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An acre foot is a unit of volume commonly used in the United States in reference to large-scale water resources, such as reservoirs, aqueducts, canals, sewer flow capacity, and river flows.
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 325,853.382 U.S. gallons, or 1233.489238 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 household 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. states. See also | ||||||||
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