Water Resources

Water Resources

• 1. Hydrologic Cycle and Water Reservoirs

• 2. Floods and Flood Control

• 3. Use of Water

• 4. Water Composition

• 5. Water Problems

Withdrawal vs Consumption

• Consumed– Evaporated– Transpired– Incorporated into crops– Consumed by humans or livestock– consumptive use—the part of water withdrawn

that is evaporated, transpired, incorporated into products or crops, consumed by humans or livestock, or otherwise removed from the immediate water environment.

Types of withdrawal

• Domestic-commercial

• Industrial-Mining

• Thermoelectric power

• Irrigation—some use for livestock

• Consumptive-use estimates were included in some previous water-use Circulars but were omitted for 2000. Also referred to as water consumed.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2004/circ1268/htdocs/table01.html

Who uses the most water in the US?

• California• Texas

• The least ?• Alaska

• Dependent on population and agriculture

Water Use UK

UK water resource use by industry, 1997/98 - Total abstraction: 16.8 billion cubic metres

Water Requirements: W. SocietyHome Use Liters gallons

Shower per minute 19 5

Bath 114 30

Toilet flush 15 4

Load wash 114 30

Hose flow/hour 1136 300

Human Survival per person/yr 720 190

Water Requirements: W. Society

Food Production Liters gallons

Sugar per ton 946,000 250,000

Corn per ton 946,000 250,000

Rice per ton 9,460,000 2,500,000

Milk per gallon 61,000 16,000

Beef per pound 14,000 3,700

Annual Renewable Water Supply

http://earthtrends.wri.org/maps_spatial/maps_detail_static.php?map_select=265&theme=4

U.S. Water Management

How do you get water to cities?

• 1st stream channels were altered or extended to flow into more accessible areas

• Greeks built masonry structures and made tunnels to move water

• Romans built aqueducts—by A.D. 97 they had 9 aqueducts that brought 322 million liters a day to Rome

Irrigation

• Within the U.S. differs from east to west: about 5% in the east is used for irrigation, 90% of water use in west is for irrigation.

The water used in irrigation accounts for 85% of all the water consumed in the U.S.

Industrial Use

• For processing, washing, and cooling

• Most water is returned to the system, however we need to concerned about the quality: industrial pollution and heat pollution

Thermoelectric power

• Water used in the generation of electricty from fossil fuels, nuclear and geothermal sources

• About 98% of the water is returned to system, but it is hotter than it should be

Hydroelectric Power

• Total average flow in all U.S. rivers is 1270 Bgal/day

• Total instream hydroelectric power use: about 3300 Bgal/day

• How does that work?

World water usage

http://www.worldmapper.org/

Water Resources

• 1. Hydrologic Cycle and Water Reservoirs

• 2. Floods and Flood Control

• 3. Use of Water

• 4. Water Composition

• 5. Water Problems

Water Composition

• “Pure spring water”– About 30 ppm of dissolved material 0.003%

• Dead sea/Great Salt Lake – About 300,000 ppm or 30%

• Ocean Water– 35,000 ppm or 3.5%

Water for human consumption

• Should have less than 500 ppm dissolved salts

• Water with > 2000 ppm is unsuitable for most other uses (perhaps cooling would be ok—but not irrigation)

Rainwater from Menlo Pk, and average from sites in N.C. and Virginia

• Calcium 0.8 0.65

• Magnesium 1.2 0.14

• Sodium 9.4 0.56

• Potassium - 0.11

• Bicarbonate 4 -

• Sulfate 7.6 2.2

• Chloride 17 0.57

• Silica 0.3 -

• TDS 38 4.7

• pH 5.5 -

• Values in PPM

Other Natural waters

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Calcium 40.7 1.68 14 22 241 400 144 6.5 3.11 4540

Magnesium 7.2 0.24 13 17 7200 1350 55 1.1 0.7 160

Sodium 1.4 0.16 8 14 83,600 10,500 ~27 ~37 3.03 2740

Potassium 1.2 0.31 - 0.5 4070 380 ~2 ~3 1.09 32.1

Bicarbonate 114 5.4 104 129 251 28 622 77 20 55

Sulfate 36 1.3 4.7 1.3 16,400 185 60 15 1 1

Chloride 1.1 0.06 8.5 33 140,000 19000 53 17 0.5 12,600

Silica 3.7 0.7 24 30 48 3 22 103 16.4 8.5

TDS 207 10 120 180 254,000 35000 670 222 36 20,338

pH - 6.9 7.7 7 7.4 - - 6.7 6.2 6.5

World Poor Water

www.worldmapper.org