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Managing coastal erosion & holistic management

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Managing coastal erosion & holistic management

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Hard engineering and holderness
The Holderness coast is 85km long, only 9.2km are protected by hard-engineering structures. An extra 2.15km are protected by other bodies, the rest is unprotected.
The impacts
Decisions taken by councils and coastal authorities to use hard engineering methods to protect particular places on the coast can then lead to problems elsewhere.
Hornsea - concrete sea walls, groynes, rock armour - sediment is trapped to maintained the beach however Mappleton Dow drift has been starved of sediment as a result.
Mappleton - 2 rock groynes (£2 million) 1991 & rock armour built with the aim of preventing the removal of the beach by long shore drift. At Cowden, 3km south, the resultant sediment starvation caused increased erosion of the cliffs.
Withernsea - straight sea wall 1875 replaced in 1990s after a CBAbwith a curved wall at cost of £6.3 million, the waves are now noisier, the promenade smaller and views from beach font hotels restricted.

The East Riding of Yorkshire Council developed an ICZM which was launched in 2002. It involved over 80 organisations and named ‘towards a sustainable coast’. It was based on the UK government’s principles for coastal management in England and included:

Taking a holistic approach

Adopting a long term perspective

Pursuing adaptive management

Seeking specific solutions and flexible measures

Working with natural processes

Providing participatory planning

The ICZM was used to develop the Flamborough head to Gibraltar Point (northern and southern limits of a major sediment cell on England’s east coast) Shoreline Management Plan SMP and to deliver the East Riding Coastal Change Pathfinder 2010-2012.

What is the SMP?
It sets out the policy for managing the coastline and responding to coastal erosion over the next 100 years. It assesses potential erosion and flood risks and identifies sustainable coastal defence and management options which take into account the influences and needs of the human, natural and historic environments (including existing defences and adjacent coastal areas).
The East Riding of Yorkshire council worked with a number of players and stakeholders in developing the SMP including

National government agencies

Local government

Stakeholders in the economy (the National Farmers Union)

Environmental stakeholders

What’s the plan for Holderness?
CBA and EIA
In order to make a decision about where to protect, a CBA and an Environmental Impact Assessment are carried out. For each area along the coastline, the economic assessment identified whether:

The benefits clearly outweighed the costs

The benefits marginally outweighed the costs

The costs clearly outweighed the benefits

The CBA concluded that:

Along undefended parts of the coast, the ‘do nothing’ policy has no costs, however there will be some economic losses

The benefits outweigh the costs of continuing to protect Bridlington, Hornsea and Withernsea

The economic benefit of holding the line at Mappleton is similar to the cost

Because of the current importance of the gas terminals at Dimlington and Easington, the benefits clearly outweigh the costs

Spurn Point will be allowed to evolve, requiring minimal costs

An EIA decides whether environmental quality will improve or worsen as a result of the different options for managing the coast. The decision under the SMP is to 'hold the line' for current defences at Dimlington and Easington gas terminals. An ElA for coastal protection works recommended the current protection scheme of a rock revetment made up of large granite boulders and 1km long.

Wider issues

Decisions about whether to defend the coast or not are complex judgements, based on a range of factors - not just a CBA and EIA.
Over the next few decades, countries face difficult decisions about the best way to manage the coast. In the UK: farmland and isolated houses are likely to remain unprotected; residents, councils and businesses often disagree about the best approach; conflicts arise when coastal defences in one place have a negative impact elsewhere along the coast - and where there are delays in the implementation of coastal protection. Where different players are involved there will always be winners and losers, decisions are made about how to manage issues so some people are bound to come out on top while others lose out.

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Odisha’s coastal zone on India’s north east coast has a wide range of coastal and marine wildlife. It is rich in mineral deposits and has huge potential for offshore wind, wave and tidal power. Cultural and archaeological sites also dot the coast. Coastal fishing employs large numbers of people as fishermen as well as those employed to process the fish caught.
The area is under stress from:

Rapid urban industrialisation

Marine transport, fishing and aquaculture

Tourism

Coastal and seabed mining

Coastal erosion

Offshore oil and natural gas production

Increase in frequency and intensity if severe weather events like cyclones

Rising sea levels

In attempt to manage some of these problems, an integrated coastal zone management project has been implemented with the aim of managing the coast and its resources in a sustainable way.
In Odisha, there are many key players who have an interested in managing the coast and these have consulted with others who have a stake in its future:

Central government

Archaeology department of culture

Water resource department

Fisheries department

State and local government

Odisha state disaster management authority

Odisha state pollution control board

Wildlife wing of forest and environment department

Paradeep municipality

Stakeholders in the local economy

Odisha tourism development corporation

Handicraft and cottage industries

In addition to the inter-organisational consultations, a wide range of public consultations have also been held, including with individual villages about issue including:

The assessment and control of coastal erosion

The development of eco tourism

Planting or replanting mangroves

Building cyclone shelters

Greenpeace India has also been involved in meetings about income generation and the management of marine resources, acting with some of the villages include in the ICZM project.

Managing future threats
The Mahanadi Delta in Odisha is prone to cyclone disasters, and the loss of mangroves is part of the story. 50 years ago, coastal villages in Odisha had an average width of 5.1km of mangroves protecting them. Today, that figure is an average of 1.2km. In 1999 during ‘super cyclone’ Kalina, villages that still had 4 or more km of mangroves recorded no deaths. However in area where the protective belt was less than 3km wide, death rates rose sharply.
The NGO Wetlands International, the Indian Government and Odishas ICZM project are trying to reverse decades of mangrove destruction. They are helping villagers to plant mangroves along the coast, and also on the banks of all tidal rivers along Odisha’s coast.

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A country a risk

Bangladesh is the world's most densely populated country - with an estimated population of about 169 million in 2015.

46% of the country's population lives less than 10 metres
above sea level.

Bangladesh also lies on the floodplains of three major rivers - the Brahmaputra, Meghna and Ganges - which converge in Bangladesh and, together with 54 smaller rivers, empty into the Bay of Bengal through a series of estuaries.

Almost every year, huge areas of the country flood as Himalayan snowmelt adds to monsoon rains and high tides in the Bay of Bengal. Coastal flooding is a major problem - between March and May, violent thunderstorms produce strong southerly winds of 160 km per hour, which bring in six-metre-high waves from the Bay of Bengal to swamp coastal areas.

Storm surges

Storm surges causing devastating results are common in the Bay of Bengal.

