Gigalitres to Gallons conversion

How to convert gigalitres to gallons?

Sure, let's break this down step by step.

1 gigalitre (GL) is equivalent to 1 billion litres (L), because the prefix "giga" denotes a factor of 10^9.

1 gigalitre = 10^9 litres

Next, we need to convert litres to gallons. Note that there are different types of gallons; the two most commonly used are the US gallon and the Imperial (UK) gallon.

• 1 US gallon is approximately 3.78541 litres.
• 1 Imperial gallon is approximately 4.54609 litres.

Let's do the conversion for both.

US Gallons:

$1 \text{ Gigalitre} = 10^9 \text{ Litres}$ To convert to US gallons: $\text{Number of US Gallons} = \frac{10^9 \text{ Litres}}{3.78541 \text{ Litres/US Gallon}} \approx 264,172,052 \text{ US Gallons}$

Imperial Gallons:

$1 \text{ Gigalitre} = 10^9 \text{ Litres}$ To convert to Imperial gallons: $\text{Number of Imperial Gallons} = \frac{10^9 \text{ Litres}}{4.54609 \text{ Litres/Imperial Gallon}} \approx 219,969,248 \text{ Imperial Gallons}$

So, 1 gigalitre is approximately 264 million US gallons or approximately 220 million Imperial gallons.

Real-World Examples

Here are some real-world examples and contexts where gigalitres might be used:

1. Reservoir Capacity:

   • The capacity of large reservoirs, such as the Sydney Warragamba Dam in Australia, which holds around 2,027 gigalitres (2,027,000,000 litres) of water when full.

2. Annual Water Consumption:

   • The annual water usage for a major city. For example, the city of Los Angeles uses roughly 2,400 gigalitres of water annually.

3. Lake Volume:

   • Lake volume measurements. Lake Erie, for instance, contains approximately 484,000 gigalitres of water.

4. Desalination Plants:

   • Large-scale desalination plants might be measured in gigalitres per year. The Sorek Desalination Plant in Israel produces roughly 150 million cubic meters (150 GL) of water yearly.

These examples provide a sense of just how large a gigalitre is and where such a unit of measurement is applicable in large-scale water resource management and environmental studies.