A review of urban rainwater harvesting in China

Abstract

Over the past 30 years, water security issue in Chinese cities has become increasingly serious, largely due to rapid urbanization, population growth and disproportionate investment in water infrastructure. Urban rainwater harvesting (URWH), a household and community-level rainwater management measure, has been widely used during this period. This study provides a critical review of the policies, methods, technology, construction, implementation and benefits related to URWH in China. We show that URWH in China has gone through three phases over the past 30 years: an initial development phase, a rapid development phase and a sponge city construction phase. URWH research has focused mainly on rainwater harvesting, storage, utilization, management and other technologies, with limited attention to policy and benefit analysis. However, the scale of URWH construction and implementation in China remains small and needs further development. Currently, while URWH assessments cover social, ecological and environmental benefits, the economic benefits need to be further strengthened. The next step in URWH implementation should be to strengthen research and development of policy, legal and design standards. This study provides guidance for the implementation of URWH in Chinese cities and other cities alike in developing countries.

Integrated Water Management in Mountain Communities: The Case of Feutap in the Municipality of Bangangté, Cameroon

“…Within 20 years, P1MC has benefited 628,355 families and clearly demonstrated the potential to stimulate regional economic development while contributing to increasing food security whilst enabling an environmentally friendly and community-centered approach [129,131,132]. Another very successful example is the large-scale dissemination of rainwater harvesting in semi-arid Gansu (China) during the 1990s and 1980s through the 1-2-1 project [133][134][135][136]. The 1-2-1 project was very successful and has basically solved the drinking water problems of more than a million people.…”

“…However, with issues related to the costs of drinking water, limited water resources, severity of floodings, and stormwater pollution, the role of RWH is being reassessed [150][151][152][153][154]. As learned from Ancient Sri Lanka (Section 4.3) [155][156][157] and Gansu, China [132][133][134][135][136], RWH offers a number of environmental and economic benefits which will shape the future of Feutap and other communities. This is because the presented concept respects the framework for sustainable and replicable rural water supply systems [158,159].…”

Evaluating rooftop rainwater harvesting potential to satisfy urban water demand in Hosaena City, South Central Ethiopia

“…According to several studies, RWH is frequently utilized as an alternative source of water supply in both developed and developing countries, such as Poland (Stec & Zelenáková 2019), Turkey (Ertop et al 2023), Spain (Hernández & Morote 2019), the United States of America (Steffen et al 2013), China (Zhou et al 2023(Zhou et al , 2024, Ghana (Akuffobea-Essilfie et al 2020), Uganda (Ntale et al 2005), Kenya (Odhiambo et al 2022), Nigeria (Lade & Oloke 2013), Tajikistan (Daler & Rahmatilloev 2023), and Brazil (Ghisi & Schondermark 2013). Despite its application, rainfall variability (Awawdeh & Jaradat 2012), the quality of harvested water (Sazakli et al 2007), poor public perception (Mwenge & Taigbenu 2011), and a lack of commitment from politicians (Adugna et al 2018) are some challenges for the RWH system.…”

Comprehensive evaluation of rainwater utilization in China: potential, feasibility and strategy

“…There are very few studies on overall analysis and summary of rainwater utilization on a national scale. In addition, rainwater harvesting projects in China are mainly government-funded municipal or environmental projects, the enthusiasm of the residents to participate in is poor 22 and few of the studies have combined the feasibility of RHSs with the residents' domestic water consumption.…”