Abstract
In a scenario of climate changes and increasing stress upon available fresh water resources like rivers, lakes and aquifers, collecting fog water is a promising yet relatively unexplored potentiality. Providing sufficient water and reducing water extraction’s environmental impact at the same time can be a challenge with conventional ways, but fog harvesting technology presents itself as a powerful and efficient alternative. Water availability profoundly determined regional economic benefit, social relations and it also influenced environmental security and ecosystem services. Underdeveloped countries have been dealing with water scarcity issue for decades, but also wealthy countries will have to face the water crisis soon, due to unsustainable development processes. A review of the state of the art highlights the most relevant parameters to deal with when discussing about fog water harvesting. In regions with frequent fog events, this technology already proved to be a sustainable drinking water resource for rural communities and their low per capita water usage was provided by basic devices utilization. Nevertheless, in this paper, different fog water harvesting applications are investigated, besides the already existing fresh-water collection, reforestation and agricultural use. Further options, such as building components, outdoor activities and domestic devices are considered, according to different parameters, such as economic benefits, possibility of standardized production, life cycle and market attractiveness. A desirable novel concept would become relevant in specific contexts, thanks to multiple functions, offering locals designed and customized solutions. Also noteworthy are the landscape impact of such devices and the effects of the project in terms of places regeneration, raising awareness and “green” conscience creation. The study of local climatic data and improvement in fog collector applications, integration with architectural and landscape design, will expand the regions where fog harvesting can be applied and its sustainable improvements.
Highlights
Among the many factors—for instance food and energy security policies, macro-economic processes such as trade globalization, changing diets and increasing consumption—that largely influence water demand, the greater applied stress to water resources is related to population growth and urbanization
Underdeveloped countries have been dealing with water scarcity issue for decades, and wealthy countries will have to face the water crisis soon, due to unsustainable development processes
In order to preserve global water supplies and relieve the stress on conventional, over-exploited fresh water sources, fog water harvesting stands as a promising solution
Summary
Among the many factors—for instance food and energy security policies, macro-economic processes such as trade globalization, changing diets and increasing consumption—that largely influence water demand, the greater applied stress to water resources is related to population growth and urbanization. In order to preserve global water supplies and relieve the stress on conventional, over-exploited fresh water sources, fog water harvesting stands as a promising solution. The objectives of this paper are to provide an overview of regional water stress levels and of fog formation processes and suitable climatic regions; to review current models and designs for fog water harvesting, with reference to some study cases. The result would include some suggestions regarding new scenarios for fog harvesting application, e.g. urban integration, identifying chances of improvement and possibility of generating a positive impact on urban water resource management
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