Assessment of rainwater use and greywater reuse in high-rise buildings in a brownfield site

Abstract

This study describes the use of rainwater and greywater (originated from bathroom only) for provision of non-contact indoor and outdoor use in high-rise buildings. A brownfield development site in Box Hill suburb of Melbourne was selected as case study site for this investigation. The performance of alternative servicing options was compared with conventional water supply, stormwater and wastewater servicing. A water balance model UVQ (Urban Volume and Quality) was applied to determine storage capacities and to evaluate the percentage reduction in water supplying, stormwater run-off and wastewater disposal, as well as volumes of rainwater use and greywater reuse. In this study, the impact of variation in collection area (600 m(2) and 900 m(2)) and appliance discharge volumes was examined. A number of demand management options were also investigated. The results of this study indicate greywater reuse is more suited than rainwater use for this development because of the steady, constant supply of greywater compared to the highly fluctuating, storm-event supply of rainwater and the high population density creating comparatively large volumes of greywater.

Smart meter enabled water end-use demand data: platform for the enhanced infrastructure planning of contemporary urban water supply networks

“…The former approach was a popular option with rainwater tanks ownership rising from 22% to 36% between 200736% between and 201036% between (ABS, 2013. Studies showed that rainwater tanks could potentially achieve annual mains water savings of 38-58 kL in single households Chong et al, 2011;Domènech and Saurí, 2011;Ferguson, 2011;Umapathi et al 2013) while potable savings of 7% to 17% were reported for multi-storey residential buildings (Ghisi and Ferreira, 2007;Zhang et al, 2009). A number of other studies have also highlighted rainwater tank related issues including energy efficiency (Talebpour et al, 2014;Tjandraatmadja et al, 2011;Umapathi et al, 2013), economics assessment (Domènech and Saurí, 2011;Hall, 2013), tank optimisation (Imteaz et al, 2011(Imteaz et al, , 2012 and water quality (Ahmed et al, 2014).…”

Assessing Decentralised Water Solutions: Towards a Framework for Adaptive Learning

“…Benefits of decentralised systems include: "reduced costs and resource use; improved service security and reduced risk of failure; strengthening of local economies and community wellbeing; regenerating and protecting the natural environment" (Biggs et al 2009). In Australia, there is evidence that decentralised systems, such as greywater reuse, can help cities to reduce reliance on traditional water sources, which are under stress (Zhang et al 2009). Decentralised systems are also responding to community expectations to consider social and environmental impacts in the choice of water servicing options ).…”

An Overview of Hybrid Water Supply Systems in the Context of Urban Water Management: Challenges and Opportunities

“…Untreated greywater can be used for subsurface irrigation [56]. Grey water reuse can help to reduce reliance on traditional water sources that are under stress and it can also significantly reduce wastewater discharge [57,58]. Because the amount of greywater produced in a household and the amount of water used for toilet flushing in a household are nearly the same, grey water systems have the potential of more or less replacing the household water demand for toilet flushing thus potentially reducing potable water usage by up to 30% [59][60][61].…”