Convert acre-feet to cubic meters in seconds
Ever stared at a water management report and wondered how to make sense of acre-feet measurements? You’re not alone. This quirky unit confuses even seasoned professionals when they first encounter it. Let’s break down acre-feet to cubic meters conversion so you can confidently handle everything from irrigation plans to environmental impact reports.
1 ac-ft x 1,233.48184 = 1,233.48184 m³
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Picture this: California’s Oroville Reservoir holds about 3,500,000 acre-feet of water. To international engineers, that’s 4,316,586,440 cubic meters. Our converter bridges this measurement gap instantly, whether you’re calculating well output or designing flood control systems.
Unit definitions
What is a acre-foot (ac-ft)?
- Description: The volume covering one acre (43,560 sq ft) to one-foot depth
- Symbol: ac-ft
- Common uses: Reservoir capacity, agricultural water rights, river flow measurements
- Definition: 1 ac-ft = 43,560 cubic feet = 325,851 gallons
What is a cubic meter (m³)?
- Description: SI unit of volume equal to a cube with 1-meter edges
- Symbol: m³
- Common uses: Global engineering projects, scientific research, liquid commodity trading
- Definition: 1 m³ = 1,000 liters = 35.3147 cubic feet
Conversion formula
The magic number? 1233.48184. Multiply acre-feet by this factor to get cubic meters:
cubic meters = acre-feet × 1233.48184
For reverse calculations:
acre-feet = cubic meters ÷ 1233.48184
Example calculations
- Small irrigation pond: 2.5 ac-ft
= 2.5 × 1233.48184
= 3,083.7046 m³
(Enough water for 5 US households for a year) - Regional reservoir: 15,000 ac-ft
= 15,000 × 1233.48184
= 18,502,227.6 m³
(Equivalent to 7,400 Olympic swimming pools)
Conversion tables
Acre-feet to cubic meters
| Acre-feet | Cubic Meters |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1,233.4818 |
| 5 | 6,167.4092 |
| 10 | 12,334.8184 |
| 50 | 61,674.092 |
| 100 | 123,348.184 |
Cubic meters to acre-feet
| Cubic Meters | Acre-feet |
|---|---|
| 1,000 | 0.8107 |
| 5,000 | 4.0536 |
| 10,000 | 8.1071 |
| 50,000 | 40.5356 |
| 100,000 | 81.0713 |
Historical background
The acre-foot emerged from 19th-century American West water wars. Settlers needed a practical way to allocate irrigation water across vast arid lands. Using the existing acre (originally the area a yoke of oxen could plow in a day) made sense for farmers. Meanwhile, the cubic meter became standardized during teh French Revolution’s metric system push in 1795, though it took until 1960 for the SI system to formally adopt it..
Interesting facts
- Hoover Dam’s secret: Its 28.9 million acre-foot capacity equals 35.6 cubic kilometers of water
- Swimming pool math: 1 ac-ft fills 1.23 Olympic-sized pools (50m × 25m × 2m)
- Daily human use: Global average water consumption is 0.0003 ac-ft per person annually
- Measurement oddity: Texas water laws use acre-feet, while neighboring Mexico uses cubic hectometers
- Weighty matter: 1 ac-ft of water weighs approximately 3,630 tons
FAQ
An acre-foot is the volume needed to cover one acre of land with one foot of water. It’s commonly used in US water resource management.
Acre-feet simplify large-scale water measurements, like reservoir capacities. It’s easier to say '10,000 acre-feet' than '3.26 billion gallons.'
Divide cubic meters by 1233.48184. Our converter above handles bidirectional calculations automatically.
Rarely. Most countries use cubic meters or megaliters for water volume. You’ll mainly see acre-feet in US irrigation and hydrology contexts.
The standard factor (1 ac-ft = 1233.48184 m³) is precise, based on the international foot definition. It’s reliable for engineering and legal purposes.
One acre-foot equals 43,560 cubic feet. Acre-feet measure large volumes, while cubic feet are better for smaller applications like household water use.