Water Sustainability Flashcards
How is water lost?
Water is lost through evaporation, leaks, and inefficient usage
Agricultural Irrigation methods
Inefficient Methods
Flood and Spray Irrigation
Flood Irrigation: From underground or surface containers, water flows by gravity into columns of unlined ditches.
More than enough water is used, bathtub of water
45% of water is lost through evaporation, seepage, and leakage
Spray Irrigation: Huge volumes of water is sprayed onto massive fields of crops
40% of water is lost through evaporation
Loses more water in windy and dry areas
What is the biggest use of water?
Agricultural Irrigation
Low-Tech Methods
Treadle Pumps: Raise groundwater into irrigation ditches
Rainwater Harvesting: In countries with prolonged dry seasons, rainwater is collected with buckets and rooftop pipes to be stored in cisterns or ponds.
Fog Nets: Peruvian farmers erect large flat nets that capture condensed fog, which then collects into holding tanks.
Agricultural Irrigation methods
Efficient Methods
Center-Pivot Sprinkler: An improvement on spray irrigation, a sprinkler system is placed overhead the crops and moves circularly.
90%-95% water reaches plants – high pressure sprinkler
80% with low pressure
Drip or Trickle Irrigation: Small plastic tubes installed at root level deliver water at a slow rate.
90-95% of the water reaches crops
Because of the increased cost, drip irrigation is only used in 5% of fields in the US
What is gray water?
How do you conserve gray water?
Gray water (dirty water) is the water drained from baths, showers, and washing machinew
Filtered, pump to overflow, or groudwater to water plants
What are water meters?
Measures water usage per household
Can identify leaks via abnormal spikes in usage
