Acre-foot

An acre-foot is a unit of volume equal to 43,560 cubic feet, the amount that covers one acre to a depth of one foot.

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Acre: A unit of area equal to 43,560 square feet. The unit combines this area with a depth of one foot.
Water resources management: The planning and administration of water supplies, infrastructure, and ecosystems. Acre-feet express the volumes that managers allocate and track.
Cubic meter: A metric unit of volume equal to the space inside a one-meter cube. It is the standard metric counterpart for expressing large water volumes.
Colorado River Compact: A 1922 agreement dividing Colorado River water among U.S. states. Its allocations are commonly discussed in acre-feet, making the unit central to river accounting.
Cubic foot: A unit of volume equal to the space inside a cube one foot on each side. An acre-foot contains exactly 43,560 cubic feet.
Reservoir: A natural or artificial lake used to store water. Reservoir storage capacity is commonly stated in acre-feet.
Acre-foot per year: A rate of water volume equal to one acre-foot delivered or used each year. Adding a time denominator turns the volume unit into a flow rate.
Water scarcity: A condition in which available water cannot meet demand reliably. Acre-foot accounting makes competing supplies and demands quantifiable.
Volume: The amount of three-dimensional space occupied by a substance or object. An acre-foot measures volume, not area or water flow.
Irrigation: The artificial application of water to soil to support plant growth. Agricultural water deliveries and use are often reported in acre-feet.