Storm surges are changes in sea level caused by intense low-pressure systems - depressions and tropical cyclones - and high wind speeds. For every drop in air pressure of 10 mb, the sea level rises by 10 cm. During tropical cyclones, the air pressure may be 100 mb lower than normal, which will raise the sea level by I metre. This rise in sea level is intensified in areas where the coastline is funnel-shaped. During high tides and in low-lying areas - such as much of Bangladesh - the results can be deadly.

CYCLONE SIDR
Cyclone Sidr brought heavy rain with it, as well as strong winds of up to 223 km/hr and a huge storm surge reaching up to 6 metres in height. It was a category 4 storm.

the coastal districts and offshore islands suffered the highest number of deaths and the worst effects. The situation in coastal districts like Barguna was described as the worst in decades, which is saying something given that Bangladesh is used to dealing with major floods and storms every year.

The storm surge breached many coastal and river embankments - causing severe flooding in low-lying areas.

The high winds and floods damaged housing, roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

Electricity supplies and communications were knocked out, and roads and waterways became impassable.

Drinking water was contaminated by debris, and many freshwater sources (such as wells) were inundated with salt water.

The sanitation infrastructure was destroyed, raising the risk of disease.

The total cost of Cyclone Sid to Bangladesh was estimated to be US$I.7 billion. Most of the destruction and social and environmental losses were caused by the severity of the cyclone; the failure of the extensive embankment system; and the consequent flooding of many villages. But the casualties were lower than expected, because of improved disaster-prevention measures (including an improved forecasting and warning system and the use of cyclone shelters).

Increasing the flood risk
There is not much Bangladesh can do about the physical factors which make it prone to flooding, such as its height above sea level or the large number of major rivers passing through the country on their way to the sea. However human actions are increasing the risk of coastal flooding.

1. Subsidence - isostatic readjustment and the clearance and drainage of over 50 large islands in the Ganges-Brahmaputra river delta has led to some of Bangladesh’s estuarine islands sinking up to 1.5 metres in the last 50 years. These islands were previously forested but have now been cleared and are being used to grow rice to feed the country’s large population. In the 1960s&70s, large embankments were built around the islands to protect them against tidal and storm surge inundations. However this has prevented the natural deposition of sediment that used to maintain the height of the islands. Now they are fast submerging and the millions of people who live there are at increased risk of flooding if the embankments give way.

2. Removing vegetation - the largest remaining tract of mangrove forest in the world is found in the Sundarbans region of Bangladesh, on the edge of the Bay of Bengal. The Sundarbans forest helped take the sting out of Cyclone Sidr in November 2007 but recent satellite studies show that 71% of this mangrove forested coastline is now retreating by as much as 200 metres a year. This is due to erosion, rising sea levels and human actions to deliberately remove the vegetation. Globally, half of all mangrove forests have been lost since the mid twentieth century. Conversion of this first into lucrative shrimp farms accounts for 25% of this loss.

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Mangroves are one of the most productive and complex ecosystems on the planet, they are essential to marine, freshwater and terrestrial biodiversity because they stabilise coastline against erosion, collect nutrient rich sediments and provide a nursery for coastal fish. Not only that but they also provide protection and shelter agains extreme weather events. They absorb and disperse tidal surges associated with these events.
Mangrove forests are found along the tropical and sub tropical coasts of Africa, Australia, Asia and the Americas.

A report published a year after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami compared two coastal villages hit by the wall of water. It showed that only 2 people died in the settlement protected by dense mangrove and scrub forest, while up to 6000 people died in the village that had removed the protective vegetation.
Partly as a result of this, Sri Lanka has become the First Nation in the world to protect all of its mangrove forests. It’s scheme will protect all 8800 hectares of remaining forest, as well as replanting mangroves that have already been felled.

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For centuries, erosion has been a problem along the coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire, known as Holderness which stretches between Bridlington and Flamborough Head in the North, and Spurn Head in the south.
It has the fastest eroding coastline in Europe. On average it loses nearly 2 meters of coastline every year. Since Roman times, the Holderness coast has retreated by 4km and at least 29 villages have been lost to sea.

Why is erosion such a problem here?
Rates of coastal erosion vary due to a range of physical and human factors - all of which can change in the short and the long term.
3 main reasons:

Geology - most of the coast consists of boulder clay which is also known as glacial till it drift and is a mixture of fine clays, sands and boulders deposited by glaciers after the last Ice Age. Boulder clay us weak and has little resistance to erosion. It produces shallow, sloping cliffs between 5 and 20 metres high. The chalk bank that surrounds the boulder clay has created the headland at Flamborough Head. Erosion along fault lines and bedding planes has created features such as cliffs, arches and stacks.

Fetch - wave energy hugely impacts the rate of erosion and this depends on the fetch. Holderness is exposed to winds and waves from the north east with a small fetch of 500-800 km across the North Sea. This isn’t far relative to the worlds oceans but these waves are also influenced by other factors which affect their size and power. Currents or swell circulate around the UK into the North Sea. The fetch of 5000km across the Atlantic adds energy to waves in the North Sea so there are often powerful, destructive waves at work there. Low pressure weather systems and winter storms passing over the North Sea are often intense - producing locally strong winds and waves. Low pressure air weighs less, raising sea levels, which in turn produce much higher tides than usual. Small enclosed seas such as the North Sea generate huge waves during storms because they cannot disperse their energy. The sea floor is relatively deep along the Holderness coast so waves reach the cliffs without being weakened by friction from shallow beaches first.

Longshore drift and beach material - the beaches at Holderness are its main problem. The boulder clay erodes to produce mainly clay particles, which are fine and easily transported out to sea in suspension, rather than accumulating on shore as beach sand. Although there are beaches, they narrow and offer little friction to absorb wave energy. Plus, there is never enough sand to stop the waves from reaching the base of the cliffs at high tide. The tides flow southwards, transporting sand South by long shore drift and leaving the cliffs at Holderness poorly protected against wave attack. Beaches south of Hornsea have reduced in width because an imbalance exists between the input of sand and the removal of sand.

Sub-aerial processes and coastal erosion

Chemical weathering is relatively ineffective at Holderness except on the chalk cliffs Flamborough Head. Mechanical and biological weathering are more important, with the main types are freeze-thaw and the alternate wetting and drying of the boulder clay making it crumbly.

