Yes / Building roofs represents a critical pathway for sediment mixing with rainwater. This study aims to explore the correlation between roof-top deposited sediment matter in the different areas of the Ikorodu Local Government Area in Lagos, Nigeria. The deposition rate on the roof was studied for 34 weeks in total (i.e., 17 weekly analyses in the rainy season and 17 weekly analyses in the dry season). The total deposition was collected by a 10 inch funnel and directed into a 5 L container, which was partially filled with sterilised water. The roof-top deposition in four different areas was inspected and analysed. The four areas were selected based on the levels of sanitation and vege-tation. The experimental results showed that the enumerated total depositions in different areas were higher in the dry season than the rainy season, with the highest deposition occurring in the Harmattan period. The data obtained from this study have evidenced that the contamination from roof-harvested rainwater can mainly be attributed to atmospheric deposition. Another key factor was the hygiene and sanitation of the harvesting areas, including the gutter, pipes and proximity to animal faeces.

Globally, two-thirds of the population face significant water shortages and eighty percent of the U.S. states' water managers predict water shortages in the near future. Additionally, the current centralized system in the United States is facing significant problems of scarcity, groundwater depletion, high energy consumption and needs a trillion dollars investment in repairs, replacement, and expansion. Furthermore, due to increased urban/suburban development, runoff (stormwater) pollutes our waterways and is causing increased flooding. The status quo is unsustainable in its present form and the water security of the nation is at risk. Fortunately, in recent decades there has been a resurgence in the use of a millenniums old approach, rainwater harvesting (RWH), that if deployed broadly, will mitigate those issues created by the current centralized municipal water system and the expanding development of our cities, suburbs, and towns reducing permeable surface area and lower water security vulnerabilities. This study enlists Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) to examine the transitioning that is occurring from the current centralized municipal water system to one in which it is significantly complemented by an alternative water source, RWH. MLP posits that pressures originating in the broader landscape exerts pressures on the existing regime, as well as the community as a whole, creating an opportunity for the niche to emerge and either replace or change the regime. In the case of RWH, the myriad of pressures are only partially placed on the current centralized water supply regime providing them less pressure to change. Alongside water shortages another significant pressure being placed on the public and governing authorities is increased flooding and pollution resulting in the RWH niche emerging in the construction industry. In response to these pressures a RWH niche formed, largely outside of the existing water supply regime, and grew until it was joined by actors within the regime (e.g., plumbers, plumbing engineers, standards development organizations). This research is framed using MLP's three phases Start-up (niche), Acceleration, and Stabilization. This dissertation does three things. First it shows the internal processes occurring between the MLP levels (landscape, sociotechnical regime, and niche) and mechanisms created that foster the broader adoption of RWH. Secondly, it reveals that while the incumbent regime is not being significantly influenced by the RWH niche, the construction industry is embracing RWH (especially the commercial sector) and following the MLP pathway of Reconfiguration. Third, it looks at RWH in a phase of stabilization. / Doctor of Philosophy / Today the world, as well as the United States, faces significant water problems. These problems include scarcity, groundwater depletion, high energy consumption, and is in need of a trillion dollars to repair or replace US water infrastructure. Additionally, due to urban sprawl and diminishment of permeable surfaces, runoff is a problem causing flooding and pollution. One mitigation is the use of a millennium old technology, rainwater harvesting (RWH). This research uses Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) framework to examine the transition occurring today in the construction industry to build sustainable RWH into new construction, especially commercial buildings. This research examines the dynamic processes and the mechanisms used to grow the RWH niche and then accelerate its adoption. Those mechanisms include building demonstration projects, manuals, standards, and incentive programs. This research also looks at RWH in the U.S. Virgin Islands where RWH has been mandated since 1964. The practical value of this research is to provide policy makers insight into the useful mechanisms aiding a transition to sustainable infrastructure. The theoretical value is that it reveals a transition occurring outside of the dominate regime, the centralized water suppliers, in the construction industry. Additionally, it shows that the creation of RWH standards and the administration of building code has created a new form of water governance.

