Regeneration - Local Council Role in Regeneration

What Is The Local Councils Role In Regeneration Projects:

• Similar to the government role in that it tends to be ‘top down’ funding for projects or private-public partnerships such as tax money and private businesses investment and can provide large amount of money
• They are different in that they don’t have quite as much money as government themselves but, can get large amounts through the government
• They make more specific changes to the area e.g. planning and new buildings, whereas the government is more about larger overall policies such as immigration and globalisation or mega-projects like the Olympic Games 2012 or HS2
• They are more in touch with local opinions and needs though some would say still not enough concern for local residents’ opinions etc.

Local Authorities:

• Local interest groups like Fairtrade want to possibly move the town into another direction by improving ethical products in areas such as a new Market Place might not match this vision
• Local preservation groups want to keep the old buildings and mills, instead of letting them be developed or demolished but regeneration projects like the university and interchange mean traditional buildings are replaced
• In the London Olympic Park regeneration scheme, a lot of locals were moved out, but then could not afford the new flats that were built there
• These issues create conflict between those who want preservation of culture, heritage, buildings, history etc and those who want change in the future

Flagship Schemes With The Local Council:

• A major iconic regeneration improvement to reimage an area, often a large building or development
• Examples include: Blackpool sea wall and promenade, Olympic Park, London Docklands.

Why Should We Use Flagship Schemes:
Expectations Of Flagship Schemes:	Criticisms:
Enhance the image of the area	Lack of trickle down
Catalyst for further economic growth	Justification in spending
New and exciting spaces will be built	Social: The benefits of flagship schemes are not enjoyed by all residents
Attract new residents, businesses and tourism	Spatical: Concertation on specific spaces based largely on profit potential which will increase differences between parts of a city.
Benefits to the locals

Legacy:

• The idea that a major project or event will behind a footprint e.g infrastructure and facilities that will benefit the area.
• London 2012 Olympic Games are an example, as sporting stadiums were created, new homes and jobs.

Tensions Caused By Regeneration:

• There is always disagreement in some form whenever regeneration takes place

HS2:	Fracking:	Olympic Park	Market Place	New Bus Station:
Locals don’t like the idea of a railway going through their quiet countryside	Environmental damage such as groundwater pollution	Locals were forced to move out as they could not afford the new ones that were built.	Elderly residents might prefer the traditional markets to the new development	Locals complain that congestion is worse. Buses still haven’t improved within the borough.
		Loss of community
		Protests

Carbon Cycle - Human Activity Affecting the Cycle & Feedbacks

Tundra & Permafrost:

• This is positive feedback as Arctic warms: The Arctic is going to increase in temperature by 7.

1. GHG increase concentration leading to more global warming
2. Warming air temperatures and more melting snow
3. Soil warms up from warmer air and absorbing sunlight
4. Soil thaws as ice melts
5. More methane is released
6. More decomposition occurs of dead organic matter releases CO2.

Biological Carbon Cycle:

• Marine ecosystems e.g. phytoplankton (algae), coral reefs and terrestrial ecosystems e.g. forests, wetlands, grassland, tundra
• Humans place huge pressures on these ecosystems through pollution, over-abstraction, climate change, and land-use change e.g. deforestation and conversion of natural habitats into farmland
• Growing demand for food increases pressures on natural environments e.g. land-use change
• More demand for fuels such as biofuels in Brazil increase pressures as well
• This ‘degrades’ the carbon cycle as there are less carbon stores, and more CO2 is emitted, e.g. from forests, DOM from soils, and the ocean
• Some areas however are improving and act as CO2 sinks e.g. afforestation programmes – which in turn improves the carbon and water cycle functioning, and also ecosystem resilience

Problems for the Amazon:

1. Deforestation: 20% of the rainforest has already gone – which is the biggest issue
   1. Main cause is cattle farming. 70% for beef. Other grasslands increasingly used for biofuels so cattle farmers are forced to clear the rainforest even more.
2. Future climate change methods such as droughts.

Coral Reefs & Ocean Acidification:

• Act as a home for 25% of all marine life.

