Plastic Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting Technology in Arid Greenhouse Vegetable Cropping System in Anding, Gansu, China

Abstract

Several greenhouse vegetable cropping models have been established to deal with the natural, arid, water deficit weather condition in Anding District. Irrigation requirement is computed based on various irrigation schemes. Rainwater harvesting technology is utilized to estimate the water collection amount with the greenhouse plastic rooftop using the water-balance rationale. Different water demand and runoff collection surface needs are determined based on the supplemental irrigation requirements of the various vegetable cropping models using regulatory benefit principle. The required capacity of rainwater storage is then evaluated for each cropping model. These results provide valuable references for rainwater harvesting technology using greenhouse plastic rooftop for agricultural production.