Although most of the earth is covered in water, a very limited amount of that water is fresh water, which is essential to our survival. Therefore, it is imperative that we do all that is possible to conserve and protect our extremely limited water resources, especially in arid regions such as the American West. While there are many ways and means to protecting and preserving our water resources, this thesis focuses on the strategy of rainwater harvesting (RWH) as it is done throughout the state of Utah. RWH is defined as taking the precipitation that falls on our built structures and putting it to good use when it would often otherwise end up in gutters, pipes, and storm drains to be processed and/or disposed of at a distant location. RWH systems consist of several different components including a catchment area (usually, but not always, a rooftop), gutters, a place for storage, and some way of future dispersal and use of the collected water. There are numerous documented benefits to RWH. Historically, RWH has not been allowed in states—such as Utah—that follow the doctrine of prior appropriation, which strongly defends the case for water rights and affirms that senior water rights should not be infringed upon. According to the law, when someone practiced RWH they were infringing on the water rights of others. However, in 2010, the Utah State Legislature modified these long-standing laws to allow residents of Utah to legally harvest up to 2,500 gallons at a time without fear of infringement on others’ water rights. Since then, many Utahans have adopted RWH. However, the number of Utah residents who are practicing RWH is still a tiny percentage of the entire Utah population. This research included surveying self-identified rainwater harvesters throughout Utah and sought to discover and understand their motivations for adopting the practice. This information has the potential to assist planners, water districts, water managers, cities, state agencies, and legislators in persuading others throughout the state to also adopt the practice. It was found that an emergency supply of water and concern for the environment are the most important motivators for Utah rainwater harvesters. Unsurprisingly, financial savings also had a significant influence on harvesters and their decision to practice RWH, although they spent considerably less on their RWH systems than is typically spent in other states and countries. A secondary aspect of the research was to examine Utah State Senate Bill 32, the current law in Utah concerning RWH. It was found that the current laws are written in a restrictive manner and should be changed and adjusted in order for a greater percentage of the Utah population to be motivated to adopt RWH.

As water infrastructure in urban Ontario strains to meet the demands of a growing population, alternatives to the conventional water supply approach that complement demand management strategies are important to enable more sustainable water use at the household level. The adoption of rainwater harvesting (RWH), for indoor and outdoor uses by single-family households can reduce a households withdrawals on municipal water by 30% if rainwater is used for toilet flushing, laundry and outdoor uses (Despins 2009). The amount of potable water savings because of RWH is influenced by the rate of adoption and the allowed uses of rainwater at the individual household scale. The adoption of RWH systems would lead to reductions in potable water demand, which, in turn would lead to reduced demands on municipal water sources (e.g., groundwater or surface water), and storm water infrastructure resulting in overall reduced ecosystem stress and increased resiliency for climate change adaptation. Greater onsite storm water retention would mimic natural processes and would help reduce excess overland runoff that can result in water contamination. Presently, RWH systems tend to be more accepted and utilized in rural areas. However, there is a history of cistern use in rural and non-rural Waterloo. This history and capacity seems to be largely forgotten or unknown by urban citizens and local government officials. Century houses’ cisterns are often removed or filled in due to: a perceived lack of need, safety concerns and disrepair because of disuse. The increasing popularity of “green” building features and certifications have added some RWH systems for indoor and outdoor use to the urban environment, however, these remain limited instances. Moving RWH forward requires commitment from the Provincial and municipal government. Municipalities’ actions must support the sustainability objectives often referenced in their legislation and policy. This study establishes the drivers of RWH and examines the barriers to practice in the urban environment by examining existing examples and academic literature RWH systems within Canada and internationally. Results from a survey conducted in the City of Waterloo are used to reflect the systems user’s perspective. Interviews with municipal officials and RWH experts further highlight the drivers and barriers to RWH in urban Ontario. Based on the surveys, participants were generally willing to consider adopting RWH systems and a greater use of rainwater in the house, although a lack of information acts as significant barrier. However, Waterloo municipal officials who participated in the interviews described a much less enthusiastic attitude towards RWH. Although barriers identified in this research, including: legislative barriers, risk tolerance, perceptions of water abundance and economic realities shape the willingness to adopt RWH, this study indicates the barriers are surmountable through education and economic signaling.

