One of the barriers in desalination technology is the amount of energy required for the process. For example, at the desalination plant in Perth, Australia, it can take up to 5 kilowatt-hours to desalinate just one cubic meter (264 gallons) of water—which is roughly equivalent to leaving a 60-watt light bulb on for roughly one month.

Click through the interactive infographic below for a brief description of desalination techniques and how the numbers stack up at desalination plants across the globe.

Map and graphic by Greg Hudson, undergraduate student at Ball State University.

Reverse Osmosis

• A basin holds raw water collected from the sea. This water then moves into the pre-treatment stage where it is infused with chemicals to stabilize it. The water passes through the first set of filters to sift out some of the salt and brine.
• Once treated, pressure moves the water through a series of membranes, which further separate water from concentrate. The salt, brine and concentrate that are removed are collected in a separate basin.
• This concentrate is infused with seawater and returned to the original body of water.
• The purified water is blended with chemicals and minerals to prepare it for consumption and the sanitized, desalinated product is ready for use and distribution.

Multi-Stage Flash

• In a brine heater, incoming water is heated to 90-110° Celsius.
• Cold water then passes through coils in the flash chambers. This cold water flows through multiple chambers, each at a slightly lower pressure than the previous one.
• This lower pressure causes the hot seawater to boil immediately upon entering each stage, causing a portion of the seawater to vaporize—or flash—into steam.
• The cleansed vapor passes around the outside of the tube carrying cold seawater, where it is condensed into pure, distilled water.
• The water and concentrate are collected in separate basins.
• Collected concentrate is blended with seawater and returned to the original body of water.
• The distilled water is blended with chemicals and minerals to prepare it for consumption and the desalinated product is ready for use and distribution.

Near Xilinhot, in eastern Inner Mongolia, China is testing a gasification process that doesn’t need a plant at all, but instead collects hot gases produced from an underground coal seam that was deliberately set on fire. The experimental “in-situ” coal-gasification practice has proven so efficient—using less coal and saving the water needed for coal mining and processing—that China has approved three additional demonstration projects across the northern and western regions.

Graphic by Season Schafer, Greg Hudson, Valerie Carnevale, Chelsea Kardokus, and Vicki Rosenberger, undergraduate students at Ball State University.

The infographic below shows global statistics for coal and how these relate to water.

Graphic by Season Schafer, Greg Hudson, Valerie Carnevale, Chelsea Kardokus, and Vicki Rosenberger, undergraduate students at Ball State University.

Alberto González submitted this infographic for the 2011 Urban Water Design Challenge—sponsored by Circle of Blue and Visualizing.org.

Graphic © Alberto González for Circle of Blue and Visualizing.org

Infographic: Freshwater withdrawal tree maps by country. View / download the infographic PDF.

Does the population of a country impact its freshwater withdrawal? What about the effect of its geographic location? Are there differences between continents? What about within them? How is the availability of freshwater spread around the economic sectors?

This visualization contains a composition of 20 heat maps which try to answer these questions and, more importantly, establish a comparative framework between continents and variables, such as economic sectors. The lighter the color, the less water is withdrawn.

Note, however, that tree maps by continent have the same area and are not being comparable between each other, just within the continent itself: e.g. Australia does not have a higher population than the U.S., but its population is the biggest in the Oceania continent.

See the other winning designs here.

Did you miss your chance to participate? Designers can continue to share their visualizations throughout the year by uploading to visualizing.org.

Click through the interactive infographic to learn more about the different processes involved with coal mining.

Graphic by Season Schafer, Greg Hudson, Valerie Carnevale, Chelsea Kardokus, and Vicki Rosenberger, undergraduate students at Ball State University.

Carlo Llacar submitted this infographic for the 2011 Urban Water Design Challenge—sponsored by Circle of Blue and Visualizing.org.

Graphic © Carlo Llacar for Circle of Blue and Visualizing.org

Infographic: The Three Eras of Water. View / download the infographic PDF (19MB).