1. Carbon dioxide concentration is increasing in the oceans sink due to more diffusion from the atmosphere.
2. Water is slightly more acidic. Small reductions in pH, destroying coral reefs ecosystem.
3. Corals are calcium carbonate so positive feedback could affect the carbon cycle.

The Tipping Point:

• A point might be reached when there is no going back. Climate change has accelerated and becomes uncontrollable.
  • Positive feedback becomes so strong and keeps growing and so GHC becomes strong. And CO2 spirals out of control causing huge climatic forces and global warming at a huge scale.

Energy Consumption Increasing:

• Energy is increasing up until 2020.
• Consumption is also increasing.

Climate Belt Shifting:

1. Rainforest could shrink due to more droughts and forest fires, releasing carbon and storing less
2. Deserts will spread as temperatures evaporation and droughts increase e.g Sahel grasslands will shrink as Sahara grows
3. Alpine areas will shrink as mountains warm up and glaciers mean snow melts earlier.
4. Tundra areas (frozen soil in the Artic) will shrink as coniferous forests move north.

Climate Change Affecting Forests:

• Rising air temperatures means more climate variability, less snow along with faster and early snowmelts. Floods may be more impacted to the ability to store water.
• Warmer water bodies mean altered forest habitats – drier vegetation, increased pathogens and fire.

Changes to Conventional Rainfall:

• 60% of the Amazon rainfall is from evapotranspiration water from forests.
• Biomass carbon in plants and trees will decrease.
• Dead organic matter will decompose and decrease also release more CO2
• Water cycle disruption will include less precipitation, interception, lower soil moisture, less storage and maybe more flooding.

Hydrological Cycle - Water Management

The Two Main Ways:

1. Techno-fix-solutions which use hard engineering projects such as technology to fix the problem like mega-dams, water transfers and desalination.
2. More sustainable methods through water restoration – improving the area and supply and water conservation – reducing loss and wastage.

• Also integrated drainage basin management (IDBM) such as the Helsinki Rules

Case Study: China’s South-North Water Transfer:

• Why: Demand from industrial centres, high population density, intensive agricultural, low rainfall and over abstraction of groundwater.
• What Did They Do: Industrial growth along routeways to remove pollution problems; changes in water balances; reduce the amount of water in the Yangtze leading to less dilution and more pollution; caused displaced people from the land that is now flooded instead.
• Aim: To divert 45 billion from the water surplus area South and East of the river to deficit areas in the North such as Beijing and Tianjin.

Pros & Cons Of Techno-Fix Hard Engineering:
Pros:	Cons:
Health improvements	Huge cost of the scheme
Boosts economic development in the area	Source areas lose water
Government controls it	Wildlife, habitats and ecology of river systems are damaged
Pollution flushed and diluted in receiving area	Reservoirs displaces village
Water security improves in receiving area

Water Transfers – A Quick Fix:
Factor:	Leads To… Source Area	Factor:	Leads To… Receiving Area
Less Water:	Reduced use by locals, may increase poverty	More Water	Solves existing demand
Ecosystem Changes:	Degradation and destruction		Leads to greater use
	Less functioning	Development Demands	Rising megacities and industrial growth
	Less productive		Tourism especially golf courses
Pollution:	Less dilution		Improves human health
	More concentration of pollutants	Agricultural Demands:	Encourages unsustainable irrigated farming by agri-business
	More silt	Pollution:	Pollution from nitrate eutrophication and salination
			Transfer pollution from original river to new location
			Ecosystem destruction

Water Conservation – Reducing The Usage And Loss Of Water:

Smart Irrigation:

• SMART meters measure the soil moisture to turn the irrigation on and off
• Crops are fed by hosepipes with holes in that drip water into the soil and roots
• Much less water lost to evaporation or runoff
• MEDCs use more E.g. California, USA
• Saves lots of water, but is costly and not available in all LEDCs

Rainwater Harvesting:

• Any system that catches and stores rainwater for use
• WaterAid and The Barefoot College, Rajasthan, India build tanks in schools to collect monsoon water from roofs
• Water then used for drinking in dry season
• Easy to construct, improves water security, but only provides enough for human consumption

Restoration In Lake Chad:

• Restoration is returning water resources to their natural state.
  • It is done by improving the quality, amount and environment of water resources, and stopping unsustainable practices.
• 90 % of the water in Lake Chad hass gone.
• The World Bank is helping with loans and experts to reverse the lakes shrinkage.
  • Chad government says $10 billion is needed, 5 countries involved (transboundary rivers feed Lake Chad).
  • The idea is to exploit and pump groundwater aquifers in Africa, and reduce over-abstraction from the rivers that feed Lake Chad. This will mean the lake refills slowly.