Slumping is the main form of mass movement affecting the boulder clay cliffs at Holderness. The wetting and drying of the clay causes expansion and shrinkage, producing cracks during dry periods. Subsequent rains enter cracked clay and percolate the cliff, weighing it down. It cannot support this extra weight and the clay slides downslope under gravity. The slumped material collects at the cliff base and gets removed by the sea - causing the cliff line to retreat.

Human actions
The actions that people and organisations (players) take can impact on coastal retreat - the outcome isn’t always positive. Central government agencies such as the environmental agency are usually responsible for coastal management alongside local authorities and they must work according to stakeholders in the local economy such as tourists, farmers and residents. They might want certain areas protected in order to maintain value of farmland, protect their homes, campsites and other businesses. However insurance companies are increasingly refusing to insure vulnerable properties. Also environmental stakeholders want to protect Spurn Head, so a continuing flow of sand southwards by long shore drift is essential. This is because it protects the mudflats of Humber Estuary which is an important birdlime reserve.

Impacts of coastal management
Higher rates of erosion often occur immediately to the South of coastal defences along the Holderness coast. For example the sea wall, groynes and rock armour at Hornsea protect part of the coast but also interrupt the flow of beach material by long shore drift. The beach downdrift of Hornsea at Mappleton is then starved of beach material and it’s cliffs are exposed to wave attack. This is known as terminal groyne syndrome and it affects many UK coasts.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL LOSSES
Golden Sands Holiday park, south of Withernsea has lost 100 chalets to the sea in just 15 years.
Withernsea isn’t alone in suffering economic losses due to coastal erosion. It is predicted that 200 homes and several roads will fall into the sea between Flamborough Head and Spurn Point by 2100. Nationally, the environment agency suggests that 7000 homes will disappear due to coastal erosion by the same date.
Individuals lose out both socially and financially as a result of coastal erosion and very little financial help is available to them. No compensation is paid out for the loss of private property or land caused by erosion in England.
Between 2010 and 2012 the East Riding of Yorkshire Council used £1.2 million of direct money from Defra to trial different ways of helping people adapt to living on an eroding coastline. They gave some financial assistance to 36 households along the coast, supported 16 locations and 43 property demolitions. The remainder of the money was used to help residents through relocation and adaptation packages.

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Banda Aceh, Banda Aceh City, Aceh, Indonesia

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Sea level change due to tectonic activity

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Sea level change due to tectonic activity

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On Boxing Day 2004, an earthquake caused a tsunami in the Indian Ocean which killed around 300,000 people. The Indonesian island of Sumatra was the worst hit because it was the closest land to the earthquakes epicentre. The city of Banda Aceh was hit by 15 metre high waves and flooded just 15 minutes after the initial earthquake. But the devastation was made worse because the earthquake caused the Earth’s crust at Banda Aceh to sink, permanently flooding some parts of the city.
This is a good example of isostatic change.
This earthquake was caused by an estimated 1600km of fault line slipping about 15 metres along the subduction zone where the Indian Plate slides under the Burma Plate. The seabed rose several metres, displacing an estimates 30km3 of water and triggering the tsunami. Not only that, but the rain sing of the seabed reduced the capacity of the entire of the Indian Ocean producing a permanent rise of sea level estimated to be 0.1mm.

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The nation of Kiribati consists of 33 widely spaced islands, which stretch across an area of the Pacific Ocean nearly as wide as the USA. Kiribati’s islands are very low lying sand and mangrove atolls - just one metre or less above sea level in most places. To visitors, Kiribati may seem like paradise, but it’s been predicted that many of its islands could disappear under the sea in the next 50 years. In places, the sea level is rising by 1.2cm a year, 4x faster than the global average.

In 2014, president Anote Tong finalised the purchase of 20km2 of land in one of the Fijian islands, 2000km from Kiribati. The inhabitants of Kiribati now own a refuge somewhere else.
What’s next for Kiribati?
The land purchased in Fiji by Kiribati will be used in the immediate future for agriculture and fish farming projects to guarantee the nations food security. Rising sea levels are contaminating its groundwater sources and affecting its ability to grow crops. In the future, if necessary, people could move from Kiribati to Fiji. The government has launched a ‘migration with dignity’ policy to allow people to apply for jobs in neighbouring countries such as New Zealand. If the islands become submerged, Kiribati’s population will become environmental refugees - people forced to migrate as a result of changes to the environment.

Two types of sea level change:

Eustatic change - when the sea level itself rises or falls

Isostatic change - when the land rises or falls, relative to the sea

Why are sea levels rising?
Global warming. Average global temperatures rose by 0.85*C from 1880 to 2012. During a similar time period, 1870-2010, average sea levels rose by 21cm.
Sea levels are rising because the polar ice sheets as well as glaciers are melting, and due to thermal expansion.
No one knows exactly how far sea levels will rise. Climate scientists estimate that by 2100, average sea levels will have risen by around 40cm. And that means low lying nations, like Kiribati or the Maldives are at risk of disappearing beneath the waves.

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Sediment moves along the coast within sediment cells.
Within each speck, the sediment moves between the beach, cliffs and sea through the processes of erosion, transportation and deposition. Each cell operates between physical barriers that prevent the sediment from moving any further along the coast (eg. major headlands or river estuaries). The coastline of England and wales is divided into 11 major sediment cells.

The sediment cell as a system
Sediment cells act as systems with sources, transfers and sinks.
Larger sediment is not transferred between cells but finer sediment in suspension out at sea can be transferred.

The amount of sediment available within a sediment cell is called the sediment budget. Within each cell, depositional features build up which are in line or equilibrium with the amount of sediment available.

If the sediment budget falls, waves continue to transport sediment (and erosion may increase in some areas as the sea has surplus energy). One change has led to another change - known as positive feedback.

However if the sediment budget increases, more deposition is likely. The sea corrects itself because it can only carry so much - and any surplus is deposited. This is known as negative feedback (the sea returns to a situation where it can handle the sediment supply)

The way in which systems attempt to balance in this way is called dynamic eauilibrium.

Each major sediment cell can be divided up into a number of sub-cells. One of these lies in Christchurch Bay. Within this sub-cell, the processes of erosion, transport and deposition are all interlinked. Areas of deposition, like Dolphin Bank, firm potential sources of sediment, as well as sinks.

