HOW ARE WE

CHANGING RIVERS
AND OCEANS?
As you have learned, rivers and oceans can affect and change the land and
environment. They change themselves too. We also change them in various
ways. Sometimes this benefits us in the short term. But there may be
harmful long-term consequences to our actions.

PEOPLE CHANGE RIVERS

Sometimes we change the course of a river to help meet our needs. This
is called river diversion. Scientists estimate that we will have diverted river diversion  changing the
70 percent of all the rivers available to us by 2025. The three main types of course of a river in order to
meet a need
river diversions are canals, dams, and new river channels.

BUILDING CANALS
A canal is a waterway that allows boats to travel where they would otherwise canal  an artificial waterway
not be able to go. In Europe, canals are an important method for transporting built to allow the passage of
boats or to divert water
materials. They are also used to supply cities with water. Canals can create
environmental benefits, for example, ships use less fuel when they can take a
shortcut to their destination. However, canals may also harm the environment.
For example, a canal that diverts water from a river can change its flow and
alter the local habitats, both in the river and on the land nearby.

BUILDING DAMS
A dam is a barrier that is built across a river. As the water passes through dam  a barrier built across a
the dam, it turns blades on a turbine, which converts the energy from the river to control the water’s
flow and to create a large
falling water into electricity. The dam raises the water level behind it. The supply of water
higher water level widens the river or even creates a new lake. Known as a
reservoir, this water can be supplied to farms, industries, and communities. reservoir  a place or area
In 2012, China’s massive Three Gorges Dam was finished (Figure 4.16). of stored water, such as
an artificial lake formed by
It crosses the Yangtze River. The dam generates electricity. It supplies fresh a dam
water to nearby cities and to large areas of farmland.
Dams can also have harmful effects. They change the flow and levels of
rivers, which can affect erosion. This can also damage the river ecosystems
and those that it might feed into, such as wetlands or bogs. Many native
species of animals and plants cannot survive. Invasive species may move in.
As well, any people living in what will be the new reservoir area are forced
to move away. For example, more than a million people were moved from
the area set aside for the reservoir for the Three Gorges Dam.

116 UNIT 1: Physical Patterns in a Changing World NEL

FIGURE 4.16 The Three Gorges Dam in Yichang, China
A B
FIGURE 4.17 (A)The Aral Sea in 1989, and
(B) in 2008 after it shrank. As it shrank, the
sea lost a volume of water equal to the waters
of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario combined.
I wonder how people weigh the benefits
versus the risks before they decide to
create new river channels?
NEL
I wonder how they controlled the flow of the
water while they were building the dam?
CREATING NEW RIVER CHANNELS
People create new river channels to redirect the flow of
water from rivers. Sometimes this is done to bring water to
farmland. The effects can benefit people living in a region,
but there can also be harmful results.
For example, for more than 5 million years, the Aral Sea
in Central Asia was the fourth-largest inland sea in the
world. It was fed by two rivers. In the 1960s, the government
changed the flow of the rivers to irrigate a wide area of
farmland. The waters of the Aral Sea began to evaporate,
and the sea began to shrink. Salt levels in the sea increased
by nine times. All the fish in the sea died because they could
not survive in the saltier environment. Part of the seabed
became a desert (Figure 4.17). Millions of tonnes of salt
from the seabed were carried by wind and rain onto a wide
area of pastures and farmlands, harming the local vegetation
and crops. In 2005, the country of Kazakhstan began a
project to return some water to the sea by building a dam to
hold water in the northern section.
CHAPTER 4: Patterns of Rivers and Oceans 117

