7 ms·

Maps reveal extent of CA drought

25 points by mikenyc 12y ago

Tiksi 12y ago
Slightly off topic, but I was hoping these were satellite images and not just shaded maps. Also showing 180 individual images seems like an awful way to present the data, maybe an animation or have a time slider? Regardless, it's an interesting dataset, and I honestly didn't know that the drought was so severe, having only heard it mentioned in passing.
- woah 12y ago
  http://www.latimes.com/la-me-g-california-drought-map-gif-htmlstory.html http://www.latimes.com/la-me-g-california-drought-map-gif-ht...
  - Tiksi 12y ago
    Thank You! This definitely helped me visualize it. It's interesting that it seemed to "move" locations over time. At the beginning the hardest hit area was the north eastern part and towards the end it was (is I suppose) the Southern part of the state. Does anyone know a particular reason for this? I'd think that the driest parts would be mostly consistent, but my knowledge in this area is non-existent. Edit: Looking at the article again I see this link is at the bottom of the text, not sure how I missed it the first time around.
TezzellEnt 12y ago
I've been to Lake Shasta, and the drought is apparent and appalling. The shoreline has receded a few hundred feet. This report [1] shows that in 2010, Palm Springs was using 736 gallons of water per residential customer per day. It almost makes me sick. Sources: [1] http://www.water.ca.gov/urbanwatermanagement/docs/Report%20to%20Leg%20on2010%20UWMPs-6-25-2012.pdf http://www.water.ca.gov/urbanwatermanagement/docs/Report%20t...
- sliverstorm 12y ago
  I hypothesize that droughts never feel quite "real" so long as there is water coming out of the tap. Perhaps there could be "rolling blackouts" for water?
- ghshephard 12y ago
  Why would 736 gallons of water use per day almost make you sick? Presumably the water board continues to charge very little money for water, and so people use it accordingly. Increase the cost of water, people stop using it as much. Increase it enough, and people will decide they no longer need emerald green lawns, and, hell, maybe they will have make big sacrifices and put a nozzle on their hose when watering their car. I've never understood why the California water boards don't just using pricing as a mechanism to moderate people's water use.
  - afafsd 12y ago
    Here in Melbourne, water is priced on a tiered basis. 0.23 cents per litre for the first 440 litres per day (averaged over the quarter), 0.27 cents per litre for the next 440 litres a day, and 0.41 cents per litre beyond that. Plus a flat fee of about $100 a quarter. If I used 736 gallons a day I'd be paying... hmmm, six bucks a day for water. Actually that's not that bad, I pay more than that for coffee.
    - ghshephard 12y ago
      Another nice thing about Australia - some areas have "Dual Flush" toilets - that allow you to use a different flush for solid waste - 6 liters/flush and 4 liters/flush. I'm interested in what you pay for water - The ceiling price on water "creation" (not including distribution) for countries near oceans with access to cheap energy (And Australia, for better or worse, has access to a LOT of cheap coal energy) - should be around $0.50/cubic meter according to this DBO (Design-Build-Operate) project in Singapore that Hyflux's SingSpring plant is going to deliver. http://www.waterworld.com/articles/2013/09/singapore-s-second-desalination-facility-set-to-open-with-combined-power-plant.html http://www.waterworld.com/articles/2013/09/singapore-s-secon... A Cubic Meter = 1000 liters, so that should be 50 cents / 1000 or 0.05 cents/liter. That would suggest that either Desalination has jumped ahead of what other sources in Australia cost, and Australia just needs to get desalination plants online, or, more likely, the bulk of the cost of water (in your case, 70-90%), comes from things like distribution, and not water generation.
henrikschroder 12y ago
I read the comments. Don't read the comments.
- facepalm 12y ago
  Wow, the comments are epic. How did people ever get so confused? I'm surprised nobody has mentioned extraterrestrial visits as a possible cause for the drought yet.
sanswork 12y ago
My wife(Australian) and me(Canadian) are in California at the moment. She is constantly commenting on the fact that despite all the drought warnings and conserve water posters everywhere we constantly see people watering their grass and fields to the point of forming large puddles of water. Like everywhere we have been there has been constant watering of plants. As someone that has lived through drought it has been really confusing to her. It really seems like no one there believes their is a drought or at least it isn't changing anyones personal actions.
- timr 12y ago
  I don't know what part of California you're in, but here (in the Bay Area), there's this persistent narrative that because farms and industry use a lot of water, it doesn't matter what individuals do. This, of course, is crap: much of the bay area gets its water from dedicated reservoirs that aren't shared with farms. But it's hard to convince people to make changes when they're cynical about the impact of their behaviors.
  - x0x0 12y ago
    If you're told there's a resource emergency, and you need to conserve / stop doing things you like, but you look around and see just profligate usage of that resource, it's pretty natural for your response to be, "Bullshit." eg Ruby Hills in Pleasanton (a gated community with enormous bright green lawns), or agriculture. Hell, even in Wisconsin -- which has few water issues -- agriculture doesn't water all damn day long because so much of it evaporates. We do in CA.
    - steven2012 12y ago
      Same thing in hillsborough and atherton. The homeowners use something like 400g of water per day on average and I doubt they give a fuck about the drought. I read somewhere that despite drought warnings, water consumption has gone up 1% this year over last year. It paints a picture as to how environmental california really is, despite it's image.
thaumasiotes 12y ago
I remember a "conserve water!" flyer that was set on the tabletops in the UCSC dining hall. It helpfully pointed out that, since California was experiencing a drought that year, we shouldn't be using so much water. It also gave the actual rainfall statistics for the current and past year (approximated but basically accurate in my memory): that year, we'd received 20% of the average annual rainfall. The year before, 210%. This basically convinced me that emoting about california droughts is just something people do because it makes them feel good.
- skrebbel 12y ago
  I'm clearly not as smart as you. How do those numbers imply that the droughts don't need worrying about?
  - thaumasiotes 12y ago
    That sort of thing is the whole point of a reservoir. It doesn't make any sense to complain that we desperately need to conserve water because we've actually been getting more than we expected. A rainfall cycle longer than one year doesn't make calendar years that happen to swing low into emergencies.
    - Someone 12y ago
      It is if your average water consumption is based on an above-average rainfall, just like winters are disasters if you do not collect extra wood in autumn. But you are right; the US/California government should continuously call for water conservation.
      - dyoo1979 12y ago
        We are getting regular fliers in the mail saying to conserve water. The call is being made. But consumers are often bad listeners when told not to consume.
      - thaumasiotes 12y ago
GorgeRonde 12y ago
"The desert grows, and woe to him who conceals the desert within him." Nietzsche
gowan 12y ago
There are plans to build a desalination plant in the Bay Area [1]. This and other plants in CA could help water supply in populated areas. The water districts in CA have two problems: 1. They are not connected well so water cannot easily be transfered from one district to another. 2. The reservoirs cannot sustain an extended drought. [1] https://portal.ebmud.com/our-water/water-supply/long-term-planning/bay-area-regional-desalination-project https://portal.ebmud.com/our-water/water-supply/long-term-pl...
- tacawa 12y ago
  80 percent of California's water usage is agricultural. Agricultural water allocations are based on a "use it or lose it" system. That's the water districts' biggest problem.