Attitudes To Water Supply:

• Farmers want to use for irrigation and to make profits e.g. California
• Governments in LEDCs often over-exploit resources for economic growth e.g. Chad, but as develop they want sustainable management e.g. Lake Chad
• Charities and Environmentalists e.g. WaterAid, Barefoot College etc want to restore and conserve water to help poor and environment
• Some governments e.g. China, want to control water with mega-projects and transfer schemes to aid industry and cities
• Domestic users and citizens want clean, safe water for drinking and recreation uses

Integrated Drainage Basin Management (IBDM):

• Best future management option for large catchments/rivers
• Countries work together to sustainably share the river water
• Includes ‘water treaties’ between governments so shares agreed
• Follows the ‘Helsinki Rules’ which set out how to sustainably manage rivers
• Positives: sets out rules to follow to ensure water security for all and avoid conflict
• Negatives: might not work if countries do not stick to the plans
• E.g. Nile Basin Imitative – IDBM in place, avoiding water wars?. Lake Chad yet to do this.

Hydrological Cycle - Problems & Consequences with Water Insecurity

Physical Water Scarcity:	Economic Water Scarcity:
Climate	Development level limiting the ability to abstract, treat/clean and distribute water.
Hydrology

Why Does The Price Of Water Vary So Much:

• Poorest places often pay highest prices
• Physical scarcity raises the price as less is available, so people are prepared to pay more e.g. desert regions
• Slums in LEDCs pay some of the highest amounts (e.g. $5 per m3 ) because the infrastructure is poor e.g. no piped water so tankers bring it
• Economic scarcity or pollution also increase the cost as clean accessible water must be bought from limited supplies and maybe controlled by corrupt private sellers who charge too much in LEDCs in particular

Environmental & Economic Problems Resulting From Inadequate Water:

• Drought conditions
• Wetlands dry up
• Loss of habitats e.g. Lake Chad
• Forest fires e.g. California
• Loss of vegetation e.g. Sahel region

LEDCs:	MEDCs:
Agricultural decline (irrigation & livestock)	Cost of management
People spend a long time sourcing water	Industry suffers
Disease impacting families	More infrastructure is needed

Forest Stress:

• Trees cannot reproduce effectively if water levels too low as don’t produce fruit or seeds
  • Trees and plants might die if bad enough
• Large areas could be destroyed by forest fires causing long term damage to the ecosystems
  • Droughts reduce the resilience of the forest against disease or to recover from fires, causing ecosystems to change to grasslands

Wetland Impacts From Droughts – Functioning & Resilience:

• Wetlands rely on river input and also precipitation in the area.
  • Droughts therefore can cause wetland lakes and soil moisture to dry up.
• The functioning of an ecosystem is basically its characteristics: what living organisms are there (ecology), how do they interact and what is the food web like.
  • The resilience of an ecosystem is how well it can withstand pressures, and how fast it can recover.
• Droughts damage functioning of wetlands as plants and animals need the water to survive.
  • If lakes dry up, fish die, and birds have less to eat.
    • Also animals like crocodiles that require water to hunt for food can also die.
    • The functioning of the ecosystem changes.

• Droughts therefore mean wetland resilience is lower, as the ecosystem is more at risk from permanent damage if too many animals die or fires destroy the area

Water Wars – Conflict Over Transboundary Sources:

• As water insecurity increases locally and globally, more disputes and violence could occur. The most likely cause are rivers, which are very ‘transboundary’ i.e. they cross borders (within or between countries).
• International examples include Ganges disputes over the volume and quality of water Bangladesh receives from India (see handout or research). Also, the Nile in Africa is a likely area for international and national conflicts as it goes past 10 countries
• Local conflicts include: Three Gorges Dam in China (1 million people displaced, forced evictions, local opposition and dissent crushed, the political elite forced the project) and Tana Delta (100 + murders over access to water).

