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Information About

Acre-feet





DEFINITION

It is defined by the volume of water necessary to cover one Acre of surface area to a depth of one foot. It is equal to exactly 43,560 cubic feet, or nearly 325,851 U.S. Gallon s, or exactly 1233.48183754752 cubic meters.


DISCUSSION

As a rule of thumb in U.S. water management, one acre foot is taken to be roughly the amount of water used annually by a family of four (844.8 liters of water, per person, per day). The acre foot (or more specifically the time rate unit of acre foot per year) has been used historically in the U.S. in many water-management agreements, for example the Colorado River Compact , which divides 15 million acre feet per year (586 m³/s) among seven western U.S. State s.