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AS Geography: Quick Question!

Hi,

I've been set a few geography questions for AS induction work, and I don't know the AS answer to the following question: 'Imagine that a major afforestation programme occurs in a drainage basin. Describe the probable knock on effects of the drainage basin system'.

Could somebody help me answer this? Thank you!


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Reply 2
Avatar for bex95
bex95
hey, i did as geography!
this question is quite simple when you think about it logically..

afforestation is planting a load of trees right? so this will have a number of impacts on the drainage basin.

1) the trees will need water to live meaning that there will be less water in the drainage basin.
2) trees may catch/prevent some of the rain water from reaching the drainage basin.
3) the trees may attract new wildlife which will require water and there will be less water in the drainage basin.

hope this helps a bit!
Reply 3
Avatar for alicefogg
alicefogg
Hi, I'm doing similar work atm :')

I'd define afforestation to start with: planting trees where there weren't any before. It's a type of soft engineering for river management btw.
Trees act as stores for water as they absorb it out of the soil and hold it in their cells. This means they can delay water reaching the river which increases the lag time which is the time between rainfall and peak discharge. This means the river is a lot less likely to flood as the water enters the river gradually over time rather than all at once. This regulates the outputs. It also means more water is lost out of the drainage basin by transpiration (water evaporating from trees) rather than from the mouth of the river or the evaporation of surface storage.
Also, more trees prevent soil erosion and the displacement of smaller plants on the ground (especially on floodplains) which keeps that store in place as well (soil is a major store of water in the drainage basin).
You could also put how afforestation is not, however, a reliable way to stop flooding as trees can only hold so much and if they are saturated already they will not be able to hold any more water.

Hope that helps!!! :') xxx

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