Shifting rainfall patterns make Australia’s climate more variable, leading to more extreme floods and droughts. Increased rainfall variability, higher temperatures and a growing population increase the pressure on water resources for urban, agricultural and environmental use. Extreme weather events such as floods and drought have become frequent and extreme. 9.4 SkillBuilder activity GEOGRAPHICAL INQUIRY, CONCLUDING AND DECISION-MAKING, COMMUNICATING 1. Find your home on the Australia map. Look at FIGURES5 , 6 , and 7 , then complete a table. Compare your home with another place nearby and one far away.
Average rainfall
Rainfall variability
Average evaporation
Relative humidity
Where I live: ____________ Another place in my state/territory: ____________ A place far from where I live: ____________
2. Conduct research online to list some of the short-term effects that drought can have on Australia. 3. Predict some long-term impacts that Australia and its people would experience if drought continued for up to ten years.
9.4
Exercise
Learning pathways LEVEL1 1, 2, 4
LEVEL2
LEVEL3
3, 6
5, 7, 8, 9
REMEMBER AND UNDERSTAND 1. State the percentage of the world’s water that is the following: a. Salty b. Available for use by people 2. What percentage of the world’s freshwater is locked up in glaciers?
a. 68.7 per cent b. 71.9 per cent c. 79.3 per cent d. 83.9 per cent 3. Select the correct options from the list provided to complete the following statement about rainfall variability. Rainfall variability is the ________________ from year to year in the _______________ of rainfall in a _______________ location. ________________ variability means that rainfall is likely to be _______________ from year to year. amount high change particular more irregular variability
266 Jacaranda Humanities Alive 7 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
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