Unit 5: THE HYDROSPHERE

1. The urban water cycle

2. Water, a prized commodity

3. Water pollution

4. The hydrosphere, all the Earth’s

water

5. Water, a source of life

VOCABULARY: collection (recogida o captación), consumption, groundwater, reservoir

(embalse), purification (purificación, potabilización), polluted (contaminada), water purification

plant (planta potabilizadora), drinking water, treatment (tratamiento, depuración),

wastewater, water treatment plant (planta depuradora).

1. THE URBAN WATER CYCLE

Activity 1. Answer the following questions:

a) Where do humans get water for consumption?

b) WHAT IS DRINKING WATER?

c) Where is it treated before we drink it?

d) Where is drinking water kept before being distributed?

e) What is wastewater?

f) Why cannot wastewater be discharged into the natural environment?

g) Where is it treated?

h) How is wastewater treated?

Activity 2. Think all the ways you contaminate water during a normal day and write them down.

Activity 3. THE URBAN WATER CYCLE. Look at the picture and identify each number on it with the following stages.

Storage Mixture of waters Distribution Water treatment plants Water returned to the environment

Recycled water Collection from the river Collection from an aquifer Desalination plant Water purification plant

2. WATER, A PRIZED COMMODITY

CONCEPT MAP ABOUT THE USES OF WATER

Activity 4. Why has fresh water consumption increased?

Because of the increase in the world’s population and greater domestic and

industrial use

Concept map about the sustainable management of fresh water

3. WATER POLLUTION

We cannot consume polluted water: affects the organisms and transmit

infectious diseases.

VOCABULARY: infectious diseases (enfermedades infecciosas), sewer (alcantarilla),

discharge (descargar), end up (desembocar), oil slick (fuga de petróleo), spill (vertido).

Water pollution can be natural or human.

Water pollutants:

Waste from sewers

Fertilisers, herbicides, detergents…

Solids: plastic, tyres…

Heavy metals: mercury…

Nuclear power plants.

In developed countries, the water is treated before being discharged into

rivers but it doesn’t occur in developing countries.

The sea can also be polluted by accidental oil spills.

Animación sobre el impacto del petróleo Click twice

http://www.lasexta.com/programas/al-rojo-vivo/te-explicamos/historia-prestige-mayor-catastrofe-medioambiental-espana_20121016572804c16584a81fd885663b.html

Vídeo catástrofe del Prestige (vertido de petróleo en Galicia. 2002)

Copy o click on the following link

Activity 1. Can we consume polluted water? Why?

Activity 2. How can water pollution be caused?

Activity 3. What are the main water pollutants?

Activity 4. Why is water cleaner in developed countries?

Activity 5. Where does the rubbish thrown into the rivers end up?

Activity 6. How do oil slicks occur? Write one consequence of it.

Activity 7. Activity 11, page 49.

Activity 1. Can we consume polluted water? Why?

Activity 2. How can water pollution be caused?

We can´t consume polluted water because it affects the organisms that live in water and it can also transmit infectious diseases.

Water pollution can be natural or human.

Activity 3. What are the main water pollutants?

Activity 4. Why is water cleaner in developed countries?

1. Waste from sewers.

2. Fertilisers, herbicides, detergents…

3. Solid products: plastic, tyres, wood, hygienic wipes…

4. Heavy metals: mercury…

5. Nuclear power plants.

Because in developed countries the waters of urban and industrial

waste is treated before being discharged into rivers.

Activity 5. Where does the rubbish thrown into the rivers end up?

The rubbish thrown into the rivers end up in the sea.

Activity 7. Activity 11, page 49.

WASTE, POLLUTED, TOXIC, PLASTIC, RESPONSIBLE

Activity 6. How do oil slicks occur? What are the consequences?

Oil slick occurs by accidental oil spills during extraction or

transportation of crude oil.

The consequences are:

- death of mussels, clams…

- algae can’t perform photosynthesis

- If it affects the beaches and covers the ground, new

plants cannot grow.

4. THE HYDROSPHERE, ALL THE EARTH’S WATER

HYDROSPHERE: all the water on Earth and covers about three quarters (75%) of the planet’s surface.

Polar ice, glacier, aquifer, overexploitation (sobreexplotación), surface runoff

(escorrentía superficial).

TYPES OF WATER:

• Fresh water (2,6%): rivers, lakes, groundwater, polar ice and glaciers.

• Salt water (97,4%): seas and oceans.

Water IS ESSENTIAL FOR LIFE.

In nature, WATER is found in three STATES:

• Solid: ice and snow.

• Liquid: oceans, seas, rivers, lakes…

• Gaseous: water vapour in the atmosphere.

OVEREXPLOITATION OF GROUNDWATER due to the use of water in the industry, agriculture and at home.

Activity 4 on page 46.

Activity. How do aquifers form? Why does

groundwater level vary?

When water penetrates the ground and reaches an

impermeable layer, it accumulates and forms an aquifier.

It varies with the seasons: it goes up when there is rain or

melted snow and goes down in dry seasons.

THE WATER CYCLE

The water cycle is the set of processes in which water, in different states, circulates through oceans, atmosphere, rivers,

lakes, groundwater, glaciers…

PROCESSES DEFINITION

EVAPORATION Water from the ground, seas and oceans

evaporates in the heat of the Sun

TRANSPIRATION Living things release water vapour into the

atmosphere

CONDENSATION Water vapour rises, cools down and

condenses to form clouds

PRECIPITATION Water falls from the clouds as rain, snow

and hail

RUNOFF (escorrentía) The land is above sea level so the water

returns to the seas and oceans

INFILTRATION Water on the ground surface enters the soil

Activity. Make a table with two columns: water cycle processes and their definition.

5. WATER, A SOURCE OF LIFE

Los seres vivos están formados principalmente de agua

El agua líquida ha permitido la vida en la Tierra

Hay dos grandes desastres naturales relacionados con el agua: inundaciones

y sequías

Los seres vivos están formados principalmente por agua

Plantas: 50% – 90% Humanos: 70%

El agua líquida ha permitido que se desarrolle la vida en la Tierra

El agua es imprescindible para los seres vivos porque

Muchos organismos viven

en el agua

El agua interviene en muchas reacciones

bioquímicas que ocurren en las células

Las plantas necesitan el agua para realizar la

fotosíntesis

El agua sirve para amortiguar variaciones

bruscas de la temperatura ambiental y así mantener constante la temperatura interna de los seres vivos

• El agua es un buen disolvente, por lo que siempre contiene sustancias disueltas como sales, gases, nutrientes…

• El hielo flota en el agua líquida, permitiendo la vida bajo su superficie.

• El agua puede absorber una gran cantidad de calor mientras que su temperatura solo asciende ligeramente.

¿Qué propiedades del agua la hacen esencial para la vida?

Hay dos grandes desastres naturales relacionados con el agua

Inundaciones Sequías

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQFtMbGwvi4

Cuando los ríos se desbordan debido a lluvias torrenciales (puede deberse a que los cauces no se

limpien con regularidad)

Cuando no llueve durante un largo periodo de tiempo

Activity. How much of your body or weight is water? You have to express the result in kilograms. Activity. Where can we locate water in our body?

Activity 6 on page 47.

Activity on page 51. Summary: the hydrosphere.

WATER FOOTPRINT

Copy or click on the following link http://www.gracelinks.org/1408/water-footprint-calculator

In English or in Spanish (choose New York)

Copy or click on the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzVjBfeduAY

Video: Where is water?