As water infrastructure in urban Ontario strains to meet the demands of a growing population, alternatives to the conventional water supply approach that complement demand management strategies are important to enable more sustainable water use at the household level. The adoption of rainwater harvesting (RWH), for indoor and outdoor uses by single-family households can reduce a households withdrawals on municipal water by 30% if rainwater is used for toilet flushing, laundry and outdoor uses (Despins 2009). The amount of potable water savings because of RWH is influenced by the rate of adoption and the allowed uses of rainwater at the individual household scale. The adoption of RWH systems would lead to reductions in potable water demand, which, in turn would lead to reduced demands on municipal water sources (e.g., groundwater or surface water), and storm water infrastructure resulting in overall reduced ecosystem stress and increased resiliency for climate change adaptation. Greater onsite storm water retention would mimic natural processes and would help reduce excess overland runoff that can result in water contamination. Presently, RWH systems tend to be more accepted and utilized in rural areas. However, there is a history of cistern use in rural and non-rural Waterloo. This history and capacity seems to be largely forgotten or unknown by urban citizens and local government officials. Century houses’ cisterns are often removed or filled in due to: a perceived lack of need, safety concerns and disrepair because of disuse. The increasing popularity of “green” building features and certifications have added some RWH systems for indoor and outdoor use to the urban environment, however, these remain limited instances. Moving RWH forward requires commitment from the Provincial and municipal government. Municipalities’ actions must support the sustainability objectives often referenced in their legislation and policy. This study establishes the drivers of RWH and examines the barriers to practice in the urban environment by examining existing examples and academic literature RWH systems within Canada and internationally. Results from a survey conducted in the City of Waterloo are used to reflect the systems user’s perspective. Interviews with municipal officials and RWH experts further highlight the drivers and barriers to RWH in urban Ontario. Based on the surveys, participants were generally willing to consider adopting RWH systems and a greater use of rainwater in the house, although a lack of information acts as significant barrier. However, Waterloo municipal officials who participated in the interviews described a much less enthusiastic attitude towards RWH. Although barriers identified in this research, including: legislative barriers, risk tolerance, perceptions of water abundance and economic realities shape the willingness to adopt RWH, this study indicates the barriers are surmountable through education and economic signaling.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:09:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 2017808 bytes, checksum: 0161ab3eebb6d1e4c9df67e2aa888379 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-06-18 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The ever so accelerated population growth in several countries coupled to water resources scarcity have become a crucial problem worldwide. According to the UN, the demand for water is twice as much as that of population growth; so many countries will suffer serious problems of water availability, which will certainly be a challenge for most governments to ensure sufficient supply of drinking water for the population. Among the alternative sources of water supply, one of the most promising is that derived from rainwater collecting; where drinking water is replaced by water which is both less expensive and far more accessible, preserving, therefore, its use where drinkability would not be needed. The purpose of the present research is to analyze the quality of rainwater in the city of João Pessoa and to compare it with several quality standards according to its usages in a residence. Samples were collected at 5 points of the system, namely: direct collection from the atmosphere following water precipitation over roofs; from the first millimeters of precipitation collected from water discarded devices; and from two storage reservoirs. Results revealed that rainwater quality both in its raw state and before its contact with the capturing surface is good; therefore, compatible with the standards established by the NBR's No.15.527/07 and No.13.969/97 (classes 1, 2 and 3), by ANA/05 (class1), and by CONAMA Resolution No.357/05 (class1 of freshwater). Upon flowing over the roof, water quality is deteriorated due to the accumulation of impurities, especially after a dry season. However, it was found that by giving rainwater a simplified treatment, such as simple filtration, or by discarding water from first rains, its quality may be restored up to a satisfactory level, making it compatible to non-potable use, such as in toilet discharge, general cleaning and garden watering. By examining the Ministry of Health Decree No. 2.914/2011, one could verify that the non-conformity alone with the established standards for total and fecal coliforms may render water useless for potable purposes. / O acelerado crescimento populacional em diversos países e a escassez dos recursos hídricos têm se tornado uma preocupação crescente em todo o mundo. De acordo com a ONU, a demanda de água cresce com velocidade duas vezes maior que o crescimento da população, desta forma haverá sérios problemas de disponibilidade hídrica em muitos países e que será um desafio para os governos assegurar um adequado abastecimento de água potável a toda população. Dentre as fontes alternativas para o abastecimento de água uma das mais promissoras é a captação de águas pluviais para aproveitamento, onde a água potável é substituída por uma água menos cara e mais acessível, preservando assim o seu uso onde não seria necessária a potabilidade. Assim, o objetivo desta pesquisa é de analisar a qualidade da água de chuva na cidade de João Pessoa, para fins de comparação com diversos padrões de qualidade conforme os usos da água em residências. No sistema de captação montado para o estudo foram coletadas amostras em 5 pontos do sistema, quais sejam: coleta direta da atmosfera, após escoamento sobre o telhado, nos dispositivos de descarte dos primeiros milímetros de precipitação, e em 2 reservatórios de acumulação. Os resultados mostraram que a qualidade da água pluvial em seu estado bruto e antes de entrar em contato com a superfície de captação é boa, compatível com os padrões estabelecidos pelas NBR s Nº 15.527/07 e Nº 13.969/97 (classes 1, 2 e 3), pela ANA/05 (classe 1) e pela Resolução CONAMA Nº 357/05 (classe 1 de água doce). Ao escoar pelo telhado a qualidade da água se deteriora devido ao acúmulo de impurezas, principalmente após um período de estiagem. Entretanto, verificou-se que promovendo tratamento simplificado à água de chuva, como a filtração simples ou o descarte das primeiras chuvas, a qualidade dela volta a ser satisfatória, podendo ser aproveitada para fins não potáveis, tais como descarga de vasos sanitários, lavagem de pisos e veículos, irrigação de jardins. Em relação à Portaria do Ministério da Saúde Nº 2.914/11, verificou-se o não atendimento apenas aos padrões de potabilidade estabelecidos para os coliformes totais e fecais, não devendo, portanto, a água ser utilizada com finalidades potáveis.

