Designing domestic rainwater harvesting systems under different climatic regimes in Italy

• Published in: Water science and technology Vol. 67; no. 11; pp. 2511 - 2518
• Main Authors: CAMPISANO, A, GNECCO, I, MODICA, C, PALLA, A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London International Water Association 01.01.2013; IWA Publishing
• Subjects: Annual rainfall; Annual variations; Applied sciences; Climate; Computer simulation; Conservation of Natural Resources - methods; Drainage systems; Drinking water; Equipment Design; Evaluation; Exact sciences and technology; Geiger counters; Global environmental pollution; Harvesting; Inflow; Italy; Outflow; Parameter modification; Pollution; Precipitation; Rain; Rain water; Rainwater recovery systems; Runoff; Storms; Stormwater; Stormwater management; Sustainability; System effectiveness; Urban environments; Water harvesting; Water Supply; Water treatment and pollution; Italy; Europe; Climate; rainwater harvesting; Water harvesting; water-saving efficiency; behavioural model; Water resource management; Water balance; tank sizing; Sustainable development; Climatic condition; Rain water; Models; Behavior; Environmental protection
• ISSN: 0273-1223; 1996-9732
• DOI: 10.2166/wst.2013.143

Nowadays domestic rainwater harvesting practices are recognized as effective tools to improve the sustainability of drainage systems within the urban environment, by contributing to limiting the demand for potable water and, at the same time, by mitigating the generation of storm water runoff at the source. The final objective of this paper is to define regression curves to size domestic rainwater harvesting (DRWH) systems in the main Italian climatic regions. For this purpose, the Köppen-Geiger climatic classification is used and, furthermore, suitable precipitation sites are selected for each climatic region. A behavioural model is implemented to assess inflow, outflow and change in storage volume of a rainwater harvesting system according to daily mass balance simulations based on historical rainfall observations. The performance of the DRWH system under various climate and operational conditions is examined as a function of two non-dimensional parameters, namely the demand fraction (d) and the modified storage fraction (sm). This last parameter allowed the evaluation of the effects of the rainfall intra-annual variability on the system performance.