Megan Dare

ENE 202
Week 2 PSet
Problem One: Make up a scenario for life of a raindrop falling over land
a) Into a fresh body of water: The raindrop falls into the fresh body of water, where it
stays for a number of years until it is evaporated back into the atmosphere. After a period
of about ten days, the drop is precipitated into the ocean where it remains for the next
3100 years.
b) Onto a lush jungle: The raindrop falls into a lush jungle where it is very soon
absorbed by a plant to use as food. The plant, including the water is has consumed,
becomes food for a jungle herbivore.
c) Onto a desert plain: The raindrop falls into a desert plain where it is almost
immediately reabsorbed into the atmosphere because there are no plants or water sources
for it to call home.
d) On Princeton Campus: The raindrop becomes snow as it falls onto Princetons
campus where the current temperature drops below freezing. The drop accumulates with
others of its kind and is compressed by a student to form the body of a large snowman.
As the weather begins to warm up, the snowman melts, carrying the raindrop into the soil
where it is evapotranspired by the local vegetation. The raindrop eventually is
reintroduced to the atmosphere during the hot summer months.
Problem Two: Compare the flow rate of the Amazon River to the Nile River (m^3/s)
The Amazon Rivers flow rate is 209,000 m^3/s, while the Nile Rivers flow rate is a slow
2,830 m^3/s.
a) Compare the Amazon flow in a year to Brazils annual rainfall amount (km^3)
The Amazon River flows at a rate of 6595.4 km^3/yr. Brazils annual rainfall amount is
15,235.7 km3/year.
b) Compare the Nile flow in a year to the Egyptian annual rainfall amount (km^3)
The Nile River flows at a rate of 89.3 km3/year. Egypts annual rainfall amount is 51.4
km3/year.
c) Comment on the implications for the use of each river as a water source
The Amazon River is a much stronger river to use as a water source, because it provides
a greater turnover of fresh rain water than the Nile River does. Since the Nile flows at a
slower rate, the water has more time to accumulate pollution and other contaminants. I
suspect that the reason that Egypt receives less rainwater is because its climate is more
of a desert, while the climate of Brazil is more of a jungle/rainforest.

Problem Three: Estimate the amount of virtual water that your eating habits demand. I
would estimate my virtual water consumption to be about 20L/day
a) Compare this to your basic needs for drinking and hygiene:
This is a significant portion of my consumption of drinking and hygiene water, which I
estimate to be about 50L/day.
b) 1 L of gasoline requires between 3 & 7 L of water to extract and refine. Compare your
virtual water for food to your virtual water for driving.
Since I rarely use a car or other motor vehicles, my virtual water for food is probably
much larger than my virtual consumption of water for driving.
Problem Four: If a country of 1000 km^2 received 2 m of rain per year, and has a
population of 7 million people how much renewable water is available per person and
year?
1000 km2 * (0.002km) = 2 km3 total/year
2 km3 / 7 mil = 285,714 L/person/year = 285.14 m^3/person
a) If the average consumption is 170 m^3 per person, how much water is imported?
The renewable water is adequate so that the people do not need to import the water.
b) How much electricity would it take to desalinate the water instead of importing it?
2.8 kJ/L * 285714 = 799,999.2 kJ electricity
c) If electricity costs $0.10, how expensive is this? Compare to a typical water bill where
you are from?
Approximately $80,000
d) Bonus: What location is this? Hong Kong!
Problem Five: Name two differences and two similarities between drinking water
treatment and wastewater treatment.
Both types of water treatment undergo filtration. Additionally, they both undergo
sedimentation. Differences are that drinking water comes from a natural source, whereas
wastewater comes from water that has been contaminated by humans or

industrialization. Additionally, drinking water is distributed to homes, while wastewater

is either released back into streams or for use on land.
Problem Six
Explore the data on the UN FAOSTAT database. Look at the agricultural food production
in Morocco. Next go to the UN AQUASTAT database and look at the data available for
Morocco. Determine the water m^3 available per person per year and estimate the
agricultural impact on that quantity.
Agricultural food production in Morocco: 2.8 million tons of forage products annually
Water available in Morocco: 971 m3/capita/year