Smart Rainwater Harvesting Service Design

Abstract

Megacities expansion around the globe have significantly increased the demand for resources to the point of depleting available reservoirs and requiring importing resources from nearby locations sometimes implementing major infrastructure projects for guaranteeing access to resources. This is particularly true for one of the largest Megalopolis in the world, Mexico City, that imports 40% of its water supply from neighboring states. Despite of being a city holding important hydric resources, the lack of strategies, technological innovation, user-centered service design, consistent data acquiring, and optimization tools have led to a poor water management that maintains the metropolis with a constant scarcity of the resource. Therefore, the aim of the current paper is to present a conceptual service design for smart rainwater harvesting in urban settlements that provides an alternative source for citizens to reduce the local hydric stress, diminish aquifer overexploitation and increase water well recovery contributing to more sustainable cities.