The Australian Drought

Introduction

egriff — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:03:22 +0000

This site explores the Australian Drought and its impacts it has on the Australian community. It aims to bring in the everyday, intelligent reader to gather general information on the drought today and make them aware of how water efficiency can be improved. It draws in people’s comments on the drought today, how they are affected and will explore videos on the detrimental effects the drought is having. Along with this, there are rain fall graphs and charts to show the different amounts of rainfall that is gathering around the country.

What is a drought?
A drought occurs when the balance between water supply and demand is disrupted, it is not just little rainfall. It is a long, unusual dry period where water is in short supply for all-everyday users. Because these people use water for different reasons, those affected by drought are those who need it most, ie. Farmers to grow crops and keep stock alive.

How many different types of drought are there?
There are three different environments that can be classified under the one drought.
➢ Meteorological drought
➢ Agricultural drought
➢ Hydrological drought
Farmers are usually affected by agricultural drought, urban planners are affected by hydrological drought and the most common one to be determined as ‘drought’ is meteorological as this is the most easiest to be classified by the standard population.

Who’s affected and what are the effects?
The main consumers that are affected by the drought are farmers on the land. These hard working people live and work to make the daily consumer happy with their products, but it is only water that can make them grow and so eventually, on land and off land, everyone is affected by the drought in one way or another.
Due to lack of water, the drought can cause a number of detrimental effects to farmers, families and general members of society. These can be social, physical and psychological problems including:
➢ Hunger and famine
➢ Disease
➢ War
➢ Thirst
➢ Wildfires/Bushfires
➢ Depression
The seriousness of this on-going problem can even lead to suicide due to the pressure on farmers and stress that it may cause.

To find out more in depth information on the effects and affects, the different types of drought and what a drought is, click to the following links. They explore in great detail the extremities of the drought and all that is involves.

http://environment.about.com/od/environmentalevents/a/whatisdrought.htm
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/drought/livedrought.shtml

Video on Aussie Drought.

egriff — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:21:22 +0000

This is a heartful message set out to Australians and the community for them to see what this drought is doing to the land and the people in it.

To view another video and ones similiar, click on the following link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuJAxHhs-tE

Updates for Spring 2008

egriff — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:59:12 +0000

Ø Dam records are at a low in the Murray-Darling Basin
Ø Enough rain to produce steady crop
Ø Irrigated crops will more then likely receive a poor outcome
Ø Water inflows over past two years still at a low level
Ø Fruit farmers will suffer more then grain farmers due to insufficient rainfall to replenish ground water.
Ø No rain expectations for the months to follow

To find out more information for the up coming season, the following link explores expert opinions, community members thoughts and useful information in gathering data for the past months and upcoming months rainfall intake.

http://peakenergy.blogspot.com/2008/09/australian-drought-update.html

Rainfall Maps

egriff — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:33:40 +0000

This map appears on the Bureau of Meteorology web site and show a detailed view of Australia and the rain intake each month has received. By viewing the maps from different periods of the year, it is evident to see how much and how little rain falls on different areas of the country. Drought occurs in this case, as there is not one area that is been poured with rain and so the dry spell continues in most parts of our Nation.

May 2008 rainfall

To view more maps, visit the following link. In this site, there are maps from up to 6 years ago of monthly water intake. Also displayed are temperature maps. It is evident to tell from these maps the hottest months of the year and so, more then likely will also be the driest due to the lack of rain.

http://www.arbovirus.health.nsw.gov.au/areas/arbovirus/climate/rainfall_maps.htm#rain