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A spit is a long narrow feature, made of sand or shingle which extends from the land into the sea. Spits form on drift aligned beaches. Sand or shingle is moved along the coast by longshore drift but if the coastline suddenly changes direction (eg. due to a river estuary), sediment will begin to build out into the sea and a spit will start to form. The outward flow of the river associated with an estuary would prevent the spit from extending al, the way across. Over time the end of the spit will begin to curve round, as wave refraction carries material round into the more sheltered water behind the spit. This is called a recurved spit.
The entrance to Poole Harbour is unusual because it has a double spit, where two spits extend from either end of the bay. A salt marsh may firm behind a spit where finer sediment settles and begins to be colonised by salt tolerant plants.

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A cuspate foreland is a triangular shaped headland that extends out from the main coastline. It occurs when a coast is exposed to long shore drift from opposite directions. Sediment is deposited at the point where the two meet, which firms a natural triangular shape as it builds up. As vegetation begins to grow on the deposited sediment it helps to stabilise the landform and protect it from storms that could erode it. Cuspate forelands can be small, extending just a few metres from the coast, or they can be larger features that extend up to 3 miles out from the coastline.
Dungeness in Kent is a good example. It has a pebble beach and an area of marshland. It has built up slowly since the first lighthouse was built there in the 17th century. Since then several replacements have had to be built as the point of land has grown further out to sea.

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Unnamed Road, Bigton, Shetland ZE2 9JA, UK

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A tombolo is a beach that has formed between a small island and the mainland. Deposition occurs where wave lose their energy and the tombolo begins to build up. Tombolos may be covered at high tide.

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Where a beach or spit extends across a bay to join two headlands, it forms a barrier beach or a bar. The barrier beach at Start Bay is 9km long and is formed from rounded shingle deposits. They also may trap water behind them, forming lagoons such as Slapton Ley.

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If an average of one metre of coastal erosion a year in Holderness sounds like a lot, Benin is something else.
62 year old Gilbert Adipeko remembers the night he lost much of his seafront home to the sea - ‘when I built my house in 1987, the sea was 250 metres away and there were four rows of houses in front of mine, now they’re all under the sea.’

Along the coast of west Africa, winds blow onshore from the south west throughout the year. As the waves advance, material is carried up the beach at an angle. The backwash then pulls the material down the beach at a right angle to the shore. This leads to a lateral shift and the process is known as long shore drift. Where the removal of sediment is greater than the supply of new sediment, the beach is eroded.
Strong prevailing south westerly winds and large waves create significant and sustained longshoreman drift in West Africa. As a result, a huge amount of sand is transported along the coast, from Ghana eastwards to Togo and Benin. However despite that, not enough sand is deposited to replace that transported by long shore drift so Benin’s coastline is still eroded at a rapid rate of 400 metres in just 40 years in Cotonou - that’s 10 metres each year!

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The coast of South Devon and East Dorset is widely regarded as being amongst the most-stunning scenery in the UK. In 2001, UNESCO awarded 'World Heritage' status to a stretch of it (the first coast in the UK to be given this title). This particular stretch of coast is often called 'The Jurassic Coast', after the geological period during which its rocks were formed. The World Heritage status comes from its unique 'geological walk through time - it demonstrates the whole Jurassic period, with abundant fossils.

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The winter storm that hit Dawlish in February 2014 was so powerful that the waves destroyed part of the sea wall, leaving a section of rain track dangling in mid air and cutting the rail connection between Devon, Cornwall and the rest of the UK for two months.
It is not unusual for sea front homes to shake when a storm hits the South Devon Coast. ‘But this was different’ said one resident, ‘It was like being in a car wash. The storm was unbelievable and waves were pounding against the terrace’.

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Dalmatian coasts are another type of concordant coastline. They have formed as a result of a rise in sea level. Valleys and ridges run parallel to each other. When the valleys flooded because of a rise in sea level, the tops of the ridges remained above the surface of the sea - as a series of offshore islands that run parallel to the coast.

The best example of a Dalmatian coastline is the one that gives this feature its name - the Dalmatian coast in Croatia.
Dalmatian coasts are also known as Pacific coasts for example in southern Chile.

Haff coasts also consist of concordant features - long spits of sand and lagoons - aligned parallel to the coast.

These are named after the Haffs, or lagoons, of the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, which are enclosed by sand spits or dunes.

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Concordant coastline - where banks of more resistant and less resistant rock run parallel to the coast.

In east Dorset is the Isle of Purbeck which has very distinctive coastal features that are clearly linked to it geology and lithology. The rock type on Dorset’s coast varies between Purbeck limestone which forms steep cliffs to less resistant clays and sands. These rock types alternate parallel to the coast forming a concordant coastline.
Over time the sea gradually eroded the resistant limestone at the entrance to Lulworth Cove. Then rapid erosion of the less resistant clays behind the limestone led to the formation of a cover or a bay.

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Background:
- the Colorado river drains 7% of the USA and covers an area larger than France
- it supplies water to 8 states, contains 11 major dams and reservoirs, irrigates 1.4 million hectares of farmland and provides drinking water for 50 million Americans
- it controls flooding and produces HEP
- water storage in Lake Powell and Lake Mead was at 43% capacity in 2016
- demand and climate change have depleted storage to 48%
- since the 1990s, the average Colorado flow has decreased by 15%
- the 11 year average temperature has increased by 2*C since 1970
- the basin has been in a persistent drought since 2000

For most of the twentieth century, Californians relied on the water from the Colorado river. Throughout the century, numerous treaties and agreements were needed to allocate ‘fair shares’ of its water to the 7 surrounding states and Mexico.
Previous agreements are out of date due to the higher populations and lower rainfall, so pressures on the river are building:

Mexico takes 10% of the total flow

The states in the upper basin take 50% and the upper basin falls short by 10%

California takes 20% more than its allocation agreed in 1963

Native Americans are owed 5% but could claim more because their reservations extend along the river and two of its tributaries

New agreements
A combination of climate change, population growth, economic development and lifestyle changes has made the old Colorado agreements obsolete so:

In 2007, a new agreement was reached. Instead of sharing the river’s water, the 7 US states divide up the shortages. The amount of water available determines supply to each state. As a result, California has reduced the amount it extracts by 20%.

In 2012 an agreement called Minute 139 was signed between the USA and Mexico. It gives Mexico the right to store some of its river water in Lake Mead. In return, water providers in the Colorado River Basin will be able to purchase water conserved through improving Mexico’s canals and storage infrastructure.

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Singapore is a small country and it’s 5.4 million people are urban. It’s neighbour, Malaysia has traditionally supplied 80% of its water by by 2010 this volume had halved.

