Doesn't the UK have sprinklers in front of major places like Parliament Square, Royal Naval College or even in Golf Courses. Here in the US, we are building new golf courses in the desert (Utah, Nevada) and use either ground water or the Colorado river even though their level has been falling.
The UK gets enough rain that grass generally grows on its own - so you only need a sprinkler system during periods of drought. And periods of drought generally come with hosepipe bans, which means you can't run the sprinkler anyway.
Most venues choose to show 'leadership' and 'solidarity' by following any hosepipe bans, rather than trying to get an exception.
Sprinklers are used occasionally though - for example, establishing newly seeded grass. Golf courses might use them on the putting greens, but rarely on the fairways.
In fairness, golf courses help replenish aquifers in their area, and not all of them are sourced from “fossil water”. My city in the SE USA gets its water from a surface supply, so as long as the river through town is flowing, we’re good. The best golf course in the area backs up to said river; I don’t know for sure where they get their water, but since it’s essentially agricultural use, there’s no need to treat it prior to use. I would be surprised if they don’t just pump it directly from the river to the course.
It’s all going to end up in the same river after the fact anyway. Not all of us live in near-deserts.
Not that I know, but it would be interesting to have a study of water usage for golf courses. I suspect it's mostly minimal impact, even if it's also superfluous use.
Since this always comes up I feel obligated to point out golf courses don’t use near as much water as people think. They can use a lot of reclaimed and grey water for grass and ponds.
Pavement definitely soaks up less water than a lawn but note that the soil in London is rich in clay so it doesn’t drain quickly. I would expect there are plenty of waterlogged fields at the moment, though runoff from paved land surely doesn’t help.
I'm fully aware. But I'm quoting the article and golf courses don't use a consistent amount of water day to day, so I am trusting readers to do the math.
We live in Ottawa, Canada. Last year we had a very dry summer, so the city sent out notices asking people to please water their lawns regularly.
The Ottawa River is a major river, Ottawa is the only major user of its water, and doesn't really make a dent in the flow, especially since we put our wastewater back into the Ottawa (after treatment, mostly).
They had no concern about water security, but they did have a concern about fires. There were a couple of cases where dry lawns made it easier for fires to jump from one property to another, so they sent out the notice.
The average golf course in Arizona uses 450,000 gallons a day according to [1]. According to [2], this means we're talking about 4-8 golf courses per day. There are over 200 golf courses near Phoenix, so your concern is legitimate the water usage here is marginal relative to the economic impact. As other commenters have pointed out, if you really want to impact water issues, there are far more efficient ways to tackle them.
> South Carolina golf courses alone use 9.7 million gallons/day of groundwater for irrigation or 3,540 million gallons per year. SC golf courses use a combined total of groundwater and surface water of 14,991 millon gallons per year.
Oh the typical techie solution to environmental problems. We can solve this with tech!
Wait until the aquifers under North America run dry. That's where most irrigation pump up their ground water from. A few dry rivers and smaller lakes are nothing compared to what's going to happen. Forget your desalination plants.
And it's entirely predictable. In fact, for decades already. But (almost) nobody is doing anything. Cause freedom, I guess. What's a golf course here and there in the desert, for the better off, right? Or what about an artificial lagoon? Freedom!
Golf courses, anyway, have no legitimate reason to continue being allowed unlimited irrigation.
Dual-use agriculture + solar PV farms should get priority for water. PV can seriously cut evaporation and water loss while also providing power for (eventually) desalination or (immediately) to displace fossil fuel use.
By recent report, almond and pomegranate orchards were being irrigated primarily via stolen water. Cutting that off should be high priority.
Sure, if you save water they'll just build a new golf course and someone else will use the water. But at least you don't have to pay for the water. You also get a more interesting yard that supports wildlife.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWpui1P9cAY
reply