There are two areas where golf and sports turf can help wider society on the water front:
- Locking up surface water to stop flooding
- Using only what we need
Locking up surface water
Vegetation covered land is better at holding on to water than that without. (golf course being a prime example).
Be that a concrete car park or an area of bare soil, water falling on those areas rapidly moves through that landscape and leads to localised flooding.
Much modern planning of land management is about keeping areas of grass to hold on to water for longer, to stop flooding in big weather events.
Think the flood plains of old.
Using only what we need
As populations grow and more potable water is needed by households and for farms to produce enough food, water allowances may become tighter.
If governments and councils need to choose between cutting water allowances for turf based sport, or building a new housing development the decision will be swift and probably permanent.
We need to be better at knowing what areas of the turf need what water, and reducing that need where we can.
If you didn’t see my last blog on the spring dry spell catch up here.
Golf Insights has put some nice water use insights together for the golfing world. Comparing golfs water usage in the US and globally to other industry’s and the employment/economic benefits it offers over other sectors.
Bodies like the R&A and BIGGA see water usage as a big threat to the future of sport on turf, please support the industry by filling in the short survey here.
BIGGA has put it together to capture where we are now, and support the position of golf as a sport into the future.
The public at large has a negative perception of golf across the world, we need to have the data to tell our side of the story, and all the positive benefits these managed areas of turf can bring.
