GROUP 7

Descriptions on the AMAZON RIVER
The Amazon River is the largest river in the world by volume. The Amazon, which has the largest drainage basin in the world, accounts for approximately one fifth of the world's total river flow. During the wet season parts of the Amazon exceed 120 miles (190 km) in width. Because of its vast dimensions, it is sometimes called The River Sea. At no point is the Amazon crossed by bridges. This is not because of its huge dimensions; in fact, for most of its length, the Amazon's width is well within the capability of modern engineers to bridge. While the amazon is the largest river in the world by most measures, the current consensus within the geographic community holds that the Amazon is the second longest river. The Upper Amazon has a series of major river systems. The head streams of the Marañón flow from high above central Lake Lauricocha.

Rushing through waterfalls and gorges in an area of the high jungle, the Marañón River flows about 1,600 kilometers . Soon the darkly colored waters of the Rio Negro meet the sandy colored Rio Solimões, and for over 6 km (4 mi) these waters run side by side without mixing. After the confluence of Rio Apurímac and Ucayali, the river leaves Andean terrain and is instead surrounded by flood plain. The low riverbanks are interrupted by only a few hills, and the river enters the enormous Amazon Rain forest. The river systems and flood plains in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela whose waters drain into the Solimões and its tributaries are called the "Upper Amazon. Vast areas of land in this region are submerged at high water, above which only the upper part of the trees of the sombre forests appear. The Amazon estuary is about 330 kilometers (210 mi) wide. But this includes the ocean outlet, 60 km (37 mi) wide. It also includes the ocean frontage of Marajó, an island lying in the mouth of the Amazon. This means that the Amazon is wider at its mouth.

The uses of the AMAZON RIVER.

The uses are:It is for most of the ships to deliver clothing,food,tools and other products to another place.

The reasons are:The AMAZON RIVER is the world`s second longest river and the chief river of SOUTH AMERICA.It also carries more water than any other rivers.

The uses are:It is also to attract tourist from other countries .

The reasons are:the AMAZON RIVER is surrounded by the world`s largest tropical rain forest.the tourist can also go around the rain forest and explore what is inside part of the rain forest.

The disadvantages of the AMAZON RIVER:The amount of deforestation is increasing rapidly and thus it would cause the animals in the rain forest to die

The reason is:the amount of water going in the forest because of lesser trees.And the water rising to the animals habitat to cause them to leave their habitat and have no homes to stay.

The disadvantages of the amazon river:the amount of fishing at the river is too much and the animals in the water is rapidly decreasing.

The reason is:The fisher man would have to catch fishes for our daily livelihood to survive or we will die.

The source for the picture is:http://sg.images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?ei=UTF-8&p=amazon+river&fr2=tab-web&fr=yfp-t-101

The source for our information:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_River

GROUP 8

Name of the river: The Swan River


Picture of the Swan River
Source: www.google.com
Uses:
1. Transport
2. Cultural significance
3. Bridges
Problems associated with this river
The Causeway is the name of the traffic crossing of the Swan River in Western Australia at the eastern end of Perth Water. Made up of two bridges on either side of Heirisson Island, the crossing links the City of Perth and Victoria Park.
Originally the site of mudflats which restricted river navigation, the Colony Government constructed a causeway and bridge across the site. When floods in 1862 almost destroyed it, the structure was rebuilt and raised to better withstand future floods. Over the following decades, the three bridges making up this second Causeway were widened several times, and they were eventually replaced by the present pair of Causeway bridges in 1952. The current Causeway bridges were the first in Western Australia to use steel composite construction, and have been recognised for their heritage value by their entry on the Western Australian Register of Heritage Places.

GROUP 5

The polluted yellow river.