Hydrological Cycle - Climate Change & ENSO

Climate Change:

• Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are released from human activities such as burning fossil fuels
  • This means more sunlight is trapped by the atmosphere and the planet is warming slowly
  • This will change the world’s climates (and therefore weather)
• The main changes will be variations in precipitation and temperatures: more droughts or more floods will result
• The water cycle will change in different ways in different areas
  • In the UK, summers will be hotter, more droughts, but also more intense rainfall and storms, then flooding. Winters milder, more rain, and more floods.
  • Tropics will have more extreme weather e.g. droughts or flooding
  • Artic areas will warm more, therefore less cryosphere results

Climate Change Affecting Stores & Flows:

• Snow and glacier mass is shrinking around most parts of the world, such as the Alps in Europe and Himalayas, as temperatures rise
• Short term this might increase channel flow, but long term it will decrease the cryosphere stores and reduce flows from them
• Also in the cryosphere, permafrost areas will shrink.
  • Permafrost is areas of land that where the soil below 1 metre deep is permanently frozen, the upper layer may thaw in the summer

Uncertainties:

• Uncertainty means not being able to know or predict accurately the events of the future
  • Uncertainties in climate change and water cycle include we don’t know where and when and how bad droughts and floods will be. The further into the future, the more uncertain scientists are.
• Uncertainty reasons include: Climate science is extremely complex and hard to model with computers; We don’t know what future emissions will be; e.g. more electric cars? International agreements like Kyoto Protocol and other factors like ENSO are impossible to predict well

The Future & Water Security:

• ENSO and climate change will cause a higher frequency and magnitude of flooding and droughts.
  • This will affect the ability to access ‘safe, affordable, clean, abundant water to meet needs’ i.e. ‘water security’.
• S cientists, planners & engineers, charities, governments (key players in water security) try to ‘project’ future needs of water. This means predict how much will be needed in coming months/years.

Hydrological Cycle - Physical & Human Causes of Water Insecurity

• Water insecurity occurs due to a lack of access to safe, clean and efficient supplies of water
• Increasing mis-match between supply and demand
• Demand is greater than supply = deficit.
  • Currently Cape Town in South Africa is going through this
• Main factors which lead to water insecurity: Climate, population and development.
• Factors which increase water insecurity: more water needed, over-consumption, less stores, more droughts, development and pollution.
  • Development: Having more reservoirs and dams
  • Over-Consumption: Fountains in California – what is the need for this?
  • Pollution: The Yellow River in China, erosion at the Three Gorges Dam. This is the biggest problem.
• You need to be sustainable in order to have no water insecurity like Sweden.

Analysing The Graph: Water Insecurity:

• Places like Australia and Indonesia have no insecurity because they have lots of rainfall
• Canada: Lots of freshwater and glaciers. A lower population density
• North Africa: Less rainfall
• UK: Population increase on a small island. Demand is increasing. Lots of irrigation from farmers.
• India: Seasonal rainfall but not continuous rainfall. High population leads to more demand
• Australia: Small population with deserts but they have lots of groundwater and it is not enough for the small population in a hot climate.

Evaluation: What Causes Water Insecurity:

Physical Factors:	Human Factors:
Drought periods	Increasing use of water
Seasonal rainfall	Over-abstraction
Depliction of groundwater	Pollution from industry
Chemicals	Development level
Low precipitation – biggest factor	Rapid population growth – biggest factor e.g Brazil which has not been governed well.

Global Water Use By Sector:

• Agricultural: Irrigation, farm-land is decreasing and farmers have better irrigation techniques
• Industrial: China + India with the use of factories
• Domestic: Increasing use of appliances e.g washing machines, more toilets

Hydrological Cycle - Water Deficits (Droughts)

• Droughts are deficits in the hydrological cycle
  • They are a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a storage of water
• Meteorological droughts happen when dry weather patterns dominate an area
• Hydrological droughts occur when low water supply becomes evident, especially in streams, reservoirs and groundwater levels usually months after a meteorological drought.
• Agricultural droughts happen when crops become affected
• But the precipitation level is not abnormally lower than normal in deserts a drought is not happening.