In drought-prone arid and semi-arid areas, limited plant available water exerts a tremendous negative effect on crop production, leading to undesirable low crop productivity, untold food insecurity, and never-ending poverty. In-field rainwater harvesting (IRWH or In-field RWH) is specifically designed to trap rainfall within the field and optimise its use to benefit crop yield and quality, and improve water use efficiency (WUE) in these regions. Two RWH-crop field experiments were established in the semi-arid area of the Hatfield Experimental Farm, University of Pretoria, South Africa. The first RWH-potato experiment was conducted during the 2009/2010 growing season while the second RWH-Swiss chard experiment was carried out during the 2010/2011 growing season. Three cropping systems were involved: (1) conventional tillage (CT), (2) tied-ridges (TR), and (3) IRWH with three different design ratios of runoff area to cropping area (1:1, 2:1 & 3:1). The runoff area of each design ratio was either bare (B) or plastic-covered (P) and this resulted in six IRWH treatments. Therefore, there were a total of eight treatments: CT, TR, 1:1B, 1:1P, 2:1B, 2:1P, 3:1B and 3:1P. For both growing seasons, the total plot area yields and WUEs of TR and CT were in general higher than those of the IRWH treatments. This is because TR and CT had more plants per plot than the IRWH treatments and the rainfall recorded for the specific seasons were sufficient, so there was little advantage in collecting/harvesting additional water. In terms of yields and WUEs expressed on the net cropped area, the IRWH treatments had higher yields and WUE than CT and TR because they captured more runoff than the latter treatments. Field trials are expensive, laborious and time consuming, therefore models were developed to predict potential runoff and crop growth and yield of different RWH techniques or design ratios. During the current investigation, runoff models such as the linear regression, curve number (CN) and Morin and Cluff (1980) models were used to describe and simulate runoff generation from this ecotope. The empirical rainfall-runoff linear regression model indicated that runoff efficiency declined as runoff length increased. The statistics revealed that the CN and Morin and Cluff (1980) models simulated runoff very well. Moreover, the use of a generic crop growth Soil Water Balance model (SWB) showed potential to simulate crop growth and yield for different RWH techniques and design ratios. During the present study, the SWB model was modified by incorporating linear runoff simulation models in order to predict the soil water balance and crop yield under different RWH design scenarios. Field data collected on the study ecotope contributed to the parameterization and calibration of the SWB model for the crops involved. The SWB model was in general, successfully calibrated for the potato crop, while the calibration for the Swiss chard crop was generally not as successful, most probably because of the continuous growing and harvesting system followed (approach for pastures). The scenario simulation results for potato suggested that for the study ecotope, if land is limiting, CT, TR and smaller design ratios (1:1) are the best options in terms of yield per total plot area. However, if land is not limiting, larger design ratios (2:1 and 3:1) are better options, according to the yields per net cropped area outcomes. The SWB model shows promise as a useful tool to assist in the selection of the best RWH strategy and the ideal planting date under specific conditions with minimal input requirements. However, there is a need to upgrade it to a 2D SWB model for better accuracy under a range of conditions. / Dissertation (MScAgric)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lk2014 / Plant Production and Soil Science / MScAgric / Unrestricted

This work talks about decentralized rainwater management. It describes the ways of decentralized management and looks into the issue from the legislation point of view. In the practical part, a computational tool was created to make it easier to decide how much tank to choose depending on the size of the collecting area and the irrigated area.

The aim of this work is to design an irrigation system of park areas in a multifunctional object using rainwater. The knowledge obtained during the study was used to solve the problem. The solution is an irrigation system consisting of drip irrigation supplemented with a sprinkler irrigation system that uses rainwater for its operation. In the event of excess of rainwater, the water is disposed of by means of infiltration blocks located on the land. The benefit of this work is to show that the return on investment is acceptable in similar cases and, above all, that this investment contributes to responsibility for natural resources.

The diploma thesis is focused on the topic of pre-treatment of rainwater before entering the infiltration tank. The theoretical part deals with the issue of rainwater, their division and pollution, as well as technical solutions for rainwater management. In the practical part, testing of selected street drains of various construction systems in the laboratory of VHO (municipal water management) was performed and subsequently these drains were evaluated according to various criteria - the amount of captured material, drain cleaning system and filter construction.