Utilisation of Water within Australia
As Australia's supply of freshwater is increasingly vulnerable to droughts, possibly as a result of climate change, there is an emphasis on water conservation and various regions have imposed restrictions on the use of water. In terms of drought in Australia it is defined by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology as rainfall in the lowest decile of what has previously been recorded for that region during a three-month period.
Therefore, water restrictions have been enacted in many cities and regions in Australia, which is the Earth's second driest inhabited continent, in response to chronic water shortages resulting from the widespread drought. Depending upon the location, these can include restrictions on using sprinkler systems, watering lawns, hosing pavement, washing vehicles, etc.
Where is all the water stored?
This can be investigated by visualising all the water stations within Australia, but more importantly the clusters of water stations that are present in each state.
We currently have approximately 7700 water stations, with most of it located on the South-East side of Australia.
This is in fact expected, as having multiple water stations closer to the edge of the continent located with a higher population density will allow water to be more easily accessible.
Water Usage Breakdown on Farms
It appears that a majority of how the water is used on farms is on "Cereals for grain or seed, excluding rice" for Australia overall. However within Queensland, a lot more water is distributed to "Sugar cane" instead.
This can also be seen in Tasmania and Northern Territory where they concentrate on other goods such as fruit, vegetables and nuts instead of grain or seed.
Where is all the water coming from?
Most of the water is extracted from irrigation channels and pipelines, as well as groundwater that includes bores, springs, wells etc.
This also depends on each state and their ease of methods of extraction, such as Tasmania extracting water from rivers, creeks and lakes.
Total Water Used & Extracted on Farms
Not enough water?
However, are we using a considerable amount of water on farms in comparison to the amount we extract?
From a quick glance, we can see that there is more water used than extracted within the states of Queensland, South Australia and Victoria.
This is quite interesting, as these states already extract a considerable amount of water, and are even using more from other sources.
Water Use & Supply within Australia
Use
The relative amount of water use in comparison to the supply is appropriate, i.e., more supply than use.
In terms of what most of the states are using their water on, this is shown with electricity, gas, water, and waste services which households is a sub-category of.
Supply
The amount of water supply within Australia can mainly be attributed to Tasmania from their electricity, gas, water, and waste services.
This is quite surprising considering the land size of Tasmania in compairson to the other states within Australia, however this could also be due to the fact that most of the states were not recording values as much or accurately as Tasmania was.
This can be seen to the null and empty values that were present in the initial dataset.
How does Australia compare to the World?
Water Withdrawal (measured in km^3)
The amount of water withdrawal varies significantly across the world. The visualisation above shows the average level of water withdrawal during the latest recorded year (2017). As defined in the AQUASTAT Database, water withdrawal is defined as the quantity of freshwater taken from groundwater or surface water sources (i.e., lakes or rivers) for use in services (houses or domestic), agricultural and industrial.
As shown, India has withdrawn the most water withi nthe year 2017 by a considerable amount. In terms of where Australia lies at, the amount of water we have extracted is greater than 50% of the other countries. However, one of the reasons of why we are not extracting as much water as the other countries such as USA, China or India, is due to the lack of fully utilising the entire land of Australia, in other words, the population density of Australia is greatly less than those of China.
Freshwater efficiency use for households and public services
Water used for home, household, or public functions is referred to as municipal water. This is the most 'visible' type of water: the water we drink, clean with, wash with, and cook with.
Germany's domestic water consumption are the highest, at about 500US$/m^3, which is surprising due to the total amount of water they withdraw. In terms of India, with the world's largest water withdrawal, does not utilise their water resources within services as much. Despite having a far smaller population, Australia uses a substantial amount with around 200US$/m^3
Freshwater efficiency use for industry
Dilution, steam generation, cleaning, and cooling of manufacturing equipment are just a few of the industrial uses for water. Industrial water is also utilised as cooling water in fossil-fuel and nuclear power plants, as well as other industrial operations.
As shown, Asia and Europe are the largest uses of industrial water, with some countries utilising over 2000US$/m^3. In terms of Australia, this is far less, which is expected as Asia is known for the extensive production within industrial department.
Freshwater efficiency use for agriculture
Water, whether from rainfed sources or piped irrigation, is a critical component in worldwide agriculture. The image depicts the entire amount of freshwater withdrawals utilised in agriculture, including food crops, animals, biofuels, and other non-food crop production. Agricultural water use data is frequently collected over several years rather than being published annually.
In 2017, Asia and Europe again has efficiently been using their water within agriculture with Australia not doing too poorly as well.
____________________________________________________________________________________
This visualisation is created by Ting Han Gan
References
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2020). Water Account, Australia Australian Bureau of Statistics (2021). Water Use on Australian Farms Bureau of Meteorology (2021). Water Stations Data FAO (2017). AQUASTAT Core Database. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Guidelines for water quality management Making Every Drop Count: How Australia is Securing its Water Future Our World in Data (2017). Water Use and StressWhat you need to know about droughts: Why they happen and how they are defined