Per capita water consumption fell from 165 litres per day in 2000 to 150 in 2015 through metering the water supply and educating the public

Leakages have been cut to 5%

Water prices are scaled, the price rises if water usage goes above a certain level

Subsidies protect the poorest citizens from expensive water

The whole of Singapore is a water harvesting catchment, diversified supplies include local catchment water, recycled water and desalinated water

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In the 1980s, Saudi Arabia pioneered the use of circular irrigation systems to grow enough wheat to feed itself and its neighbours using water from its own aquifers.
Water levels within its aquifers fell sharply. Now the government imports grain and wheat farms have been abandoned to reduce demands upon aquifers supplying irrigation water.

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Israel’s climate, natural geography and politics has forced it to manage its limited water supplies efficiently. The National Water Carrier was developed to transfer water from the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel to the highly populated centre of the country and the dry south. Israel’s current water management strategies include managing limited supplies through:

Using smart irrigation where drip systems allow water to drip slowly to plants’ roots through a system of valves and pipes, this reduces waste and evaporation

Recycling sewage water fir agricultural use

Reducing agricultural consumption and importing water in food as virtual water

Adopting stringent conservation techniques

Managing demand by charging ‘real value’ prices for water to reflect supply costs which include ecosystem management

Irsrael also acquires new supplies by:

Importing 50 million tonnes of water per year by ship from Turkey (Manavgat Project agreed 2004)

Piping seawater from the Red Sea and Mediterranean to new inland desalination plants

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Darling River, New South Wales, Australia

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The MDB covers 1 million km2 of southeast Australia (4x size of UK) and is home to more than 2 million people.
It’s basin:
- contains two rivers, the Murray and the Darling
-  overs 14% of Australian land mass
- Provides 75% of Australia’s water
- provides 40% of the nation’s farm produce

However, the MDB is under threat from increasing and competing demands, there has been an increase of 5x water extraction since the 1920s which hasn’t always been well managed or coordinated. Difficulties arise because the basin is so large that is covers different environments, ranging from rainforests in sub-tropical Queensland to hot, semi-desert areas in South Australia.
Due to the size of the country, along with variations in ENSO cycles, annual, seasonal and local variations in rainfall occur between different parts of the basin at the same time!
Some areas may experience surpluses while others are in deficit. Regulation and entitlements to water are needed to ensure that all cities and users can receive water when and where it’s needed.

KEY PLAYERS
Those who use water from the MDB and consume food grown there have an interest in the way the resource is managed.

Agriculture is the major player, taking the most water and always demanding more, irrigation boosts profits and crops that yield the best returns have been replacing breed and sheep.

Urban residents in the major cities of southeast  Australia, its most populated region

Industrial users, eg. Queensland’s mining industry

Aquaculture, freshwater fishing

Leisure interests and those offering recreational activities

The local and state governments of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland

Environmental groups

International heritage and conservation agencies

Indigenous peoples groups where traditional water rights for aboriginal groups are threatened

A plan for the MDB
The basin includes 23 major river systems and since 1901 there have been agreements, policies and plans in place to use the MDB’s waters fairly and responsibly. In 2012 a new basin plan came into effect which aimed to balance access to water for communities in the basin and the provision of adequate water for the environment.
The plan determines the amount of water that can be extracted for consumption, both by the user and by state and federal governments so that there isn’t a negative impact on the natural environment and functions of the rivers, groundwater and wetlands of the basin.
However not everyone is happy about the plan, farmers and rural communities claim that too much water has been taken back for the river and its environment.

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Turkey is a large country, 3 times the size of the UK. Although rainfall there is abundant, regional variations and summer droughts in Anatolia, southeast Turkey (the least developed part of the country), plus shortages in the capital, Ankara and in Istanbul, forced the government to embark of a US$32 billion southeastern Anatolia Project (aka GAP).

GAP
GAP is an attempt to improve incomes in Anatolia by developing an integrated water and energy supply system. But the scale of the GAP project has the potential for conflict with its neighbours, Syria and Iraq because it involves damming the Euphrates and Tigris rivers which provide both countries with much of their water.
Turkey has agreed to release water from the Ilisu Dam for Syria, but not Iraq, at a rate agreed by international law. However just downstream from Ilisu and north of the border, Turkey intends to build another dam to collect additional water for irrigation before the Tigris crosses the border.

Aims of the project:

Construct 22 dams, 19 HEP plants and 2 water transfer tunnels

Provide irrigation for 1.7 million hectares

Diversify agriculture into cash crops (nuts, fruit, veg)

Stop the migration of young people from the region (create jobs and improve health & education)

Help the Anatolian economy to grow by 400%

Help the Turkish economy grow by 12%

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In 1999, Agua del Tunari took over the Bolivian city of Cochabamba’s water system. The company immediately raised the price of water supplies so that they cost 20% of the average income of Cochabamba’s urban poor. People protested for 4 days and the Bolivian government cancelled the contract.

Why the price of water varies
Traditionally, governments or local authorities provided water as a service, charging for it at cost price and often, limited infrastructure was installed to cover what were small cities at the time.
However, huge amounts of urban growth have now outgrown the limited infrastructure and the IMF restricts government spending in services such as water. In many countries, responsibility for water provision is now controlled by the private sector. This passing over responsibility for modernising the ageing infrastructure seemed like a good idea in the 20th century however as a result, consumers have had to pay significantly higher charges for their water supplies. This has created conflicts, such as that in Bolivia.

The Pacific Institute states that ‘water is far too important to human health and the health of our environment to be placed entirely in private hands.’ By 2015, many of the worlds major cities were taking back control of their water supplies.

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Droughts are a normal feature of the Californian climate however almost 40 million Californians are facing increasing problems due to recent variations in rainfall which evidence suggests result from climate change.
Climate scientists are forecasting mega droughts lasting 30 years as well as decade long dry periods. This is due to climate change and farmers are already abandoning their fields. 2015 marked a 4th year of continuous drought and the worst in 2100 years, water rationing was imposed on cities and 11 of the years from 2000-2015 were drought years for California, Arizona, Texas, Nevada, Oklahoma and New Mexico. The population of these states combined is equal to that on the UK.
This drought has two causes:

Rising temperatures have led to increased evaporation rates.

There has been a fall in precipitation - a trend expected to continue during the next decades of the 21st century.

