A procedure to analyze the viability of rainwater harvesting systems in urban areas based on pre-defined diagrams

Abstract

Giving some specific precipitation regimes and technical design parameters, urban Rainwater Harvesting Systems (RWHS) may represent an alternative source to drinking water supply system promoting its conservation and rational use. The use of RWHS requires the definition of generic and simplified method for sizing RWHS accumulation tanks, which is has being considered the most expensive component of the system. Additionally, several methods have being used to define reservoir volumes leading to a wide variety of final reservoir volumes many of them over estimated. The main objective of this article is to present a new methodology to define RWHS reservoir volumes considering technical and economic viabilities of the systems. The proposed methodology was incorporated into a Decision Support System (DSS), named SARA. The method provides an alternative way to define smaller RWHS reservoir volumes once it accepts lower levels of reliabilities giving that the RWHS is considered a complimentary system, better suited for urban areas. RWHS design diagrams are built as a result of the methodology in an attempt to offer a tool to initial and rapid design of reservoir volumes for RWSH. The method was applied to different urban areas in Brazil.

Feasibility, seasonality and reliability of rainwater harvesting in buildings of a university in Campina Grande, Paraíba

“…Many other researchers that have assessed the potential use of rainwater focus on residential buildings as a study area (Chaib et al, 2015;Sampaio & Alves, 2017;Teston et al, 2018;Maykot & Ghisi, 2020). However, it is necessary to extend this knowledge to other kinds of buildings since they are also water consumers and need to have a rationalized demand, especially in regions with a semi-arid climate, where the scarcity of water resources is even more pronounced.…”

Socioeconomic potential for rainwater harvesting systems in southern Brazilian municipalities

“…In Brazil, several studies have considered the technical evaluation of rainwater harvesting for specific buildings, normally placed in urban centres (Sampaio & Alves 2017;Geraldi & Ghisi 2018), including households (Ghisi & Oliveira 2007;Ghisi et al 2012;Marinoski et al 2018), industrial companies (Azambuja Teixeira et al 2016;Andrade et al 2017) and educational institutions (Salla et al 2013;Marques et al 2014;Amorim et al 2017;Silva et al 2019;Thomé et al 2019).…”

Estimating Flood Inundation Depth Along the Arterial Road Based on the Rainfall Intensity

“…Generally, the normalization of the side ditch depends on the type of road beside the side ditch, cross sectional channel type, and comparison between the depth and width of the channel [7,8]. The average rainfall intensity in the watershed area will be used as input data in the surface runoff discharge analysis [9][10][11]. The runoff coefficient will be derived from satellite imagery data [12,13], and the physical characteristics of the watershed area will be analyzed using the topographic map generated by the geographic information system (GIS) [14,15].…”