pollute  to put harmful
substances into the
environment
Why do people
pollute rivers if so
much harm is caused?
Do the benefits
outweigh the risks?
sewage  waste materials
carried away from homes
and industries through sewers
or drains
treated  sewage and
wastewater that has
undergone a process to
remove contaminants so that
it can be safely returned to consume the water, they can become ill or die. Other living species can also
the environment
118 UNIT 1: Physical Patterns in a Changing World
POLLUTING RIVERS
Humans also change rivers by polluting them. Water is polluted when
people change it in a way that makes it harmful or poisonous for people
or other living organisms to use. Pollution can come from many human
activities, for example, factories, fertilizers and pesticides washing off lawns
and farmers’ fields, and car and airplane exhaust, which is burned gas from
an engine. Water pollution harms the whole global environment, including
people, wildlife, and plants.
Why should water pollution matter to you? Water pollution kills about
14 000 people a day around the world. This is mostly due to water being
contaminated or made impure by sewage. Sewage is the waste liquids
from sinks, bathtubs and showers, toilets, and other drains in households,
schools, offices, and businesses.
In some communities, sewage is treated, or made safe, from
contaminants before it is returned to waterways. In many places, sewage is
placed back into waterways without any treatment (Figure 4.18). Untreated
sewage that gets into waterways can contain bacteria or viruses. If people
be affected by the poor-quality water.
FIGURE 4.18 Discharge from a I wonder who should be
fertilizer plant spews into the responsible for preventing
Danube River in eastern Europe. this from happening?
NEL
FOCUS ON

INTERPRET AND ANALYZE

Interpreting and analyzing information is an You also need to think about your own point of
important geographic skill. view and how it might be affecting your conclusion.
Ask the questions shown in Figure 4.19 to analyze
INTERPRET INFORMATION your sources.
As you gather and organize information to answer
your research questions, you need to interpret, or
Is the information
understand, what it means. Some ways you can up to date?
do this are by making comparisons, identifying Does the source
patterns, or finding connections. Another useful provide evidence
Does the to support any
way to interpret geographic data is to put it in
source have conclusions?
visual or graphic forms, such as maps, graphs, expertise on
diagrams, and tables. Creating visual organizers the topic?
helps you identify patterns and relationships Does the source
between different pieces of information. present different
sides of the issue
or only one point
ANALYZE YOUR EVIDENCE of view?
You also have to analyze your evidence, which
means figuring out how it helps answer your
FIGURE 4.19 Questions to ask
research questions. Some ways to do this are
as you analyze sources
looking for cause-and-effect relationships and
thinking about the geographic perspectives of TRY IT
the issue. Another important way to analyze Select an article from a newspaper, magazine, or
your evidence is to consider the sources of your blog related to how people are changing rivers
evidence and figure out how the sources will affect and oceans.
the evidence itself. For example, you should use 1. Read the article, then ask and answer the four
sources that are reliable and that can give current questions above.
information and ideas about a topic. You need 2. Use a graphic organizer to identify patterns
information from sources that are knowledgeable between pieces of information in the article.
about your research topic and that provide good For example,
evidence to support their conclusions. a) Try to find cause and effect relationships in
Information can often be affected by the point of the article.
view of the person or organization that provides it. b) Try to make a comparison and identify a
A point of view is the way someone looks at a topic pattern in the article.
or idea. It affects the way information is selected c) Try to make a connection to ideas in this
and used. chapter or to information that you already
You need to identify the points of view of have.
your sources. Using information from only one 3. Describe the author’s point of view. What
source with one point of view might limit your evidence shows this? (You can include
understanding. Considering several sources can information within the article, as well as
lead to a more reliable conclusion. information about the author from the byline.)
4. How will you go about sharing other points of
view on the topic of how people are changing
rivers and oceans?

NEL CHAPTER 4: Patterns of Rivers and Oceans 119

PEOPLE CHANGE OCEANS
When people harm rivers, the damage flows downstream, to the lower part downstream  toward the
of the stream or river. Eventually this damage arrives at the ocean. mouth of a stream or river
People also change oceans directly. How we manage our fisheries affects
the survival of species and ocean habitats. We are contributing to climate
change, which is affecting oceans. We are also polluting oceans.

