrock they may be lifted
from a short distance and weight will force it back to bedrock again and
slowly hops and jumps will occur
Traction
- Heavy stones and rocks are pushed and tossed along the bed of the
stream
- Particles are too heavy to be lifted

Rapids
- Flood plane level
- Low-line area characterized by large amounts of sediments which are
deposited by streams
- When the sediments intersect or block the stream course, it forces the
stream to move in a zigzag fashion (meanders or sinus) because they
have a gentle slope
- Low viscosity and large amounts of sediments are transported
- There is a development of an ox-bow lake (semi circular) or a horse shoe
shaped lake
- Ox-bow lakes result from where the river cuts through a meander’s loop
- In solid air, there is a large blast of particles
- Especially in the lower course
- Lower stream with a lower stream that runs parallel; unable to join the
regular stream because of the build-up of sediments

Braided Stream
- Rivers are forced to divide into several channels due to the deposition of
sediments along the path of the river
- It will flow some distance and converge after a considerable distance
- Formed in the lower course of the stream where there is reduced velocity,
large amount of sediments which blocks the path of the river = divides into
several channels

Delta
- Rivers are divided into several channels before flowing into the ocean
- Distributary: when a major river divides
o Common in lower course

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- Tributary: when smaller streams flow into bigger streams

o Common in upper and middle course
- When streams divide, they form a triangular shape known as delta
- Conducive to wildlife
- Lower course of stream or alluvium has large amount of nutrients for
agriculture

Drainage Systems
- Area that is drained by a river or distributaries
Dendritic
- Occurs when small streams flow into a major river at an
acute angle
- Looks like the branches or roots of a tree
- Usually occurs because the terrain is made up of uniform
rock features
Trellised
- Small rivers flow into major rivers at a right angle or perpendicular
to the major river
- Common in regions of ridges (chain of mountains that form a
barrier)
- Indicative of the peak of a particular mountain
- Converges
Centripetal
- Streams flow from highlands into an internal
drainage system by the lake
- Shape of a bicycle wheel
- Common in crater leak
Radial
- Occur when streams flow outward from a common peak
- Diverges
- Occurs on a volcanic mountain
Deranged
- When the pattern of stream flow is irregular, streams don’t have a
recognizable cause
- They flow for a short distance and disappear into a pool or water
- Also known as contorted drainage system

Flood Control Measure

- Limit exposure to hazards
- Artificial levees
o Combination of rock and sand built along the edge of the stream

Freshwater
Groundwater
- Originates from accumulation of liquid water in rock or soil material
underground

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- Largest and slowest reservoir of water

- Influent rivers ephemerals
o Increase in volume in rainy season
o Given seasonal variation of water, it is described as ephemerals
o Rainfall is short lived and flow seasonally
- Effluent perennial
o Take their source from groundwater region and aquifer
o Flow throughout the year known as perennial streams
o Does not depend on rainfall
- Amount of water stored underground depends on the porosity of the rock
and soil material
- Aquifer: usable groundwater
Surface water
- Includes the accumulation of liquid water in wetlands, lakes, ponds, etc.
- Zone of vadose is the void and empty spaces around rocks
- Lacustrine: small lakes and ponds or major lakes
- Palustrines: when water settles in peat, swamps, etc.
- Estuary: point where rivers flow into the ocean

The Water Table and Aquifers

Aquifers
- Zone of aeration
o Air pockets between sediments within rocks
o Described as zone of saturation in which water completely fills
spaces
- Aquiclude or aquitard
o Aquiclude: sold, impermeable area underlying or overlying an
aquifer
o Aquitard: zone within the Earth that restricts the flow of
groundwater from one aquifer to another
o Aquitards comprise of either clay or non-porous rock with low
hydraulic conductivity
o A completely impermeable aquitard is called an aquiclude or
aquifuge
- Balance between the inflow of water by recharge and outflow by discharge
is known as budget
- Two types of aquifer
o Unconfined aquifer
 Water bearing layer is sandwiched between less permeable
such as granite and permeable such as soil
 Less pressure
 Draw a well and use jet pumps to draw out water
o Confined aquifer
 Water bearing layer is sandwiched between two
impermeable rocks
 Has permeable material in which ground water is stored in