If forecasts of mega droughts are true, ‘business as usual’ will not be possible in terms of meeting future water demands and already there is evidence of problems:

Surface runoff and soil moisture levels have declined

Forested areas have reverted to scrub and grassland

Groundwater (often used to make up shortfall in supply) has kept up with cities demand, levels fell by 30 metres from 2011-15

Reservoir levels have also fallen

Snowpack (permanent snow) levels in 2015 were at record lows due to high temperatures and lack of winter storms. This is crucial because it provides 1/3 of water used in California.

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Rainfall is variable in the Sahel region which forms the southern fringe of the Sahara desert. Up to 90% of its annual rain falls between July and September as part of the West African Monsoon. However in the 1970s-80s the rains failed. Drought, poverty and civil war drove people out of the Sahel (Eritrea and Ethiopia) and onto marginal land. Many died, particularly in the famine in 1984-5.

Re greening the desert
The Sahel’s climate seems to be changing, although it may just be part of a climate cycle. Since 2996 there have been several wet years in between the droughts. Although evidence is small at present, it does point to an opportunity for re greening, the conversion of dry landscapes to productive farmland.
This restoration technique involves planting trees and bushes alongside other sustainable land management schemes. This is popular in Malawi, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Niger where hundreds of thousands of farmers benefit from increasing yields.
Re greening is also referred to as ‘farmer- managed natural regeneration’ (FMNR) and its benefits include:

Natural regeneration of water-retaining shrubs and trees

Low cost reforesting

The use of water harvesting techniques

For example, Burkina Faso’s farmers build stone lines or dig improved planting pits to trap the limited rainfall on fields and increase yields.

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Storm Desmond hit Cumbria in December 2015 and was caused by the deep Atlantic low pressure system. Associated fronts stretched across norther Britain, bringing prolonged and heavy rainfall through a mechanism known as a ‘warm conveyor’.

Facts and figures
- 5200 homes were flooded
- a landslide closed a section of the West Coast mainline between Preston and Carlisle
- 61,000 homes lost power when an electrical substation flooded
- 5th Dec, Honister Pass recorded 341.4mm of rain in 24 hours
- 405mm of rain fell at Thirlmere in 38 hours

CAUSE
November 2015 was the 2nd wettest one since 1910 and this meant the December flooding was worsened by the already saturated ground conditions.
The storm caused major disruption, with greatest impacts due to flooding. Carlisle was worst hit by severe flooding from the River Eden.
The position of the jet stream is one theory which helps to explain the long periods of wet weather leading to flooding in Cumbria. Jet streams are the driving force which determine the direction of depressions and their speed of movement. The band of fast moving air moves north and south but it remained over the northwest longer than usual, bringing in rain- laden depressions from across the Atlantic.

Exacerbating flood risk
Cumbrian landscape = ‘sheep wrecked uplands’ therefore overgrazing means that bare slopes replace forests

Previously, trees absorbed and slowly released water, meandering channels slowed the flow and bogs held water back

Now, bare and drier soils, straightened and dredged channels leads to faster runoff, reduced lag times and higher discharge peaks.

Increasingly impermeable surfaces are found in more floodplains which water reaches faster. Along with unusually high rainfall, flooding is inevitable.

Mismanaged rivers
Hard engineering schemes are common in Cumbria, for example raised riverbanks, pumping stations and diversion channels carry surplus water away from built up areas.
The design of these is based on the flood-return period which is a statistical estimate of how often a flood of a certain magnitude is likely to occur based on past flood levels.
These were reinforced in Cumbria after the 2005 floods but climate change and further changes in land use mean we will face more extreme storms and flooding so smaller scale flood protection schemes may be overwhelmed.

Longer term impacts
The scale of the flooding caught people unawares and the economic disruption was significant. Increased flooding in the UK is forcing key players to weigh up the costs and benefits of staying where they are and also challenges communities to re-assess the flood threat in their area.

SOCIAL costs

Temporary accommodation needed for residents of 5200 homes that flooded

Local services force to temporarily close such as schools, healthcare and shops

Many residents suffered anxiety, stress and psychological trauma

ECONOMIC costs

Businesses closed and transport & infrastructure was damaged

Cost of the flooding was £400-500 million

Insurance claims exceeded £6 billion

Farmers lost hedgerows and expensive dry stone walls were washed away, many sheep also drowned

House prices fell in flood risk areas

The risk of repeated flooding deterred tourists

ENVIRONMENTAL costs

River banks eroded, contributing to further flood risk

Rivers clogged with debris and contaminated with sewage and pollutants

Soils eroded, habitats destroyed and ecosystems affected

Saturated ground led to landslides

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2014-15 witnessed the worst drought in Brazil for 80 years!
Water levels in some of the world’s largest HEP schemes were so low that power supplies were suspended, agriculture was in crisis and urban taps ran dry.

CAUSES

A series of high pressure systems diverted rain bearing winds further north, away from the Amazon, and also prevented them from diverting south towards the Andes.

Heavy rains then occurred in Bolivia and Paraguay while dry air remained over Brazil.

IMPACTS

The drought’s impacts led to street protests in São Paulo and included:

Water rationing for 4 million people, supplies were cut off for 3 days a week in some towns

The halting of HEP protection which led to power cuts

The depletion of Brazil’s 17 largest reservoirs to dangerously low levels, some down to just 1% capacity

Increased groundwater abstraction which led aquifers to become dangerously low

A reduced crop of Arabica coffee beans (Brazil being the worlds largest producer of these) which pushed up global coffee prices by 50%

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A significant part of the Yukon, in northwest Canada, lies within the Arctic Circle. It has seen a sharp rise in temperatures and forecasts are for continued warming. The increasing temperature has implications for precipitation patterns, river regimes and water stores.

Increased evaporation and atmospheric water vapour.

Winter precipitation increased between 1950-1998, however a greater proportion fell as rain and less as snow than previously. Annual precipitation is expected to increase by 5-20% by 2100.

Snowmelt now begins earlier in Yukon and snow cover is decreasing. This alters river regimes bringing earlier peak flows to most river basins.

Between 1958 and 2008 the total ice area in Yukon shrank by 22% and as glaciers recede, streamflow is decreasing despite an initial increase in meltwater.

Climate change is leading to the thawing of the permafrost so water penetrates deeper into the soil instead of forming surface runoff.

Since 2000, inflows to the Yukon river have increased by 39% due to increasing temp and precipitation.

