Abstract
A rainwater harvesting system (RWHS) is an alternative water resource that collects and stores rainwater from rooftops. It helps smooth out variations in water supply and sustainable water resources management. In this study, we investigated the potential benefits from sharing RWHS with nearby neighbors in a community. We introduced different mean, variance, and correlation in water demand for each water user. A simple case of a community composed of four prospective users is introduced to investigate the benefit from sharing RWHSs. Using the historical rainfall records from four catchments in South Korea, a storage-reliability-yield analysis is applied to obtain the required storage and corresponding reliability for a given yield ratio. The results indicate that the required total storage is reduced when RWHSs are shared among users and the rate of reduction is proportional to the degree of sharing. The required total storage was reduced down to 61% compared to the original storage when RWHSs are shared for a target reliability of 80%. The benefit from sharing also depends on the demands, which are different among users. Test cases with different means and variances as well as correlation disclose the conditions when the benefit from sharing RWHSs is maximized. The result showed that difference in mean and variance additionally reduces the required storage up to 3% and correlation in demand also as much affects the required storage.
Highlights
Rainwater harvesting is defined as gathering and storage of water running off surfaces on which rain has directly fallen [1]
The result shows that the storage reduction becomes larger as the number of connection (Nc) increases, which is consistent for all test catchments considered in this study
This study investigated the benefit from a network of sharing rainwater harvesting system (RWHS) introducing different characteristics in water demand
Summary
Rainwater harvesting is defined as gathering and storage of water running off surfaces on which rain has directly fallen [1]. The benefit of rainwater harvesting can be summarized as follows [2]: First, rainwater harvesting covers peaks in demand that is greater than the flow of the water source. It helps smooth out variations in water supply and sustainable water resources management. Rainwater harvesting provides water security in case of supply interruptions or disaster It has numerous additional benefits in terms of providing grey water for household water use, a source of chemically untreated water, reducing peak flows in urban catchments, thermal storage, freeze protection and so forth. It has been widely used as a practical approach for sustainable water resources management in urban areas [12]
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