scholarly journals A Review of Roof and Pond Rainwater Harvesting Systems for Water Security: The Design, Performance and Way Forward

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 3163
Author(s):  
Husnna Aishah Zabidi ◽  
Hui Weng Goh ◽  
Chun Kiat Chang ◽  
Ngai Weng Chan ◽  
Nor Azazi Zakaria

Rapid urbanization, population explosion and climate change have threatened water security globally, regionally and locally. While there are many ways of addressing these problems, one of the innovative techniques is the recent employment of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) which include rainwater harvesting systems (RWHS). Therefore, this paper reviews the design and component of two types of RWHS, the namely roof harvesting system (RHS) and the pond harvesting system (PHS). The performance in terms of quantity and quality of collected rainwater and energy consumption for RWHS with different capacities were evaluated, as well as the benefits and challenges particularly in environmental, economic and social aspects. Presently, the RHS is more commonly applied but its effectiveness is limited by its small scale. The PHS is of larger scale and has greater potentials and effectiveness as an alternative water supply system. Results also indicate the many advantages of the PHS especially in terms of economics, environmental aspects and volume of water harvested. While the RHS may be suited to individual or existing buildings, the PHS has greater potentials and should be applied in newly developed urban areas with wet equatorial climate.

Author(s):  
Husnna Aishah Zabidi ◽  
Hui Weng Goh ◽  
Chun Kiat Chang ◽  
Ngai Weng Chan ◽  
Nor Azazi Zakaria

This paper reviews the design and component of two types of RWHS, namely roof harvesting system (RHS) and pond harvesting system (PHS). The performance in terms of quantity and quality of collected rainwater and energy consumption for RWHS with different capacities were evaluated, as well as the benefits and challenges particularly in environmental, economic and social aspects. Presently, RHS is more commonly applied but its effectiveness is limited by its small scale. The PHS is of larger scale and has greater potentials and effectiveness as an alternative water supply system. Results also indicate the many advantages of PHS especially in terms of economics, environmental aspects and volume of water harvested. While RHS may be suited to individual or existing buildings, PHS has greater potentials and should be applied in newly developed urban areas with wet equatorial climate.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Freni ◽  
Lorena Liuzzo

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems have many benefits being an effective alternative water supply solution, not only in arid and semi-arid regions. Also, these systems can be useful in the reduction of flood risk in urban areas. Nevertheless, most of the studies in literature focused on the potential of RWH in reducing water consumption, whereas few examples examined their efficiency in the retention of stormwater in flood-susceptible residential areas. The aim of this work was to investigate the reliability of RWH systems in terms of stormwater retention. Specifically, the performance of RWH tanks to supply water for toilet flushing, in more than 400 single-family houses in a residential area of Sicily (Southern Italy) was analyzed. The area of study was chosen due to its high susceptibility to flooding. A flushing water demand pattern was defined using water consumption data collected during a measurement campaign. The yield-after-spillage algorithm was used to simulate the daily water balance of the RWH tanks. The effect of the RWH implementation on flood volumes in the area of study was quantified using FLO-2D. Results point out that the potential of neighborhood RWH installation in the mitigation of flood risk is highly related to rainfall amount.


Author(s):  
Onur Dogan ◽  
Omer Faruk Gurcan

In recent years, enormous amounts of digital data have been generated. In parallel, data collection, storage, and analysis technologies have developed. Recently, there has been an increasing trend of people moving towards urban areas. By 2030 more than 60% of the world's population will live in an urban environment. Urban areas are big data resource because they include millions of citizens, technological devices, and vehicles which generate data continuously. Besides, rapid urbanization brings many challenges, such as environmental pollution, traffic congestion, health problems, energy management, etc. Some policies for countries are required to cope with urbanization problems. One of these policies is to build smart cities. Smart cities integrate information and communication technology and various physical devices connected to the network (the internet of things or IoT) to both improve the quality of government services and citizen welfare. This chapter presents a literature review of big data, smart cities, IoT, green-IoT concepts, using technology and methods, and applications worldwide.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 00078
Author(s):  
Grażyna Sakson

Rainwater harvesting is an alternative water supply method that has become popular in recent years around the world. This is mainly due to financial reasons (reducing the cost of potable water and fees for rainwater discharge to the sewerage), but also because of environmental awareness. In Poland, rainwater harvesting systems are not often used because of their low financial viability determined by high system construction costs and the low prices of potable water. Earlier analysis conducted by the author showed that the payback period of investment outlays was from a dozen or so years for large buildings, to a few dozen for single-family houses. This situation may change after the introduction of common fees for discharging rainwater from impervious areas into sewerage, and fees for the reduction of natural retention on newly built-up areas, in accordance with new water regulations. This paper presents a cost analysis of rainwater harvesting systems for ten cities in Poland, with varying annual rainfall depth and various pricing for potable water. Analyses were carried out for a single-family house located in an area equipped with a municipal sewer system, and for a large building, located in an area equipped and not equipped with a municipal sewer system.


