WATER - Desertification in the SAHEL
- Created by: aliceoliviaaa
- Created on: 20-05-18 19:16
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- Drought and desertification in the Sahel
- Sahel made up of MAURITANIA, SENEGAL, MALI, BURKINA FASO, NIGER, CHAD, SUDAN, ERIREA, EHTIOPIA.
- actions of humans can make drought WORSE, but do not CAUSE it.
- Over-abstraction of surface water from rivers and ponds, and of groundwater from aquifers (water-bearing permeable rock).
- POPULATION GROWTH - puts pressure on land to grow more food.
- OVER-GRAZING - too many cattle destroy vegetation cover
- OVER-CULTIVATION - Intense use of marginal land (no potential for profit) exhausts the soil (crops won't grow).
- DEFOREST-ATION - roots no longer bind soil so erosion increases
- Over-abstraction of surface water from rivers and ponds, and of groundwater from aquifers (water-bearing permeable rock).
- Desertification
- The process by which once-productive land gradually changes into a desert-like landscape. (Semi-arid land on the edges of deserts).
- CAUSES: 1. Changing rainfall patterns (becoming less reliable) - drought may extend to several years.
- 2. Vegetation cover becomes stressed and dies, leaving bare soil
- 3. bare soil is eroded by wind and the occasional intense shower
- 4. intense, short rainfall periods makes it difficult for soil to capture it.
- 3. bare soil is eroded by wind and the occasional intense shower
- 2. Vegetation cover becomes stressed and dies, leaving bare soil
- situations have been made worse due to civil wars leading to purposeful destroying of livestock, crops and homes.
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