The moisture from the air as water resource in arid region: hopes, doubts and facts

Abstract

The recovery of clean water from dew has remained a fascinating problem in the arid regions of the globe. The stone heaps near the city of Feodosia in the Crimean peninsula were considered for many years to be artificial dew-catching constructions for obtaining drinking water. Several attempts to reconstruct these systems have been made but they have been considered unsuccessful because of low yield. This has caused some doubts and negative estimations regarding the role of the Crimean stone heaps as water collectors. The opinion that there were no dew-catching constructions in Crimea still dominates today. In this discussion we shall consider the role of the Crimean stone heaps as water con-densers and a model of Nikolayev et al. (1996) of this process. Some conclusions will be put forward showing why this model does not correspond with the system under consideration, hence concluding that the above-mentioned negative opinion, which is based on the model, is a rather hasty conclusion. The traditional model of the Crimean water collector will be modified by the consideration of the role of the draught in the process of condensation. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the process and of draught outbreak will be proposed. The efficiency of the collector will be estimated.