Water, it is a resource that Americans have at their fingertips. In a matter of seconds, we are able to receive gallons of clean fresh water right within our own homes. During the summer months we love to use it to cool off, as do many others in the surrounding countries of the world. What we don’t realize is, this water will not last forever.
Applied Social Psychologist have strategies for inducing pro-environmental behavior. They first determine which behavior they would like see changed to improve the quality of the environment. The second step is to examine the factors that are causing this behavior. Third, an intervention needs to be established in order to change the behavior. Lastly, the effects of the intervention need to be evaluated, as well as the quality of the environment and human life. (Schneider, Gruman, and Coutts, 2013)
A social design may be effective to encourage our water theme parks to conserve their amount of water usage. According to Schneider, a social design is working with the people instead of doing it for them. Providing them with the proper education may bring the awareness that the environment needs to survive.
According to Disney Water Parks, the Typhoon Lagoon has 2.75 million gallons of water that is used for their wave pool, 362,000 gallons of water is in the saltwater pool and 80,000 gallons of water is in the surf pool. This does not include the rest of Typhoon Lagoons 12 attractions. In order to fill up their wave pool it would take three hours to reach its 2.75 million gallons of water! (Disney Water Parks, 2015) Now, according to Hadhazy, a swimming pool loses about 1,000 gallons of water a month from evaporation. This does not count water leaking from the pool through cracks in the foundation after age, liners tearing, and pipes leaking. Now it does not say how many gallons of water the pool size has that would evaporate 1,000 gallons a month. So lets say that a pool size of 14X28 and 5 foot deep holding 14,000 gallons of water and a 1,000 gallons of water evaporate on a monthly basis. That would be 12,000 a year. Now if the attractions mentioned above at Typhoon Lagoon holds a total of 3,192,000 gallons of water that means 228,000 gallons a month and 2,736,000 gallons a year are evaporating! As you can see, a huge amount of water is being wasted by evaporation alone. Can you imagine how many gallons are lost to other issues and how many are lost within water parks around the world all together!?
First, educating the water parks about this great lose and how it is important for the environment to not over use our water sources. Inducing a new way and allowing the companies to decide for themselves may result in saving water. For instance, instead of refilling the pool with tap water, it may be beneficial to use water from a rain-catcher system. The holding tank for the rainwater can be treated with chlorine and then distributed to the pools. This would take a large holding tank and a large amount of water fall to with-stand the demands of the water lost within the water parks but it would cut down the usage of our water.
Please Note: My math is not the correct way to determine the amount of evaporation. I attempted to determine the correct amount but Physics is just too flipping hard! : )
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This was an enjoyable read. I like where you took this. You related a serious issue to something relatable . So many people go to water parks in the summer for fun and vacation but I don’t think many consider how much water is actually being used. This is indeed “A great way to cool off at an awful price” You talked a lot about water loss and evaporation so I did some research of my own and found some other sources of water loss. Water loss in water parks can also occur from splash out, evaporation, as you already stated, deck wash down, and backwash loss (Hansen, 2008). Splash out is the water loss that is accumulated from human interaction. Deck wash down is what occurs when the water parks clean their surfaces such as the steps, slide decks, etc. Back wash loss is when the water parks clean off the filters of the water systems.
I think you had a great idea where you talked about the water parks using a holding tank and water catching system in order to conserve water. As neither of us are scientist, or for any matter qualified in this field I believe that with some thought and consideration from these amusement park companies there can be a number of projects put in place to lower the amount of water we are using for enjoyment rather than need.
If you want to read more check out this article.
Hansen, E. B. (2008, April). Is Water Conservation at Waterparks considered Oxymoronic?