25 points by mikenyc 12y ago

Tiksi 12y ago

Slightly off topic, but I was hoping these were satellite images and not just shaded maps. Also showing 180 individual images seems like an awful way to present the data, maybe an animation or have a time slider? Regardless, it's an interesting dataset, and I honestly didn't know that the drought was so severe, having only heard it mentioned in passing.

woah 12y ago
http://www.latimes.com/la-me-g-california-drought-map-gif-htmlstory.html http://www.latimes.com/la-me-g-california-drought-map-gif-ht...
- Tiksi 12y ago
  Thank You! This definitely helped me visualize it. It's interesting that it seemed to "move" locations over time. At the beginning the hardest hit area was the north eastern part and towards the end it was (is I suppose) the Southern part of the state. Does anyone know a particular reason for this? I'd think that the driest parts would be mostly consistent, but my knowledge in this area is non-existent. Edit: Looking at the article again I see this link is at the bottom of the text, not sure how I missed it the first time around.

TezzellEnt 12y ago

I've been to Lake Shasta, and the drought is apparent and appalling. The shoreline has receded a few hundred feet. This report [1] shows that in 2010, Palm Springs was using 736 gallons of water per residential customer per day. It almost makes me sick. Sources: [1] http://www.water.ca.gov/urbanwatermanagement/docs/Report%20to%20Leg%20on2010%20UWMPs-6-25-2012.pdf http://www.water.ca.gov/urbanwatermanagement/docs/Report%20t...

