← on nowLGR-034 · v0.1.0 · model · model groundwater: how much, per second and per year
groundwater · pumped faster than rain refills it
depleted, in cubic metres
283 billion
a year
8,968
a second
775 million
a day
refilled
?
no ledger. some aquifers took ten thousand years to fill.
method Wada et al. 2010 global groundwater depletion; corroborated by GRACE satellite gravimetry.
- about nine thousand cubic metres a second, mostly for irrigation: the north china plain, northwest india, the ogallala.source: Wada et al. 2010; GRACE
- seventy percent of all freshwater humans take goes to farming.source: FAO AQUASTAT
live. this is the channel itself. embed it anywhere:
<iframe src="https://thetoll.earth/?channel=groundwater" width="100%" height="520" style="border:1px solid #D9DDDB" title="the toll · groundwater"></iframe>
or the whole broadcast, every channel, the same for everyone:
<iframe src="https://thetoll.earth/?embed=1" width="100%" height="520" style="border:1px solid #D9DDDB" title="the toll · on now, everywhere"></iframe>
how this number is built
- method
- Wada et al. 2010 global groundwater depletion; corroborated by GRACE satellite gravimetry.
- range
- 200–300 km³/yr
- confidence
- model
- weakness
- regional depletion is well measured; global sums are less certain.
- dispute
- dispute LGR-034 · corrections are credited
- data
- channels.json (sign-in) · full entry · CC BY 4.0