NEWS NOTES ON SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCES  Mapping Water Use  https://www.usgs.gov/news/mapping-water-use-landsat-and-americas-water-r...

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NEWS NOTES ON SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCES  Mapping Water Use  https://www.usgs.gov/news/mapping-water-use-landsat-and-americas-water-resources ; Water is one of our nation’s most important natural resources, one that’s long been considered inexhaustible. Yet changes in land use, climate, and population demographics are placing unprecedented demands on America’s water supplies. As droughts rage and aquifers dwindle, people may wonder: Is there enough water to meet all our needs?Landsat satellites are helping to answer that question.Using Landsat satellite data, scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have helped to refine a technique called evapotranspiration (ET) water-use mapping to measure how much water crops are using across landscapes and through time. These ET water-use maps are created using a computer model that integrates Landsat and weather data.  Crucial to the process is Landsat’s thermal (infrared) band. Thanks to that thermal band with its 100-meter resolution, water-use maps can be created at a scale detailed enough to show how much water crops are using at the level of individual fields anywhere in the country.   ET water-use maps can show how much water crops are using in a single day or during an entire growing season. Drawing on the vast Landsat satellite image archive, it’s also possible to create maps that span decades to reveal long-term trends in water use. That Landsat archive—invaluable to water-use mapping and so much more—might never have become a reality without the visionary support given to Earth observation from space by Interior Secretary Stewart Udall during the 1960s.  USGS scientists can map water use at different scales to address different water resource questions and concerns. Field-scale maps, for example, are powerful tools for estimating and managing water consumption on irrigated croplands. They can help answer questions such as:Where is water being used, how much, and by whom?Which types of crops are using the most, or least, water?Can water be used more efficiently without impacting crop yields?Basin-scale water-use maps assist in understanding water balance and availability in river basins and watersheds. These large-area maps are useful for:Estimating water use by different sectors within a watershed.Resolving disputes regarding water rights and allocations.Evaluating aquifer depletions and quantifying net ground water pumping.  According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, 40 of 50 state water managers expect water shortages in their states between now and 2023. Addressing concerns about America’s water resources begins with a clearer understanding of water availability and water-use trends. Mapping water use based on Landsat satellite data has demonstrated immense potential at local and regional scales, and will soon become the basis for monitoring and assessing water use across the nation.  This study will also be linked on the 2017 Actions and Activities Page of the Sustainable Water Resources Site at https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ">https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ; Tim SmithSustainable Water Resources CoordinatorGovernment Web Site, https://acwi.gov/Sustainable Water Resources Site, https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ">https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ;

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  1. "Water is one of our nation's most important natural resources, one that's long been considered inexhaustible." Yet changes in land use, climate, and population demographics are placing unprecedented claims on America's water supplies. "As droughts rage and aquifers dwindle, people may wonder:" Is there enough water to meet all our needs? ... "
        
              It is high time to look at water as a special kind of matter. Water is not just a fluid working reagent to meet human needs. Its properties have not been disclosed so far. According to extensive materials on the properties of water, it can be determined that rotating through a continuous cycle of water cycles passes numerous transformations. The main essence of these transformations inherent in nature, or rather created by water itself, lies in its purpose. Millions of years of water formed in a single symbiosis with living beings and vegetation. It not only developed and promoted life on the planet, but itself is a derivative of the whole biota. Her path has stabilized in the obligatory passage through food chains of all living creatures and vegetation. The way of water through juices, blood, secretions, breathing, transpiration provides its many and varied transformations. The result is evaporation from a great variety of biological objects. And each molecule of these vapors is an original construction. Summing up in the clouds of the atmosphere, these molecules in a given program fall precipitation in given places and in specified volumes, developing each biota area with their doses at a given time. So the world order was polished.
             Man, with his needs, began to use water for other purposes. Water has lost its destiny. Falling precipitation, it immediately mispiraetsya from asphalt, arable land, artificial reservoirs. The increased volumes and rate of evaporation created a new phenomenon. The destroyed connections and the interaction of organic fumes have led to a change in all the laws of atmospheric transformation. Therefore, we become victims of natural disasters and the approaching cataclysm.
             The drought and aquifers are not angry. The water itself is furious.