For want of a drink

...is the title of a phantastic special issue on water in the Economist this week. An absolutely worthwhile read, front to back, for anyone interested in a primer on the global context of water, drinking water, sanitation, food production, water scarcity, water pollution, water management, and water politics and its importance to the planet's livelihood and survival. The report touches on all the important areas and does it well, REALLY well! The author, John Grimond, is to be congratulated to this series. This is the best thing "water" in the general media that I have ever seen, when it comes to providing an overview of water issues around the globe. It is an extremely timely article. It comes just ahead of our conference on "Sustainable Groundwater in Agriculture: An International Conference Linking Science with Policy", 15-17 June 2010, in San Francisco. Conference speakers include a number of the experts that John consulted with in preparation for his articles.

From my perspective - and related to several of the notes below - kudos to John Grimond also for making a successful effort to convey the hydrologic concept of "consumptive water use" (water that goes to evapotranspiration) in contrast to non-consumptive water uses (e.g., water down the kitchen sink), for pointing out the importance of agricultural water use and its link to feeding the world, for getting it right on the importance of crop ET, and for the clever integration of groundwater concepts into this whirlwind tour of global water.

Here is a list of links to the individual articles:

Water and Land Use Intensity of Solar Power vs. Biofuels

In continuing to grasp some basic land use and (ground)water use issues associated with energy production, it occurred to me during some recent discussions with my wondeful friends and colleagues Stephen Kaffka, Dan Putnam (both UC Davis), Margot Gerritsen (Stanford), and Wayne Spencer (Conservation Biology, San Diego) to compare the water intensity of solar power (see blog below) with that of another renewable energy source: biofuels. In the Southwest, all three (food&fiber production, biofuel production, and solar power) compete for land and water. Comparing water use and land use of a solar farm and an ethanol-corn farm in the Southwest on a per MWh-basis is not going to be favorable for biofuels, I figure - given all that irrigation water. But how bad is it?

Global Groundwater Recharge Map & Water Use

Ever wondered how much water percolates into the ground? Petra Doell et al., a few years back, published a global map of estimated groundwater recharge, which they recently updated and extensively discussed in a public journal article that includes beautiful color maps (I admit - I always liked looking at good maps). An interactive version of the recharge map is available now at the WHYMAP (world-wide hydrogeological assessment and mapping program).