Pressure:

• High pressure = sinking air = colder dry air = clouds do not form as there is no condensation = no precipitation
• Low pressure = warmer air = rising air = clouds forming = precipitation.

Causes Of Droughts:

• Mainly occur due to less precipitation over a given amount of time, which is a meteorological cause.
  • Metrology is the study of weather
    • Can be a short term deficit e.g hot dry summer for a few weeks in the UK. Caused by the blocking ‘anti-cyclone’ high pressure systems that sits over the UK.
• Places in Asia like India have dry seasons until the rain comes (Monsoon season) if the rain is delayed or smaller than normal, a drought results.
• Droughts will be more severe if this happens over a longer time.

ENSO Causes Of Droughts:

• El Nino Southern Oscillation
  • Occurs from a reversal in the Walker circulation (Trade winds reverse)
  • ENSO is a cycle that occurs naturally every 3 – 7 years
  • Lasts several months to a year
• Disrupts normal climates e.g. areas that usually have rain become dry for several months
• Essentially the Pacific Ocean warmest water moves from West to the East
  • This creates low pressure rising moist air over East Pacific, and high-pressure drier sinking air of West Pacific
    • This creates heavy rains in Peru (unusual)
• Droughts occur in S.E.Asia e.g. Philippines, Indonesia, Australia as higher pressure, drier air and less rain

Human Contributions To Droughts:

• Around the world river systems are over-exploited.
• Groundwater aquifers are also unsustainably used in many places.
• Rivers have been used for too much agriculture (irrigation) so the channel flow is lower or completely exploited so nothing left.
  • This has happened around Lake Chad.
  • Also happened along the Colorado River (USA/Mexico), so river channel dries up before reaching the Pacific Ocean in Mexico, and rivers in Australia.
• Growing food demand, water needs, higher population and agriculture, has meant groundwater is increasingly pumped out of aquifers in the ground.
  • This lowers the water table (saturated rock zone) and can lead to ground sinking and loss of surface water stores and flows like lakes and rivers.

Case Study 1: The Sahel Region:

• The land south of the Sahara Desert is largely LDCs, dry land with seasonal rains.
• Subsistence farmers depend on rains to fill lakes, rivers and aquifers.
• Droughts are common due to unreliable seasonal rainfall.
  • This causes meteorological droughts.
  • Also, humans have over-exploited river water and groundwater. This is unsustainable and has caused hydrological droughts.

Case Study 2: Lake Chad:

• Lake Chad has dramatically declined in size
• Evaporation and drainage to the ground exceeds input from rivers and direct rainfall into the lake
  • Humans largely to blame due to over-extraction of water from the lake and rivers feeding it
• Also local groundwater pumping as water table lowered
• Meteorological droughts in recent years increased problem
• Future is bleak – climate change and overpopulation will increase depletion of remaining water
• Overgrazing reduces vegetation (too many animals eating plants) and therefore this reduces evapotranspiration and so convectional rain decreases even more
• ‘Desertification’ can be a result

Impacts Of Droughts:

Forest Stress:

• Trees cannot reproduce effectively if water levels too low as don’t produce fruit or seeds
  • Trees and plants might die if bad enough
• Large areas could be destroyed by forest fires causing long term damage to the ecosystems
  • Droughts reduce the resilience of the forest against disease or to recover from fires, causing ecosystems to change to grasslands

Wetland Impacts From Droughts – Functioning & Resilience:

• Wetlands rely on river input and also precipitation in the area.
  • Droughts therefore can cause wetland lakes and soil moisture to dry up.
• The functioning of an ecosystem is basically its characteristics: what living organisms are there (ecology), how do they interact and what is the food web like.
  • The resilience of an ecosystem is how well it can withstand pressures, and how fast it can recover.
• Droughts damage functioning of wetlands as plants and animals need the water to survive.
  • If lakes dry up, fish die, and birds have less to eat.
    • Also animals like crocodiles that require water to hunt for food can also die.
    • The functioning of the ecosystem changes.
  • Droughts therefore mean wetland resilience is lower, as the ecosystem is more at risk from permanent damage if too many animals die or fires destroy the area.