Not a drop of rain has fallen in months, and the only clouds come from sandstorms lashing across the desert. But as the Yellow River bends through the barren landscape of north-central China, a startling vision shimmers on the horizon: emerald green rice fields, acres of yellow sunflowers, lush tracts of corn, wheat, and wolfberry—all flourishing under a merciless sky.
This is no mirage. The vast oasis in northern Ningxia, near the midpoint of the Yellow River's 3,400-mile journey from the Plateau of Tibet to the Bo Hai sea, has survived for more than 2,000 years, ever since the Qin emperor dispatched an army of peasant engineers to build canals and grow crops for soldiers manning the Great Wall. Shen Xuexiang is trying to carry on that tradition today. Lured here three decades ago by the seemingly limitless supply of water, the 55-year-old farmer cultivates cornfields that lie between the ruins of the Great Wall and the silt-laden waters of the Yellow River. From the bank of an irrigation canal, Shen gazes over the green expanse and marvels at the river's power: "I always thought this was the most beautiful place under heaven."
But this earthly paradise is disappearing fast. The proliferation of factories, farms, and cities—all products of China's spectacular economic boomis sucking the Yellow River dry. What water remains is being poisoned. From the canal bank, Shen points to another surreal flash of color: blood-red chemical waste gushing from a drainage pipe, turning the water a garish purple. This canal, which empties into the Yellow River, once teemed with fish and turtles, he says. Now its water is too toxic to use even for irrigation; two of Shen's goats died within hours of drinking from the canal.
The deadly pollution comes from the phalanx of chemical and pharmaceutical factories above Shen's fields, in Shizuishan, now considered one of the most polluted cities in the world. A robust man with a salt-and-pepper crew cut, Shen has repeatedly petitioned the environmental bureau to stop the unregulated dumping. The local official in charge of enforcement responded by deeming Shen's property "uninhabitable." Declaring that nothing else could be done, the official then left for a new job promoting the very industrial park he was supposed to be policing.

Yellow River

The Yellow River, with a total length of 5,464 kilometers, is the second longest river in China, just next to the Yangtze River. The Yellow River is the birthplace of ancient Chinese culture and the cradle of Chinese Civilization. It takes its source from the northern piedmont of the Bayanhar Mountain Range in Qinghai Province, meandering across 9 provinces and finally emptying into the Bohai Sea at Kenli of Shandong Province. Along the Yellow River Reaches, tourists can view the majestic resorts of the Yellow River and the unique scenery of the Loess Plateau.
The natural landscapes of the Yellow River are breathtaking and attractive, especially those in the Henan segment. As a huge dragon crouching on the central plains, the Yellow River begins to flow northward from Kaifeng City. The Zhengzhou segment of the Yellow River is broad and grand. Tourists acclaim the waves of the Yellow River as the acme of perfection. After entering Longmen, the steep precipices at both banks of the Yellow River seem to be cut by knife, and the river waves are surging and rushing forward. The supernatural power of the nature created various landscape resorts at the Sanmen Gorge where the Yellow River is surging inward and roaring forward and people can feel the perfect combination of gentleness and manly virility of the Yellow River.
Along the Yellow River, tourists can not only fully enjoy the natural scenery of the Yellow River, but also explore the Chinese history and culture. The multiplying and growing sites of Chinese ancients can be found along the Yellow River, such as the famous Yangshao Culture Site, the Birthplace of the First Ancestor Yellow Emperor, the Fuxi Mausoleum and the neighboring various cradles of surnames. The important ancient town Sanmen Gorge, the thousand-year-old ancient capital Luoyang, the commercial city Zhengzhou and the capital Kaifeng of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), etc. These are all the concrete exhibitions of the Yellow River culture, showing the rise and decline of China's history.

