Evaluation of climate change impacts on rainwater harvesting

Abstract

Water management is an important issue in urban design due to the growing concern of water scarcity. As a result, rainwater harvesting system has received notable attention as an alternative water source. Rainwater is one of purest form of waters and can easily be accessed via a rainwater harvesting system. In general, performance of a rainwater harvesting system is estimated based on historical rainfall data without the possible impacts of climate change on rainfall. However, rainfall pattern is likely to change in the future as a consequence of climate change that may affect the performance of a rainwater harvesting system. But research on climate change impacts on rainwater harvesting is limited. The objective of this study is to understand the plausible impacts of climate change on the performances (i.e. water savings, reliability and water security) of a residential rainwater harvesting system, based on the projected future rainfall conditions. A continuous daily simulation water balance model is developed based on behavioural analysis and yield-after-spillage criteria to simulate the performances of a rainwater harvesting system. The analysis is conducted at five locations in the Greater Sydney region, Australia.The results indicate that performances of a rainwater harvesting system will be impacted negatively due to climate change conditions in the future. It is found that a given tank size at the selected locations would not be able to supply expected volume of water under changing climate conditions in future. Water savings is going to be reduced from a rainwater harvesting system in future (e.g. 2%–14% reduction for 3 kL tank for indoor water demand). Moreover, number of days in a year to meet the water demand by a rainwater harvesting system (i.e. reliability) is likely to be reduced (e.g. 3%–16% reduction for 3 kL tank for indoor water demand). Also, the percentage of days a rainwater tank would remain completely empty is likely to increase in future (e.g. 12% in future climate conditions in comparison to 8% in historical conditions for indoor water demand). Furthermore, it is found that the performance of a rainwater harvesting system will be more affected in dry season than the wet season. The findings of the study will help water authorities and policy makers, as well the home owners to improve their understanding of climate change impact on residential rainwater harvesting system, and will assist them in selecting appropriate rainwater tank size in the context of climate change.