Impact of Installing Rainwater Harvesting System on Urban Water Management

Sara Lopes Souto (), Ricardo Prado Abreu Reis () and Marcus André Siqueira Campos ()
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Sara Lopes Souto: Federal University of Goiás
Ricardo Prado Abreu Reis: Federal University of Goiás
Marcus André Siqueira Campos: Federal University of Goiás

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2023, vol. 37, issue 2, No 1, 583-600

Abstract: Abstract The urban-scale impacts of the use of Rainwater Harvesting Systems (RWHS) are little explored within the Brazilian urban and climatic reality. Thus, the objective of this work is to verify the impacts of these systems in reducing runoff and the demand for drinking water, through a case study carried out in a neighborhood in the city of Goiânia-GO. In order to carry out the study, the land use characteristics of the studied region were studied from satellite images, with three batch patterns being defined as study scenarios. The daily residential demand for non-drinking uses of water was calculated from the standard lots and the annual rainfall pattern in the city of Goiânia, which was also characterized by taking a 30-year historical series of daily rainfall data. With these data in hand, daily water balances were calculated using Excel, for commercial reservoirs of 1, 5 and 10 m3, in addition to reservoirs with ideal volumes obtained from the NETUNO software. Two balance models were tested and compared and, from them, analyzes were made of the potential for reducing the annual consumption of drinking water in the neighborhood and hydrological simulations were run to verify the flow damping, with the support of the SWMM program. In general, the RWHS use has positive aspects: it reduces the drinking water demand in the neighborhood (up to 37%). However, when analyzing the reduction of peak flows in the drainage system, it is only significant in scenarios with larger reservoirs, confirming its marginal role in stormwater management.

Keywords: Rainwater harvesting systems; Water conservation; Low impact development; Alternative water supply (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s11269-022-03374-z

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