GROUP 3

The Singapore River is a small river in Singapore with great historical importance. The Singapore River flows from the Central Area, which lies in the Central Region in the southern part of Singapore before emptying into the ocean. The immediate upper watershed of the Singapore River is known as the Singapore River Planning Area, although the northernmost part of the watershed becomes River Valley. As the Central Area is treated as a central business district, nearly all land surrounding it is commercial. It is one of about 90 rivers in Singapore and its islands. It is the place where Raffles made as the 1st trading port in Singapore.
Pollution
The Singapore River is the most famous river in Singapore. Starting in the 1880s, there was heavy traffic on the Singapore River due to rapid urbanization and expanding trade. At the same time, it brought in water pollution caused by the disposal of garbage, sewage and other by-products of industries located along the river's banks. The sources of water pollution into the Singapore River and Kallang Basin included pig wastes from pig and duck farms, unsewered premises, street hawkers and vegetable wholesaling. Riverine activities such as transport, boat building and repairs were also found along the Singapore River. Some 750 lighters plied along the Singapore River and Kallang Basin in 1977. Waste, oil spills and wastewater from these boats and lighters added to the pollution of the rivers. By October 1977, an action plan on "The Clean-up of the Singapore River and Kallang Basin" was submitted to the Prime Minister. By late 1977, the government was starting to take action to clean up the river. The plan involved the development of infrastructure such as housing, industrial workshops and sewage; massive resettlement of squatters, backyard trades and industries and farmers; re-sitting of street hawkers to food centers; and phasing out activities that pollute the water.

Singapore River today
The river is now part of the Marina Reservoir after damming the Singapore River at its outlet to the sea to create a new reservoir of freshwater. While damming this area would create a valuable source of fresh water for the tiny city-state, it would have prevented the docking of ocean-going ships at the Singapore River which was arguably the original reason Singapore came into existence. The dam is known as Barrage. Whereas the original mouth of the Singapore River emptied into Singapore Straits and its southern islands before major land reclamation took place, the Singapore River now empties into Marina Bay - an area of water partially enclosed by the reclamation work. The Port of Singapore is now located to the west of the island, using most of the south-west coast, and passenger ships to Singapore now typically berth at the Singapore Cruise Centre at HarbourFront. Thus the Singapore River's economic role has shifted away from one that of trade, towards more a role accommodated for tourism and aesthetics for the commercial zone which encloses it.

GROUP 1

Yellow River

Picture

Description

The Yellow River or Huang He / Hwang Ho is the second-longest river in China and the sixth-longest in the world at 5,464 kilometers . Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai Province in western China, it flows through nine provinces of China and empties into the Bohai Sea. The Yellow River basin has an east-west extent of 1900 km and a north-south extent of 1100 km . Total basin area is 742,443 km²
The Yellow River is called "the cradle of Chinese civilization", as its basin is the birthplace of the northern Chinese civilizations and was the most prosperous region in early Chinese history. But frequent devastating flooding largely due to the elevated river bed in its lower course, has also earned it the unenviable name "China's Sorrow".
Early Chinese literature refers to the Yellow River simply as "River". The first appearance of the name "Yellow River" is in the Book of Han written in the Western Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 9). The name "Yellow River" describes the perennial ochre-yellow colour of the muddy water in the lower course of the river. The yellow color comes from loess suspended in the water.
History
The river is extremely prone to flooding. It has flooded 1,593 times in the last 3,000–4,000 years, while its main course changed 12 times, with at least 5 large-scale changesfrom 602 BC to present. These course changes are due to the large amount of loess carried by the river and continuously deposited along the bottom of the river's canal. This sedimentation causes a natural dam to slowly accrue. Eventually, the enormous amount of waters have to find a new way to the sea, causing a flood in a new valley.
A major course change in 1194 took over the Huai River drainage system throughout the next 700 years. The mud in the Yellow River literally blocked the mouth of the Huai River and left thousands homeless. The Yellow River adopted its present course in 1897 after the latest course change occurred in 1855. Currently, the Yellow River flows through Jinan, capital of the Shandong province, and ends in the Bohai Sea, yet the eastern terminus for the Yellow River has oscillated from points north and south of the Shandong Peninsula in its many dramatic shifts over time.
The course of the river has changed back and forth between the route of the Huai River and the original route of the Yellow River several times over the past 700 years. The consequent buildup of silt deposits was so heavy that the Huai River was unable to flow in its historic course after the Yellow River reverted to its northerly course for the last time in 1897. Instead, the water pools up into Hongze Lake and then runs southward toward the Yangtze River.
Floods on the river account for some of the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded. The flatness of North China Plain contributes to the deadliness of the floods. A slight rise in water level means a large portion of land is completely covered in water. When a flood occurs, a portion of the population initially dies from drowning, then by the spread of diseases and the ensuing famine.The 1887 Yellow River flood in the North China Plain caused an estimated 900,000 to 2,000,000 deaths.