As the permafrost thaws, climate change could increase the amount of groundwater.

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The Amazon Basin suffered severe droughts in 2005 and 2010, and the drought of 2014-15 was the worst to hit Brazil for 80 years. The Amazon Basin plays a key role in the Earth's carbon cycle, holding 17% of the terrestrial vegetation carbon store.

A study of the 2010 Amazon drought showed that trees died and growth rates declined. The drought effectively shut down the Amazon's function as a carbon sink.

Forest fires broke out - burning trees and litter and releasing CO2. There are further concerns that, as climate change increases temperatures and alters rainfall patterns across South America, the Amazon rainforest will change from a carbon sink to a carbon source.

This could accelerate global warming.

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Hinkley Point, Cannington, Bridgwater TA5 1UD, UK

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The Uk government believes that low carbon energy supplies are the most effective way to fill a looming energy generation gap.
2015 - low carbon generation supplied 47% of the UK’s electricity, wind and solar farms, HEP and biomass between them supplied 24% compared to coal’s 22%.
2016 - Hinckley Point C, the UK’s newest nuclear power station was given the go ahead.

The UK’s use of fossil fuels is falling and there are plans to close all traditional coal- fired power stations by 2025. Even thought he UK has 150 years worth of coal reserves it is energy insecure. 60% of its energy is imported. To reduce carbon emissions and ensure a more secure future, the UK is committed to decoupling the economy from fossil fuels by:

Increasing renewable energy - especially wind and solar, however previously each energy source has only expanded through government subsidies.

Developing a new generation of nuclear power stations e.g Hinckley point C which alone will provide 7% of the UKs electricity.

Reducing energy use through technologies such as LED light bulbs.

Recycling energy which would normally be wasted.

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Threats from human activity

Since the 1950s, Madagascar’s tropical rainforests have been cleared at a rapid rate.
Due to
- growing international demand for tropical hardwood
- expanding population
- debt repayments
The Madagascan gov. encouraged farmers to clear more land > grow cash crops > earn foreign currency > repay debts.
1950 - 1985
11.6m - 3.8m hectares
= loss of 2/3s

IMPACTS
Deforestation has a major impact on the size of the terrestrial carbon store, it also affects rivers, landscapes and soil health. For example the waters of rivers have turned red as a result of soil erosion cause by deforestation in the highlands.
Extensive logging of inland rainforests and coastal mangroves means that soil is washed from the hillsides into streams and rivers after heavy rainfall which eventually clogs the coastal waterways with sediment.

Water cycle

Infiltration decreased

Runoff and erosion increased

Flood peaks higher, lag times shorter

Increased discharge leads to flooding

More eroded material is carried in the river as bed load and silt & clay in suspension

Annual rainfall reduced & seasonality increases

Soil health

Raindrop impact washes away finer particles

Coarser and heavier sand is left behind

CO2 released from decaying woody material

Biomass lost due to reduced plant growth/ photosynthesis

Rapid soil erosion leads to loss of nutrients

Increased leaching means that minerals are lost

Atmosphere

Turbulence increased as heated ground induces conventional air currents

Oxygen content reduced and transpiration rates lower

Reduced shading means more direct sunlight reaching forest floor

Reduced evapotranspiration makes it less humid

Air is dryer

Evapotranspiration rates from the resultant grasslands are 1/3 that of tropical rainforest

Biosphere

Evaporation from vegetation reduced

Less CO2 absorption means carbon store reduced

Plant species diversity is reduced

Ecosystem services reduced

Decrease in habitats means less animal species survive

Biomass is lost due to reduced plant growth / photosynthesis

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Canada has the largest reserves of tar sands in the world, (73% of the worlds known stocks) covering an area larger than the UK. It is expensive and difficult to extract the oil but helps to improve Canada’s energy security.
Tar sands are extracted by opencast mining. The material is then crush and mixed with water to separate the bitumen in order for use. High pressure steam can also be injected to separate the bitumen from the sand.

KEY PLAYERS
- governments (promote it for energy security and economic development)
- oil companies (Syncrude (large producer) say they have ‘a tremendous and positive impact on the economies of Alberta and Canada)
- environmental pressure groups (Green peace called for an end to the ‘industrialisation of indigenous territories, forests and wetlands of northern Alberta)
- local communities (costs and benefits - new jobs & trade with local businesses, fears over pollution in the Athabasca River, disruption to traditional ways of life, rise in gambling substance abuse and crime rates, housing crisis as thousands of workers shipped in)

Costs of exploiting tar sands

Energy intensive

Uses between 2-5 barrels of water to produce 1 barrel of oil

1.8 million tonnes of toxic waste waster produced daily

Adds to GHG emissions

470km2 of Alberta’s woodlands have been removed

Overall huge quantities of waste produced

Benefits of exploiting tar sands

Alternative source of oil

Could meet 16% of North America’s needs by 2030

Offers energy security for Canada and the USA

Serve as a fuel stop gap until more renewable & cleaner sources become viable

Environmental protection is in place to ensure disturbed land is reclaimed

Earns vital revenues for local and national economies

Implications for the carbon cycle

1. Carbon emissions rise due to their extraction, production and usage

2. Carbon absorption falls due to deforestation

consequences for the environment
- Canada’s tar sands are found in deposits in ecologically fragile and isolated areas such as peat bogs and native taiga
- large scale open cast mining destroys forest and peat bogs causing a loss of ecosystems and habitats, resilience of native environments decrease
- extraction creates spoil heaps - dumps for waste soil and sand
- tailings (waste material) ponds are created, containing contaminated waste water caused by oil extraction and processing
- Caribou populations have declined sharply in areas of oil extraction and are expected to be extinct by 2040

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- 8th October 2005
- 7.6 magnitude
-  73,000 died, inc 17,000 children
- 128, 000 injured
- 3.5 million left homeless
- roads, water & sanitation facilities and communication systems destroyed
- mountainous meant search & rescue and reconstruction difficult

NGO RESPONSE

Immediate

Over 500,000 tents and 6 million blankets

Safe water for over 700,000 people

Food, clothing, emergency medical care

Short term aid

More permanent shelters built

Water supplies re-established

Roads rebuilt or re-routed

Long term recovery

Cooking kits and building supplies were provided along with seeds and tools to start growing their own food again

Helped nearly 60,000 people rebuild livelihoods by providing livestock and animal feed

