Water security

[Uncwilly]

Ken is right. Your usage includes the usages you cause. A single (non-cotton) T-shirt can use more than 250 litres to produce (1500 if it is cotton). Those cotton denim jeans that you wear are a huge water suck, 1800 gallons (source). This is just part of the reason that textile reuse and recycling is very important.

Since Ken edited, I have to edit. "thermoelectric power" water usage is all of that water that gets evaporated to cool things off. The great smooth curved structures that people associate with nuke power are giant evaporative coolers. Power and water are very linked, using one causes usage of the other and vice versa.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by S485122

Translating to metric units an acre-foot is a bit more than 1223 m³ (cubic metres).

Thanks. Much more comprehensible to the vast majority of the world's population.

It is also ~1223 tonnes.

[Prime95]

Originally Posted by xilman

Thanks. Much more comprehensible to the vast majority of the world's population.

It is also ~1223 tonnes.

What is this "tonne" you speak of?

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by Prime95

What is this "tonne" you speak of?

One can reasonably infer from the given figures alone that a tonne is a "metric ton" or 1000 kilograms: A cubic centimeter of water is very nearly a gram, so a cubic meter of water is very nearly 100³ grams or 1000 kilograms.

Looking up the definition confirms this, so I'm not giving you a bum stere.

[S485122]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

Ken is right. Your usage includes the usages you cause. A single (non-cotton) T-shirt can use more than 250 litres to produce (1500 if it is cotton).
...

I agree, but it is a different statistic : much of the cotton, meat and other agricultural goods are produced in other parts of the world (the USA cotton production is less than 20% of the world production.) Depending on what one wants to illustrate the consumption of "foreign" water should be counted or not.

One big problem regarding water management is the growing of some crops in regions that are not optimal, implying a lot of irrigation (maize and almonds water needs have had some nasty by-effects that have become prominent in recent news.)

Another problem is the usage of water for export goods like vegetables and flowers, it causes enormous problems for the population in the Kilimanjaro region of Kenya for instance. Building ice rings and indoor ski slopes in the Arabian peninsula is another example. But I digress (as usual.)

[S485122]

Originally Posted by Prime95

What is this "tonne" you speak of?

Is is an alternate "spelling" of "metric ton" according to Wikipedia for instance. But I suppose the question was more or less rethorical ;-)

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by kriesel

It may be a per household share of all usage in the state; residential, agricultural, commercial, industrial, utility, government, ...
Per the USGS page, https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/w...otal-water-use the 3 biggest categories are "thermoelectric power", irrigation, and public supply. (Per https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/w...center_objects by "thermoelectric power" they mean fossil-fuel, nuclear, or geothermal electrical generation there; effectively, not wind solar or hydro)

We start by looking at the USGS Domestic Water Use figures for Arizona in 2015:

Domestic water use includes indoor and outdoor uses at residences, and includes uses such as drinking, food preparation, bathing, washing clothes and dishes, flushing toilets, watering lawns and gardens, and maintaining pools. Domestic water use includes potable and non-potable water provided to households by a public water supplier (domestic deliveries) and self-supplied water use. Self-supplied domestic water use is typically withdrawn from a private source, such as a well, or captured as rainwater in a cistern.

The number is 501 to 1000 million gallons per day. Dividing by the number of Arizona households in 2015 (roughly 2.5 million) gives roughly 200 to 400 gallons per household per day.

We move on to Public Water Supply Use:

Public supply refers to water withdrawn by public and private water suppliers that provide water to at least 25 people or have a minimum of 15 connections. Public-supply water is delivered to users for domestic, commercial, and industrial purposes. Part of the total is used for public services, such as public pools, parks, firefighting, water and wastewater treatment, and municipal buildings, and some is unaccounted for because of leaks, flushing, tower maintenance, and other system losses. Domestic deliveries represent the largest single component of public-supply withdrawals.

The figures for Arizona are 1001-2000 million gallons per day in 2015. Dividing by 2.5 million gives roughly 400 to 800 gallons per day per household. That's in the same ball park as the figure from the AP article.

Looking at Total Water Use shows 10,001 to 20,000 million gallons per day in Arizona in 2015, or ten times the "Public use" figure and 20 times the "Domestic use" figure.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by Prime95

What is this "tonne" you speak of?

ITYM 'What is this "tonne" of which you speak?'
HTH
HAND
TTFN

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by S485122

<snip>
One big problem regarding water management is the growing of some crops in regions that are not optimal, implying a lot of irrigation (maize and almonds water needs have had some nasty by-effects that have become prominent in recent news.)
<snip>

California drought takes toll on world’s top almond producer

<snip>
A historic drought across the U.S. West is taking a heavy toll on California's $6 billion almond industry, which produces roughly 80% of the world's almonds. More growers are expected to abandon their orchards as water becomes scarce and expensive.

It's a sharp reversal for the almond's relentless expansion in California's agricultural Central Valley, whose dry Mediterranean-like climate and reliable irrigation system made it the perfect location to grow the increasingly popular nut.
<snip>
The almond boom has run into the second major drought that California has declared in a decade. The U.S. Drought Monitor reported that 88% of the state was in "extreme drought" as of last week, with the Central Valley facing the worst conditions.

The drought has drained reservoirs that supply water to Central Valley farms. In early August, Shasta Lake, the state's largest, was only 30% full, while Lake Oroville, the second largest, was only 24% full, according to the California Department of Water Resources.
<snip>

Note: There is one category of drought worse than "Extreme," namely "Exceptional."

[Prime95]

Originally Posted by S485122

I suppose the question was more or less rethorical ;-)

It was an (apparently too subtle except for the ever perceptive xilman) jab at the use of improper units of measure on the other side of the pond.

Maybe an emoji or two on my part would have helped...

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by S485122

Translating to metric units an acre-foot is a bit more than 1223 m³ (cubic metres).

The metric unit analogous to the acre-foot would seem to be the hectare-metre. (One hectare is 100 ares or 10,000 square meters. So the hectare-metre is 10,000 cubic metres) I converted an acre-foot to cubic metres, and found the figure 1223 was 10 cubic metres too low.

? 5280^2*12^3*.0254^3/640.
%1 = 1233.4818375475200000000000000000000000