Rainwater Harvesting for Remote Rural Areas: Remote Sensing Data Based Approach Blue Nile Area, Sudan

Abstract

Water harvesting methods are critical for collecting the volume of water required for long-term water supply. The majority of physical water scarcity distant rural locations around the world get a good quantity of rainfall. There are no adequate Surface Rainwater Harvesting Systems (SRHS) in these places to gather the required water volume. A Surface Rainwater Harvesting Approach (SRHA) based on remote sensing data was presented to overcome this challenge. Within the study area, the proposed method was tested on existing surface rainwater harvesting systems (SRHS) in residential and agricultural areas. The main objective of the investigation is to highlight the role of the remote sensing data in mitigating physical water scarcity in remote rural areas.  The study area is bounded by latitudes 11°-12° N and longitudes 33°-34° E, with an approximate area of 11,000 km2. The hydrological modules of the QGIS application program were used to process the research area's SRTM90 DEM data. The area's hydrological model was developed, catchment areas were determined, and drainage capacity for individual test sites were computed. The findings demonstrated that in the residential and agricultural sectors, the remote sensing data-based technique is capable of detecting sites with drainage capabilities 82 and 8 times that of traditional systems, respectively. These findings showed that the proposed method can make it easier to find the best surface rainwater collection sites in remote rural areas, resulting in a more reliable water supply and a reduction in physical water scarcity.