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 High amount of pressure

 Water dashed out naturally when you drill a hole
 Known as artesian well
- Artesian aquifer: when you take too much water, it becomes voyage.
Neighbouring rocks seek into the well and gas higher chemicals and
nutrients in it

Recharge Rates
- Vary from place to place
- It takes thousands of years to replenish aquifers naturally
- Human activity can affect recharge rates
- Ex. A coastal city (such as New Orleans), where saltwater from the
oceans intrudes into freshwater aquifers only becomes a problem when
too much freshwater is withdrawn due to increased population and the
saltwater is drawn further in-land – issue is that salt water is not drinkable
- Water is a flow resource (has the potential to be renewed)

Classification of Resources
- Flow: replaced by natural processes but can be depleted, sustained,
increased through management (e.g. water, soils)
- Stock: limited in supply, not naturally replenished within human time scale
(e.g. fossil fuels)
- Continuous: remain essentially unchanged after human use, are in
constant supply on a human time scale (e.g. solar energy)

Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River

- For agricultural and industrial use
- When water gets to the ocean, there is very little water left
- Recently, the Mexican government complained to the U.S. authorities
about the salt levels in the rivers
- Dams are constructed because of high megawatt of electricity production
- EROI: energy returned on investment

Three Georges Dam on the Yantze River

- Biggest dam
- 32 generating plants and constantly upgrading
- Highly politicized
- Partially designed to keep away and prevent floods

Typical Dam
Advantages
- Electricity production
- Transportation
- Provides water for agriculture
- Flood control
- Recreational opportunities

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Disadvantages
- Flood waters often submerges forest areas
- Can trap sediments behind dams
- If it breaks, the risk can be enormous (can break exerting pressure to
cause a sudden rush of water)
- Dams make micro earthquakes
- Disrupts migration of salmon (decline in fish population)
- Thermal pollution
- High amount of mercury
- Biomagnification occurs when the contaminants move from lower trophic
level to higher tropic levels along the food chain
- Bioaccumulation occurs when the contaminants build up in the tissue of
organisms
- Lipophilic is contaminant build up in humans

Nutrient Balance in Lakes

- Oligotrophic: poorly nourished
- Eutrophic: rich in nutrient supplies, oxygen depletion in waters (fish cannot
survive
- Thermocline: boundary between cold and warm waters

Water Quality
- Humans can affect the water quality through manufacturing, animal
raising, factory and release of chemicals into water
- Pathogens and water-borne diseases
- Biological components
o According to Health Canada, water used for swimming (the thicker
chloroform bacteria should not exceed 200 cell per 100 mL of
water, over the years Canada has several cases of contamination
- In 2005, there was E. Coli contamination that affected the water system in
Saskatchewan
o 2000 people were hospitalized due to kidney problems and
gastrointestinal problems
- In May 2000, there was an E. Coli outbreak in Walkerton, Ontario due to:
o Agricultural runoff, (manure)
o Waste water facility broken down and was under repair and wasn’t
able to purify the water
o They didn’t have a water sampling laboratory, had to take sample in
Manitoba
o Inefficient water management, they have history or track record of
negligence and inefficient management activities so under normal
circumstances they should not be allowed to renew license
o Did not issue boil water alert
o Budget cut reduced the frequency of testing and
sampling/monitoring of water

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- Multi-barrier approach to water is three step process to screening water

and removing contaminants
o Reservoir
o Municipal water treatment facility
o Distribution system
- Is bottled water safe?
o Cryptosporidium is a biological agent that affected the water system
in Kitchener, Waterloo regions
- Eutrophication is a biological agent that affects water but in Canada, we
are less exposed to bacteria
o River blindness also known as Onchocerciasis is caused by
parasitic worms, which result in elephantiasis (swelling of legs arms
caused by worms), itching, bumps and blindness
- Point sources of water contamination: a known or identifiable location (e.g.
pipe, factory chain, wastewater treatment facility, landfill site, etc.)
o You know where it is coming from so you can easily deal with it
- Non-point sources come from ubiquitous locations
o In the GTA, we have large amount of oil leaks from cars, windshield
water fluid, coolant water
o Salt runoff applications from winter also goes into rivers
o Birth control pills are often not removed and exposed to people
- In animal kingdom, male frogs are exposed to atrazine causing male frogs
to become feminine
- Synergism: group of substances or chemicals are combined to cause
lethal impact on organisms or environment (e.g. can be corrosive,
flammable)
- Teratogens: causes birth defects
- Mutagens: chemical that causes DNA mutations
- Neurotoxins: group of substance that causes assault on nervous system
- Allergens: chemicals that cause over reaction/ activation of nervous
system
- Carcinogens: chemicals known to cause cancer (can cause malignant
cells or overgrowth of cells)
- Endocrine disruptors: substances that can change the hormonal balance
of people