This “info-art,” or infographic*, is based on Peter Gleick’s essay, “Facing Down the Hydro-Crisis.” It encapsulates the relationship history between man and water, as divided into the three eras described by Gleick.

The infographic portrays the evolution of water technology, including its immediate successes of human progress and the disadvantages of that progress. Peter Gleick’s scientific, social, and historical findings detailed in his essay are translated into this piece, putting those patterns in a contemporary light.

See the other winning designs here.

Did you miss your chance to participate? Designers can continue to share their visualizations throughout the year by uploading to visualizing.org.

*”Facing Down The Hydro-Crisis” was originally published in the World Policy Journal (©2009 World Policy Institute : used by permission), and this infographic originally appeared in the book Safe Agua (©2010 Designmatters at Art Center College of Design).

Andy Jepkes submitted this infographic for the 2011 Urban Water Design Challenge—sponsored by Circle of Blue and Visualizing.org.

Graphic © Andy Jepkes for Circle of Blue and Visualizing.org

Infographic: Breakdown of water consumption and water use for the 120 fastest-urbanizing countries. View / download the infographic PDF.

The relative water consumption per capita, percent usage of available freshwater in each country, and the respective breakdowns of use in agricultural, municipal, and industrial sectors are shown for the 120 fastest-urbanizing countries.

In particular, desert countries are highlighted by their enormous consumption of water—often several times greater than the extent of water in the country. Additionally, many countries where there exists a great degree of struggle over water rights are, in fact, only withdrawing a small portion of their available freshwater, indicating that lack of infrastructure is a greater crisis when compared with water unavailability.

See the other winning designs here.

Did you miss your chance to participate? Designers can continue to share their visualizations throughout the year by uploading to visualizing.org.

Travis Bost submitted this infographic for the 2011 Urban Water Design Challenge — sponsored by Circle of Blue and Visualizing.org.

Graphic © Travis Bost for Circle of Blue and Visualizing.org

Infographic: Breakdown of water consumption and water use for the 120 fastest-urbanizing countries. View the infographic in a new window. Click to enlarge.

The relative water consumption per capita, percent usage of available freshwater in each country, and the respective breakdowns of use in agricultural, municipal, and industrial sectors are shown for the 120 fastest-urbanizing countries.

In particular, desert countries are highlighted by their enormous consumption of water—often several times greater than the extent of water in the country. Additionally, many countries where there exists a great degree of struggle over water rights are, in fact, only withdrawing a small portion of their available freshwater, indicating that lack of infrastructure is a greater crisis when compared with water unavailability.

See the other winning designs here.

Did you miss your chance to participate? Designers can continue to share their visualizations throughout the year by uploading to visualizing.org.

Paumier submitted this information graphic for the 2011 Urban Water Design Challenge—sponsored by Circle of Blue and Visualizing.org.

Graphic © Paumier for Circle of Blue and Visualizing.org

Infographic: A global comparison of water access and urbanized region. View the infographic in a new window. Click to enlarge.

This is a global overview of the water access (as a percentage of population) and of the urban factor. The color code refers to the water access factor, while the relief—or changes in three-dimensional height of the tiles on the graphic—refers to the rate of urbanization. (The higher the elevation, the more dense the urbanization.)

See the other winning designs here.

Did you miss your chance to participate? Designers can continue to share their visualizations throughout the year by uploading to visualizing.org.

Narin Gulec submitted this information graphic for the 2011 Urban Water Design Challenge—sponsored by Circle of Blue and Visualizing.org.

Graphic © Narin Gulec for Circle of Blue and Visualizing.org

Access to safe water: Global clean water supply by countries where less than 50 percent of the population have access to safe supplies. Facts based on WHO and Pacific Institute 2004 reports.View the infographic in a new window.Click to enlarge.

See the other winning designs here.

Did you miss your chance to participate? Designers can continue to share their visualizations throughout the year by uploading to visualizing.org.