Rainwater Harvesting for Urban Landscape Irrigation Using a Soil Water Depletion Algorithm Conditional on Daily Precipitation

Abstract

The supply of various non-potable water usages based on the harvesting and management of rainwater in urban areas allows to save high-quality water resources for strictly potable use and to limit the squandering of precious freshwater resources. A rainwater harvesting system included in a reconversion project of a former military area located in the town of Genova (Italy) is examined. Rainwater is collected and used for the landscape irrigation of public areas. Three rainwater collection scenarios are considered while varying the size of the storage tank, using daily rainfall data from a local long-term record as the reference rainfall climatology. A behavioural model is adopted to simulate the operation of the rainwater harvesting system and improved with a dedicated algorithm to account for the actual soil water availability for the vegetation and its temporal decay, based on the specific soil type and vegetation. For each scenario/tank size combination, reliability indices are calculated and compared, while the detention time and the annual usage volume per unit tank capacity are used as indicators of water quality deterioration in the tank and the economic benefit associated with the exploitation of the resource. The best solution in terms of rainwater collection scenario and tank size is identified.