Running head: GROUND WATER SUSTAINABILITY 1
GROUND WATER SUSTAINABILITY 3
October 18, 2015
Assignment: SCIE211 Phase 1 Lab Report
Title: Human Impacts on the Sustainability of Groundwater
Purpose
To investigate the effect of human activities on groundwater sustainability
Introduction
According to Environmental and Water Resources Institute (2001), Ground water is the portion of the water cycle system flowing within the voids beneath the surface of the earth. Increase in human activities over the past years has reduced ground water recharge zones, thus, threatens the sustainability of the ground water Mays (012). This paper reports on the impacts of some of human activities on ground water quality and quantity.
Hypothesis
Human activities contribute to decline in both quality and quantity of ground water
Methods
The data were collected by clicking on each of the three time intervals i.e. 1980s, 1990s and 2000s and the influence of each of the five factors affecting the quality and quantity of the ground water recorded as in tabular format.
Results
| Time Period | Impact to Forest | Groundwater Levels | Saltwater Intrusion | Farming | Industrial development | Population |
| 1800s | Large forests | Lots of ground water | No salt water intrusion | Small farms | No cities | Limited housing |
| 1900s | Decreased by 50% | Decreased by 50% | Ocean moved into ground water | Farms are larger, but they are fewer | Exceptional growth of cities and industrial development | Substantial increase in housing |
| 2000s | Decreased by 90% | Decreased by 90% | Greater movement of ocean into ground water | Same number of farms but size decreased by 20% | Industrial development decreased by 10-15% | housing development decreased by 10-15% |
Discussion
Between 1800- 1900, there was a decline in ground water level as a result of rising human activities and deforestation. Although there was a decrease in other human activities, further decline in area under forests was responsible for the further fall of ground water level between the period of 1900- 2000.These lab results confirm the experimental hypothesis that human activities i.e. agriculture, industrialization, settlement and deforestation threatens ground water sustainability.
References
Environmental and Water Resources Institute (U.S.). (2001). Standard guidelines for artificial recharge
of ground water. Reston, Va: American Society of Civil Engineers.
Mays, L. W., & John Wiley & Sons. (2012). Ground and surface water hydrology. Hoboken: John Wiley
& Sons, Inc.