DESTROYING OCEAN HABITATS

People’s activities can destroy habitats that border the oceans, such as sea
grasses and mangrove swamps. They are also destroying coral reefs. Coral coral  colonies of tiny marine
reefs are complex environments. As well as being underwater ridges made of organisms whose secretions
form colourful underwater
living coral and their skeletons, they are communities of other organisms, such structures
as plants, fish, turtles, starfish, and so on. Coral reefs are home to over one
quarter of all marine life on Earth. They are important nurseries for fish and
also provide protection during storms. They
grow slowly in clear, shallow, warm water. In
recent years, reefs in the Pacific and Indian
oceans have shrunk by 1550 km2 per year
because of human activity.
Loss of habitat happens in several ways,
including the following:
• Fish nets dragged along the ocean floor
break the coral and disturb sediment.
The sediment smothers nearby reefs
(Figure 4.20).
• Poor farming practices result in large
amounts of soil washing off the land
and into oceans. These sediments
also smother reefs and sensitive
ocean bottoms.
• Tour boats collide with the fragile coral
reefs, breaking the coral. Divers may break
off chunks of the reef for souvenirs.
• People mine coral to use as road-fill or
bricks in new buildings.
• Many kinds of toxins dumped into the
ocean or carried there by rivers are
poisoning the reefs. Some chemicals, such
as nitrogen, are fed on by algae. When the
algae multiply in large numbers, they block
the sunlight, which the coral needs to grow.

FIGURE 4.20 This coral in Vanuatu, in the South

Pacific, is covered in a fishing net.

I wonder what the short-term and long-term

consequences of this type of activity are?

120 UNIT 1: Physical Patterns in a Changing World NEL

POLLUTING THE OCEANS
Today, many ocean beaches around the world are littered with different
types of garbage, including plastic bags and bottles (Figure 4.21). The ocean
waters and the wildlife that depend on these waters are also being damaged
by pollution.
There are four ways pollution ends up in oceans. It is dumped directly
into oceans from the land, which is what sometimes happens with sewage,
or from ships or ocean drilling rigs. It can also enter the ocean from rivers,
from the air, or through natural forces such as tsunamis and hurricanes.
Besides garbage and sewage, there are three other important types of toxic waste  poisonous waste
ocean pollution. material, usually chemicals,
which can cause injury,
• Toxic wastes are poisonous chemicals, such as pesticides, and metals, death, or damage to the
such as mercury. Many chemicals are used by industries to make environment
products. They are dumped into the water as waste and eventually end
up in the oceans. Toxic chemicals can also dissolve out of plastic. Many FIGURE 4.21 Garbage from the
of these chemicals never break down. As one animal is eaten by another, ocean washed up on the beach

these chemicals are passed along and become more concentrated. Some I wonder how garbage from
animals cannot reproduce or they get sick. Many die from the poisons. one location can end up in
another part of the world?
• Farmers put fertilizers on their fields to
help their crops grow.
Over time, a water system, such as a
stream or river, brings the fertilizers to
the ocean. These nutrients make algae
in the water grow quickly. The algae use
up all the oxygen in a zone of water so
there is none left for other animals such
as fish. There are about 500 of these
“dead zones” around the world.
• Oil spills happen when oil tankers or
drilling platforms are damaged. Much
more oil is released into the water
on purpose through ships flushing
out their oil tanks. Other sources of
oil pollution in oceans are oil-drilling
activities and runoff from highways
and parking lots.

CHECK-IN
1. EVALUATE AND DRAW CONCLUSIONS When are river
diversions positive? When are river diversions
negative? Show your ideas in a drawing
with labels.
2. INTERRELATIONSHIPS Make a poster or brochure
to show the effects of the damage being done to
coral reefs.
3. INTERPRET AND ANALYZE Using labelled sketches,
illustrations, or photographs, show two or three
ways people change rivers or oceans. Add a
sentence for each example explaining what you
think are the points of view of the authors of this
resource, and why. Explain what your point of
view is, and why.

NEL CHAPTER 4: Patterns of Rivers and Oceans 121