IB ESS HL 4.2.7 Industrial Water Conservation Questions
Evaluate industrial strategies for reducing water use and pollution.
- Syllabus
- First assessment 2026
- Course
- ESS HL
- Level
- HL
Evaluate industrial strategies for reducing water use and pollution.
Figure:Water stress for selected crops
Water stress is the total annual extraction of water as a proportion of the renewable supply in a given area. If the extraction represents 40 % or more of the available supply it is described as a high risk area.
Identify two strategies that could be used to grow crops in areas of high water stress.
improved irrigation efficiency eg drip irrigation;
use crop cultivars that require less water (eg drought resistant seeds/GMOs) / replace high stress crops (eg cotton) with low stress (eg oats);
improve water catchment/storage with dams; reservoirs;
install desalinization plants in coastal areas;
plant cover crops/use terracing (to reduce evaporation/run-off losses);
use salt-tolerant crops to exploit available sea-water/saline soils;
Do not credit simply "irrigation". Too vague.