The purpose that swings hardest: irrigation in the French abstraction record
France records what was actually abstracted at every declared abstraction point, classified by purpose. Across the held record, irrigation is by a wide margin the most variable of the five purposes — public supply barely moves between years, while irrigation swings by a large multiple. That matters because irrigation abstraction rises precisely in the dry years when rivers and aquifers can least support it, so the purpose with the greatest year-to-year swing is also the one whose peaks coincide with scarcity.
Abstraction by purpose
- Irrigation and agriculture
- Public water supply
- Industry
- Electricity generation
- Canals and navigation
View the data behind this chart
| Period | Irrigation and agriculture (Mm³) | Public water supply (Mm³) | Industry (Mm³) | Electricity generation (Mm³) | Canals and navigation (Mm³) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 1,333 | 3,455 | 1,368 | 7,751 | 1,842 |
| 2009 | 1,740 | 3,507 | 1,279 | 7,143 | 1,983 |
| 2010 | 1,711 | 3,480 | 1,200 | 7,840 | 2,453 |
| 2011 | 1,702 | 3,403 | 1,240 | 7,205 | 2,424 |
| 2012 | 2,994 | 5,605 | 2,676 | 23,624 | 5,912 |
| 2013 | 2,848 | 5,515 | 2,635 | 21,938 | 5,682 |
| 2014 | 2,204 | 5,295 | 2,474 | 22,240 | 5,522 |
| 2015 | 3,293 | 5,531 | 2,399 | 22,000 | 5,248 |
| 2016 | 3,187 | 5,498 | 2,410 | 21,122 | 5,401 |
| 2017 | 2,959 | 5,593 | 2,542 | 21,475 | 5,205 |
| 2018 | 3,028 | 5,575 | 2,461 | 21,413 | 5,422 |
| 2019 | 3,198 | 5,602 | 2,758 | 20,360 | 5,218 |
| 2020 | 3,470 | 5,651 | 2,499 | 18,610 | 5,321 |
| 2021 | 2,562 | 5,589 | 2,297 | 19,737 | 5,142 |
| 2022 | 3,609 | 5,651 | 2,266 | 17,983 | 4,875 |
| 2023 | 2,881 | 5,483 | 2,089 | 17,520 | 5,850 |
Which purpose moves
Between 2008 and 2023, irrigation abstraction ranged from 1,333 Mm³ in 2008 to 3,609 Mm³ in 2022 — a factor of 2.7. No other purpose comes close.
| Purpose | Mean, Mm³ | Variability |
|---|---|---|
| Electricity generation | 17,373 | 34.1% |
| Canals and navigation | 4,594 | 31.0% |
| Irrigation and agriculture | 2,670 | 25.8% |
| Industry | 2,162 | 24.9% |
| Public water supply | 5,027 | 18.1% |
Variability here is the coefficient of variation — the standard deviation of the held annual values as a percentage of their mean — which is what makes purposes of very different size comparable at all. Public supply tracks population and per-capita demand and therefore barely moves. Irrigation tracks the weather.
Data behind this
Every figure above is computed from these datasets at build time rather than written into the text. If the underlying record changes, this page changes with it.
Citation
Hydrionis (2026), The purpose that swings hardest: irrigation in the French abstraction record, version 1.0. Retrieved from https://hydrionis.com/research/french-irrigation-abstraction-variability/