2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 424-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Morales-Pinzón ◽  
M. I. García-Serna ◽  
M. T. Flórez-Calderón

An analysis of the utilisation and quality of rainwater in different collection systems located in the Pereira–Dosquebradas (Colombia) conurbation was conducted to evaluate the conditions in these systems and thus determine whether rainwater is safe water for domestic, commercial and industrial purposes. The quality of rainwater and its relation to selected variables (roofing material, material deposits, piping material and amount of precipitation) were evaluated. Six buildings with different types of roofing (zinc, polycarbonate or fibre cement) that have installed systems to capture rainwater were selected for the evaluation. According to the results, the sampled water is suitable for different uses. In cities, rainwater can be adapted and eventually used as an alternative water source, thereby reducing dependence on local and external sources.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-22
Author(s):  
Nassereldeen Ahmed Kabashi Abuelfutouh ◽  
Mohamed Jamie ◽  
Abdurahman Nour ◽  
Noor Illi Fuad

This study focuses on rainwater harvesting quality at the Faculty of Engineering, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). As development is progressing over the years in Malaysia, there is also an increasing number of environmental issues and those issues are getting worse day by day. At present, Malaysia is blessed with plentiful annual rainfall that represents approximately 314 mm of monthly rainfall but there is no evidence that this rainwater is redirected for daily usage. To pursue a more sustainable development, rainwater harvesting has been recognized as one innovative solution. The IIUM Gombak campus is located in a hillside area that is a suitable study area to perform rainwater harvesting, which can be used as an alternative water supply in the future and reduce utility bills for water used on the campus. Firstly, a suitable study area for rain water harvesting around KOE, IIUM was determined before collection of data to determine the storage capacity needed. This study includes the estimation of rainwater quantity that can be harvested in one year. The quality of rainwater in terms of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), pH, total suspended solid (TSS), turbidity, and microbial count were studied. Data analysis showed that the values of BOD, COD, pH, TSS, turbidity, and microbial count were in the range of 2 - 3.2 mg/l, 22.5 – 42.5 mg/l, 5.9 - 6.5, 20 mg/l, 9 -11 NTU, and between 200 -260 cfu/ml, respectively. This indicates that the harvested rainwater is acceptably clean but not suitable to be used as drinking water. ABSTRAK: Fokus kajian ini adalah pada kualiti air hujan yang ditadah di Fakulti Kejuruteraan, Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia (UIAM). Sejajar dengan pembangunan pesat di Malaysia, isu alam sekitar juga semakin bertambah dan menjadi semakin teruk hari ke hari. Pada masa sama, ketika ini Malaysia dirahmati dengan hujan yang mencurah setiap tahun, dengan kuantiti bulanan sebanyak 314 mm air hujan dan tidak ada bukti penggunaan air hujan ini bagi kegunaan harian dsb. Bagi memenuhi keperluan kelangsungan pembangunan, penadahan air hujan dikenal pasti sebagai satu penyelesaian inovatif. Kampus UIAM Gombak terletak di kawasan pinggiran bukit yang sesuai bagi menjalankan kajian tadahan air hujan. Ianya boleh digunakan sebagai bekalan air alternatif pada masa depan dan mengurangkan bil utiliti bekalan air dalam kampus. Terlebih dahulu, kawasan kajian yang sesuai dikenal pasti berdekatan Fakulti Kejuruteraan, UIAM bagi mengumpul air hujan sebelum data dikumpulkan bagi mengenal pasti kapasiti pengumpulan yang diperlukan. Kajian ini juga menganggar kuantiti air hujan yang boleh ditadah dalam satu tahun. Kualiti air hujan dikaji dari segi keperluan oksigen biokimia (BOD), keperluan oksigen kimia (COD), pH, jumlah pepejal terampai (TSS), kekeruhan dan bilangan mikrob. Analisis data mendapati nilai BOD, COD, pH, TSS, kekeruhan dan bilangan mikrob berada dalam julat 2 - 3.2 mg/l, 22.5 – 42.5 mg/l, 5.9 - 6.5, 20 mg/l, 9 -11 NTU dan antara 200 -260 cfu/ml, masing-masing. Ini menunjukkan air hujan yang ditadah adalah boleh diterima sebagai bersih tetapi tidak sesuai dijadikan sebagai air minuman


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 2623
Author(s):  
Rubén Villar-Navascués ◽  
Alfredo Pérez-Morales ◽  
Salvador Gil-Guirado

Rainwater harvesting from rooftop catchments represents a climate change adaptation measure that is especially significant in areas affected by water scarcity. This article develops a Geographic Information Systems-based methodology to evaluate the spatial distribution of rainwater catchment potential to identify the most favorable urban areas for the installation of these infrastructures. Since performance and water saving potential of rainwater harvesting systems greatly depends on population density and roof size, this assessment was performed for each residential plot on a per capita basis, based on cadastral data and a method of demographic disaggregation. Furthermore, to evaluate spatial variation of runoff coefficient per building, a supervised classification was carried out to consider the influence of roof types on the rainwater catchment potential. After calculating rainwater catchment potential per capita for each residential plot, the spatial clustering of high (hot spots) and low values (cold spots) was assessed through the Getis-Ord General G statistic. Results indicate a spatial pattern of high rainwater catchment potential values in low-density urban areas, where rainwater catchment systems are expected to offer a better performance and a shorter amortization period. These results may be useful for the enactment of local legislation that regulates the obligation to install these infrastructures or offers subsidies for their implementation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 490-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Liu ◽  
Weiping Chen ◽  
Chi Peng ◽  
Laosheng Wu ◽  
Yuguo Qian

Rainwater is an underutilized water resource that has become more important in recent years; due to severe water logging and water shortage in cities. The evaluation of rainwater harvesting potential is of fundamental importance in planning rainwater harvesting systems and management policies. In this study, we used minute-interval rainfall data and the water mass balance method coupling urban hydrological processes to assess the annual rainwater availability potential (RAP) of different underlying surfaces in the urban areas of Beijing (inside the 5th Ring Road). The estimated total RAP was 154.49 million m3 in 2013. About 53% of rainwater could be effectively harvested for use, among which the rooftops had the highest harvesting ratio of 70%, and contributed about half of the total RAP. Indirect use of rainwater can be achieved through infiltration facilities, of which concave green land construction and porous brick pavement can increase the amount of rainfall that infiltrates into the soil by 18.89% and 55.69%, respectively. Rainwater harvesting and utilization could serve as a significant water source for the urban areas in Beijing.


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