sliverstorm 12y ago
I hypothesize that droughts never feel quite "real" so long as there is water coming out of the tap. Perhaps there could be "rolling blackouts" for water?
ghshephard 12y ago
Why would 736 gallons of water use per day almost make you sick? Presumably the water board continues to charge very little money for water, and so people use it accordingly. Increase the cost of water, people stop using it as much. Increase it enough, and people will decide they no longer need emerald green lawns, and, hell, maybe they will have make big sacrifices and put a nozzle on their hose when watering their car. I've never understood why the California water boards don't just using pricing as a mechanism to moderate people's water use.
- afafsd 12y ago
  Here in Melbourne, water is priced on a tiered basis. 0.23 cents per litre for the first 440 litres per day (averaged over the quarter), 0.27 cents per litre for the next 440 litres a day, and 0.41 cents per litre beyond that. Plus a flat fee of about $100 a quarter. If I used 736 gallons a day I'd be paying... hmmm, six bucks a day for water. Actually that's not that bad, I pay more than that for coffee.
  - ghshephard 12y ago
    Another nice thing about Australia - some areas have "Dual Flush" toilets - that allow you to use a different flush for solid waste - 6 liters/flush and 4 liters/flush. I'm interested in what you pay for water - The ceiling price on water "creation" (not including distribution) for countries near oceans with access to cheap energy (And Australia, for better or worse, has access to a LOT of cheap coal energy) - should be around $0.50/cubic meter according to this DBO (Design-Build-Operate) project in Singapore that Hyflux's SingSpring plant is going to deliver. http://www.waterworld.com/articles/2013/09/singapore-s-second-desalination-facility-set-to-open-with-combined-power-plant.html http://www.waterworld.com/articles/2013/09/singapore-s-secon... A Cubic Meter = 1000 liters, so that should be 50 cents / 1000 or 0.05 cents/liter. That would suggest that either Desalination has jumped ahead of what other sources in Australia cost, and Australia just needs to get desalination plants online, or, more likely, the bulk of the cost of water (in your case, 70-90%), comes from things like distribution, and not water generation.

henrikschroder 12y ago

I read the comments. Don't read the comments.

facepalm 12y ago
Wow, the comments are epic. How did people ever get so confused? I'm surprised nobody has mentioned extraterrestrial visits as a possible cause for the drought yet.

sanswork 12y ago

My wife(Australian) and me(Canadian) are in California at the moment. She is constantly commenting on the fact that despite all the drought warnings and conserve water posters everywhere we constantly see people watering their grass and fields to the point of forming large puddles of water. Like everywhere we have been there has been constant watering of plants. As someone that has lived through drought it has been really confusing to her. It really seems like no one there believes their is a drought or at least it isn't changing anyones personal actions.

timr 12y ago
I don't know what part of California you're in, but here (in the Bay Area), there's this persistent narrative that because farms and industry use a lot of water, it doesn't matter what individuals do. This, of course, is crap: much of the bay area gets its water from dedicated reservoirs that aren't shared with farms. But it's hard to convince people to make changes when they're cynical about the impact of their behaviors.
- x0x0 12y ago
  If you're told there's a resource emergency, and you need to conserve / stop doing things you like, but you look around and see just profligate usage of that resource, it's pretty natural for your response to be, "Bullshit." eg Ruby Hills in Pleasanton (a gated community with enormous bright green lawns), or agriculture. Hell, even in Wisconsin -- which has few water issues -- agriculture doesn't water all damn day long because so much of it evaporates. We do in CA.
  - steven2012 12y ago
    Same thing in hillsborough and atherton. The homeowners use something like 400g of water per day on average and I doubt they give a fuck about the drought. I read somewhere that despite drought warnings, water consumption has gone up 1% this year over last year. It paints a picture as to how environmental california really is, despite it's image.

thaumasiotes 12y ago

I remember a "conserve water!" flyer that was set on the tabletops in the UCSC dining hall. It helpfully pointed out that, since California was experiencing a drought that year, we shouldn't be using so much water. It also gave the actual rainfall statistics for the current and past year (approximated but basically accurate in my memory): that year, we'd received 20% of the average annual rainfall. The year before, 210%. This basically convinced me that emoting about california droughts is just something people do because it makes them feel good.

skrebbel 12y ago
I'm clearly not as smart as you. How do those numbers imply that the droughts don't need worrying about?
- thaumasiotes 12y ago
  That sort of thing is the whole point of a reservoir. It doesn't make any sense to complain that we desperately need to conserve water because we've actually been getting more than we expected. A rainfall cycle longer than one year doesn't make calendar years that happen to swing low into emergencies.
  - Someone 12y ago
    It is if your average water consumption is based on an above-average rainfall, just like winters are disasters if you do not collect extra wood in autumn. But you are right; the US/California government should continuously call for water conservation.
    - dyoo1979 12y ago
      We are getting regular fliers in the mail saying to conserve water. The call is being made. But consumers are often bad listeners when told not to consume.
    - thaumasiotes 12y ago

GorgeRonde 12y ago

"The desert grows, and woe to him who conceals the desert within him." Nietzsche

gowan 12y ago

There are plans to build a desalination plant in the Bay Area [1]. This and other plants in CA could help water supply in populated areas. The water districts in CA have two problems: 1. They are not connected well so water cannot easily be transfered from one district to another. 2. The reservoirs cannot sustain an extended drought. [1] https://portal.ebmud.com/our-water/water-supply/long-term-planning/bay-area-regional-desalination-project https://portal.ebmud.com/our-water/water-supply/long-term-pl...

tacawa 12y ago
80 percent of California's water usage is agricultural. Agricultural water allocations are based on a "use it or lose it" system. That's the water districts' biggest problem.