Droughts in Australia
Monica Lai The Nature of Droughts in Australia
A drought is a lengthened dry period where there is not a sufficient amount of water for users’ standard requirement. Australia is the driest continent. The main explanation is that our country lies in a region of high atmospheric pressure and an inconsistent rate of rainfall. During a drought, streams and rivers dry up whilst plants and animals die. This is because they lack water and there tends to be less food to eat. Droughts in Australia tend to occur in areas away from the coast, but still, each state or territory is prone to droughts. South Australia is the driest state in Australia and is ...view middle of the document...
This was a devastating drought and destroyed large areas of vegetation and wildlife.
The Impact of the Natural Hazard/Disaster
Economic impacts are those impacts that are related to money and business for people, these effects occur in both rural and urban areas. During a drought rural areas lack adequate water supple and nutrients in the Earth to feed their crops and livestock, which causes the numbers of crops and livestock to decrease. Since the decrease of plants and animals, food prices increase as a result of the scarcity of food growth. The lack of water causes farmers and ranchers to spend extra money to provide food and water to nourish their plants and animals. Many businesses such as such as farming, timber, fishing, water and power industries are also impacted. Throughout a drought, lakes and many water sources are dry out, lowers the business for many boating and fishing productions. Also, ships and importing businesses have trouble traveling through rivers due to the lack of water within.
The 1991-95 drought was located in the northeast of Australia, but affected large areas of our continent. This drought caused a loss of $5 billion and even developed cities had to restrict water usage.
Drought causes a remarkable affect on the environment because plants and animals rely on water and their food supply decreases because of the damaged habitat. The scarcity of rainfall causes the water levels of lakes and reservoirs to decrease. This destructs the habitat for fish and wildlife. Many animals and plants then become endangered and extinct seeing that they lose their natural environment and food sources....