New schools, medical centres and homes built

Community based disaster risk reduction programmes developed

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ABOUT

- 7107 islands
- 25% bigger than the UK
- 101 million population in 2015
- middle income country
- mountainous with coastal lowlands

Considered one of the most disaster prone countries in the world:

Sits across major convergent plate boundary = earthquakes and volcanoes

It’s northern and eastern coats face the Pacific Ocean = tsunamis

Lies within major typhoon belts which also bring strong winds heavy rainfall, flooding and landslides

Tropical monsoon climate, heavy annual rainfalls

22/47 active volcanoes

Common landslides due to step topography, deforestation and lots of rain

VULNERABILITY
- quickly developing, fast growing population led to rapid urbanisation and high population density
- many of the poor live in coastal areas where flooding and tsunami damage the poorly constructed housing and infrastructure
- 25% live in poverty

challenges:
- one hazard event can cause another
— earthquake in 2006; killed 15, injured 100, damaged 800 buildings; 3m high tsunami; triggered landslides which created a flood
- different hazards can happen in a short space of time
— 2013; earthquake in October killed 223; Typhoon Haiyan in November killed 6201; floods from a tropical depression in January killed 64
The government is left with drained resources and in a near constant state of emergency

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- 11th March 2011
- magnitude 9.0 in Pacific Ocean, 100km east of Sendai
- caused a tsunami, waves reached 10m high and surged 10km inland
- Fukushima nuclear power plant severely damaged = evacuation of 47,000

PREPARATIONS

Good building construction and strict regulations that were enforced due to low levels of corruption

Well developed disaster plans; sea walls, evacuation routes and shelters, emergency kits, early warning system 1 min

Education and preparedness, emergency drills practiced

+ nuclear power plant failed to be raked into account and was not built to withstand tsunami

Response:
The government immediately responded:
- 110,000 defence troops mobilised within 24 hours
- all radio and tv stations instantly switched to earthquake coverage
- banks able to keep operating as Bank if Japan offered $183 billion so economy protected
- Japan accepted help from over 20 countries

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- 12th May 2008
- magnitude 7.9
- mountainous area, landslides
- rural, less deaths
- 5 million made homeless

+corrupt government officials ignored building regulations and took bribes (better at a national level)
- large country with growing economy, had money for rescue
- strong central government responded quickly
— over 130,000 soldiers and relief workers sent out within hours
— medical service quickly restored
— people at risk of landslides relocated
— $10billion for rebuilding and debs written off
— temporary homes roads etc built in two weeks

Recovery:
In the long term, the earthquake was seen as an opportunity to rebuild the area from scratch, 2 years later,

- 97% of 29,000 reconstruction projects started
- 99% of 196,000 destroyed farmhouses rebuilt
- 216 transport projects under construction or completed
+ China did not like to accept help from other countries so took longer to allow international rescue teams in

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- 12th January 2010
- magnitude 7.0
- North American and Caribbean plates
- shallow focus 13k
- liquefaction
- epicentre 24km from Port-au-Prince the capital

+Haiti is a developing country, poor with limited resources that are spent on more immediate issues like disease
+National and local government corruption
+Lack of building controls and regulations, poorly built houses
+Not much disaster preparation meant government and emergency services didn’t know what to do

IMPACTS

Aid supplies prevented arriving due to infrastructure damage

Government officials and buildings killed + damaged

Cholera outbreak

Recovery:
By 2015 $13billion had been donated from international organisations, however progress was slow and 80,000 Haitians still in temporary housing, cholera ongoing problem.

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- 26th December 2004
- earthquake off the coast of Sumatra estimated 9 - 9.3 magnitude
- tsunami reached shallow coastline 15 minutes later at 17m high
- 5 million affected
- 1.7 million left homeless
- nearly 300,000 died

IMPACTS
Economic
- destruction of coastal infrastructure
- loss of a wide range of employment
- islands cut off as jetties washed away
- in Sri Lanka, 60% of fishing fleet and infrastructure destroyed
- in Thailand tourism industry lost $25 million a month and 120,000 lost jobs
- overall economic cost over $10 billion
Social
- psychological stress of losing loved ones
- problem of identifying bodies and lowest resorts
- 1 million left homeless in Sri Lanka
- 70% of villages killed in some coastal villages
- in Sumatra 1500 villages completely destroyed
- almost 300,000 died
Environmental
- freshwater supplies and agricultural soil contaminated by salt water
- most vegetation and topsoil removed up to 800m inland
- in the Maldives 20 inhabited islands totally destroyed
- ecosystems were severely damaged in the long term

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- 18th July 1995
- small volcanic island in the Caribbean
- Atlantic plate subducts beneath Caribbean plate
- Soufriere Volcano began erupting clouds of ash (continued for over 5 years)
- pyroclastic flows also affected the island
- Plymouth, the capital covered in 3 metres of ash
- over 7000 moved countries (11,000 originally)
- 2/3 of all houses destroyed
- 3/4 of all infrastructure destroyed

IMPACTS

Dozens of people lost their lives

Unemployment rise as tourism industry collapsed

Farmland destroyed or abandoned

Top heavy pop pyramid as young people moved away for a better chance of an economic future

Manegment:
Volcanic observatory built to monitor the volcano
2/3 of island still inhabitable and new infrastructure was built in the safe areas, Montserrat is still rebuilding tits tourism industry today

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- divergent boundary (North American and Eurasian plates)
- 20th March 2010
- heat of eruption melted ice, leading to flooding
— interaction between water + magma created plume of fine ash and gas over 10km high
- European airspace closed for 7 days
- 100,000 commercial flights cancelled worldwide
- 10 million passengers stranded
- European economy lost $5 billion

IMPACTS

damage to the European economy and the airline industry

Environmental impacts from the ash

Flooding caused damage to farmland and property

Ash contaminated local water supplies which can be deadly to some animals

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5am 17 October 1989

6.9 magnitude

Near San Francisco

67 deaths

Liquefaction caused the Cypress Freeway (built on soft mud) to collapse (caused 42/67 deaths)

Geology of an area impacts earthquakes effects

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April 2015

7.8 magnitude earthquake

Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates

Epicentre 80km from Kathmandu 15km deep

Killed 8633

Injured 21000

3 million homeless

Midday (reduced risk of deaths) people at work on farms

Himalayas-mountainous-landslides made rescue work difficult

Lost about $5billion (25% of GDP)

$6.6 billion was needed for rebuilding work

Tourism fell significantly, caused loss of much needed income