Sources of Water Pollution

Physical pollutants
- Radioactive materials
- Thermal water discharges from heat energy facilities
- Sediment discharges and channelization
o Residential and road construction
o Can clog or block flow of river
- Activity of salt mill industries
o Exposes land to erosion
o Sediment flows to low-line areas of the rivers

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- Processes of collecting timber

o Sediment ends up in water and decomposes causing problems
Chemical pollution
- Hazardous chemicals (e.g. DDT, DDTE, PCB)
- Oil spills
 Exon Valdez Oil Spill at Prince William Sound, Alaska in 1989
o Base of the ship hit the continental shore and punctured container
of crude oil
o 50% of oil slick washed shore, 20 as collected and 14% evaporated
o Had to melt crude oil on beach using high pressure hot water
o Many animals died

Treatment of Contaminated Water

- Elimination of the source
o Evacuate take and pump oil out
- Monitoring to determine concentration, type and source of the chemical
and the potential direction it will flow
- Primary water treatment
o Transfer waste water through screening point which are designed
to remove organic matter from the water
o Pass it through another screening point to remove sludge and send
through a digestive chamber for further processing
o Sent through a sedimentation tank so that all stones and sand will
be separated and sent to a grit chamber
- Secondary water treatment has 2 major processes
o Aerobic breakdown of organic matter: bacteria will die after this
treatment
o Can use anaerobic bacteria to consume bacteria in the absence of
air
o Methane gas can be produced and harnessed for household use
- Advanced stage
o Used to remove minerals or chemicals
o Carbon filters or sand filters are used to remove nutrients and
chemicals
o Can use chlorine to disinfect water or expose it to UV rays to kill
bacteria and organisms found in water
- Disposal of nuclear waste
o Can bury nuclear waste in the Rocky Mountains

Water Demand and Supply

- Water withdrawal
o Be sure to withdraw the appropriate amount of water so the system
can recharge consistently
o Average Canadian drinks 245 litres of water per day
o Canal through which the water passes should be completely sealed
and covered so no water is lost by evaporation

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- Industrial water use

o Manufacturing, food processing, metal fabrication and energy
production (largest water consumption)
- Agricultural water use
o Overhead sprinklers and drip irrigation
o Drip irrigation saves water and fertilizer by allowing water to drip
slowly to the roots of many different plants
The Aral Sea
- Once the fourth-largest lake on Earth but it lost over 80% of its volume in
45 years from diversion
- Consequences
o Lost 60,000 fishing jobs
o Pesticide-laden dust from the lake bed is blown into the air
o The cotton cannot bring back the region’s economy

Managing Water Resources

Input approach
- Entails an increase in water supply via new water sources
- Through the Bergeron Findeisen Theory
- Discover new water wells
- Attempt to increase the supply of water by tapping into new resources
- Ex. Desalination, towing icebergs from the Antarctic, cloud seeding
(condensation nuclei) and water diversion
- In 2009, Kepler discovered 9 planets that are habitable (have water)
Output approach
- Increasing efficiency of water usage
- Controlling contamination of existing sources
- Seal all leaks in broken pipes
- Have proper meter to measure the amount of water consumed
- Attempt to minimize losses or contamination of existing supply
- Minimize difference between water withdrawal and consumption (e.g.
increase the efficiency of use)
- Ex. Increasing efficiency through water metering and pricing, efficient
technology such as drip irrigation
- Ex. Control pollution for point sources (effluent standards, treatment
facilities) and nonpoint sources (land use control, protection of recharge
areas by limiting landfills)

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