Uses of Yellow River :

• Transportation
• Sightseeing/Tourist Attraction
• Irrigation
• Hydroelectric Dam
• Fertile alluvial soil

Transportation
People can use the boat to travel from one place to another .
Sightseeing/Tourist Attraction
Famous rivers are popular tourist attraction. Tourist comes to see the spectacular view of the various landforms in the river.


Irrigation
Irrigation has been practiced throughout the world. There are modern ways to obtain water from the river as well as traditional ways. Irrigation is very important to areas where there is long period of drought, areas with seasonal rainfall. Irrigation has helped farmers to have double or even up to triple cropping per year.
Hydro-electric power
Dams are often builds across rivers to tap on the river energy to generate hydroelectric power. Hydroelectric power plants convert the kinetic energy contained in falling water into electricity. Hydropower is currently the world's largest renewable source of electricity, accounting for 6% of worldwide energy supply or about 15% of the world's electricity. In Canada, hydroelectric power is abundant and supplies 60% of our electrical needs.
Hydroelectric power plants capture the energy released by water falling through a vertical distance, and transform this energy into useful electricity. In general, falling water is channeled through a turbine, which converts the water's energy into mechanical power. The rotation of the water turbines is transferred to a generator, which produces electricity. The amount of electricity, which can be generated at a hydroelectric plant, is dependent upon two factors. These factors are (1) the vertical distance through which the water falls, called the "head", and (2) the flow rate, measured as volume per unit time.
Fertile alluvial soil
Floodplain and delta are good agricultural land, which have fertile alluvial soil. The alluvial is increased when the river floods. The flat and low-lying floodplain and delta makes it easier for people to build settlement and farm. Many urban settlements start in the fertile floodplain. Bangkok in the Menam Chao Phraya Delta of Thailand is one good example.

Sources for picture : http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0S020okpmpKVq8AzqaLuLkF?p=yellow+river&ei=utf-8&iscqry=&fr=sfp

Sources for text :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_River

GROUP 4 Amazon River

Amazon river

In flood season, the Amazon widens to cover its banks and the islands in the middle of the river, the sediment left by the floods enriches the soil. The Amazon River in South America is the second longest river in the world after the Nile. It is 4,080 miles long and runs from the Andes Mountains in Peru through Brazil to the Atlantic Ocean. It contains more water than any other river in the world- more than the Mississippi, the Nile and the Yangtze combined. In one second the Amazon pours more than 55 million gallons, or 600,000 cubic meters of water, into the Atlantic Ocean, which dilutes the ocean's saltiness for 100 miles from shore.
Uses:
1. The Amazon River makes up for 1/5 of the earth's fresh water. Each year the Amazon River empties tons of solid particles into the Ocean. This contains lots of food for fishes living in the Amazon River.
2. The Amazon Rainforest has been described as the "Lungs of our Planet" as it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.

Problems:
1. Amazon River Basin, where large tracts of rainforest are inundated to depths of 40 feet during seasonal flooding. The lowest flood stage occurs in August and September, the weight of flooded Amazon river causes Earth to sink 3 inches.

2. The Amazon floods the river bank greatly.Since the peak rainy seasons are out of phase, the peak discharges of left bank (Guyana shield) and right bank (Brazilian shield) rivers are somewhat offset, having the effect of moderating high and low water levels on the main stream, but tributaries can have extreme floodings.