Hydrological Modeling and Evaluation of Rainwater Harvesting Facilities: Case Study on Several Rainwater Harvesting Facilities in Korea
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 14, Issue 6
Abstract
In this study, a hydrological analysis of rainwater harvesting facilities was conducted using a model based on the IHACRES model. Using this model, the rainfall, rainfall loss, inflow to the storage tank, tank storage volume, overflow from the tank, and rainwater consumption data were simulated to evaluate the hydrological characteristics of the rainwater harvesting facilities. This study evaluated three rainwater harvesting facilities in Korea. The results of the study are summarized as follows. (1) The proposed model was found to well simulate the rainfall-runoff processes of rainwater harvesting facilities. (2) As the target amount of rainwater consumption increases, the amount of rainwater consumption also increases, but the number of days with available rainwater decreases. Especially in Korea, the difference in rainwater use when applying different target amounts of rainwater consumption is larger during the rainy compared to the dry season. (3) The effect of increasing the tank capacity was found to be limited to the months of October and November, just after the end of the rainy season. This result is also closely related with the climatic characteristics of Korea. (4) The flood reduction effect was estimated to be approximately 1% when using 10% of the entire city area as the rainwater collecting surface. This result is simply due to that the storage tank capacity is limited to a certain level. (5) The estimated benefit-to-cost ratio was less than 20% when a discount rate of 5.75% was applied, which was basically because the water supply is very inexpensive in Korea.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This research was partially supported by grants from the Ministry of Environment (MOE) and from the Natural Hazard Mitigation Research Group, National Emergency Management Agency, Korea. All contributions are gratefully acknowledged.
References
Al-Jayyousi, O. R. (2003). “Greywater reuse: Towards sustainable water management.” Desalination, 164(3), 241–247.
Appan, A. (1999). “A dual-mode system for harnessing roofwater for non-potable uses.” Urban Water, 1, 317–321.
Arnold, J. G., Srinivasan, R., Muttiah, R. S., and Williams, J. R. (1998). “Large area hydrologic modeling and assessment. Part 1. Model development.” J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc., 34, 73–89.
Chilton, J. C., Maidment., G. G., Marriott, D., Francis, A., and Tobias, G. (1999). “Case study of a rainwater recovery system in a commercial building with a large roof.” Urban Water, 1, 345–354.
Christova-Boal, D., Eden, R. E., and McFarlane, S. (1996). “An investigation into greywater reuse for urban residential properties.” Desalination, 106, 391–397.
Coombes, P., Kuczera, G., Kalma, J. D., and Argue, J. R. (2002). “An evaluation of the benefits of source control measures at the regional scale.” Urban Water, 4, 307–320.
Croke, B. F. W., Merritt, W. S., and Jakeman, A. J. (2004). “A dynamic model for predicting hydrologic response to land cover changes in gauged and ungauged catchments.” J. Hydrol., 291, 115–131.
Fewkes, A. (1999a). “Modeling the performance of rainwater collection systems: Towards a generalized approach.” Urban Water, 1, 323–333.
Fewkes, A. (1999b). “The use of rainwater for WC flushing: The field testing of a collection system.” Build. Environ., 34, 765–772.
Fewkes, A., and Ferris, S. A. (1982). “Rain and waste reuse for toilet flushing: A simulation model.” Proc., Int. Conf. on RWCS, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Ghisi, E. (2006). “Potential for potable water saving by using rainwater in the residential sector of Brazil.” Build. Environ., 41, 1544–1550.
Ghisi, E., Bressan, D. L., and Martini, M. (2007). “Rainwater tank capacity and potential for potable water saving by using rainwater in the residential sector of southeastern Brazil.” Build. Environ., 42, 1654–1666.
Ghisi, E., and de Olivia, S. M. (2007). “Potential for potable water saving by combining the use of rainwater and greywater in houses in southern Brazil.” Build. Environ., 42, 1731–1742.
Ghisi, E., Montibeller, A., and Schmidt, R. W. (2006). “Potential for potable water saving by using rainwater: An analysis over 62 cities in southern Brazil.” Build. Environ., 41, 204–210.
Han, M. Y., and Kim, Y. W. (2004). “Outline and economical valuation of rainwater utilization facility in SNU Dormitory.” J. Korean Society of Wastewater, 18(5), 547–557.
Handia, L., Tembo, J. M., and Mwiindwa, C. (2003). “Potential of rainwater harvesting in urban Zambia.” Phys. Chem. Earth, 28, 893–896.
Hansen, D. P., Ye, W., Jakeman, A. J., Cooke, R., and Sharma, P. (1996). “Analysis of the effect of rainfall and streamflow data quality and catchment dynamics on stream-flow prediction using the rainfall-runoff model IHACRES.” Environmental Software, 11, 193–202.
Herrmann, T., and Schmida, W. (1999). “Rainwater utilization in German: Efficiency, dimensioning, hydraulic and environmental aspects.” Urban Water, 1, 307–316.
Homepage of the Daejeon Metropolitan Waterworks. (2005). “Billing information.” ⟨http://www.waterworks.daejeon.kr⟩ (March 2005).
Homepage of the Office Waterworks Seoul Metropolitan Government. (2005). “Billing information.” ⟨http://water.seoul.go.kr⟩ (March 2005).
Jakeman, A. J., and Hornberger, G. M. (1993). “How much complexity is warranted in a rainfall-runoff model?” Water Resour. Res., 29(8), 2637–2649.
Jakeman, A. J., Littlewood, I. G., and Whitehead, P. G. (1990). “Computation of the instantaneous unit hydrograph and identifiable component flows with application to two small upland catchments.” J. Hydrol., 117, 275–300.
Kim, R. H., Lee, S., and Kim, J. O. (2005). “Application of a metal membrane for rainwater utilization: Filtration characteristics and membrane fouling.” Desalination, 177, 121–132.
Korea Development Institute. (2000). “General guidelines for preliminary feasibility study.” Research Rep., Seoul, Korea.
Korean Chamber of Commerce. (2004). “Policy report objecting mandatory construction of rainwater harvesting facilities.” Seoul, Korea, 145.
Korean Society of Water and Wastewater. (2005). “Monitoring of rainwater harvesting facilities’ operation and management.” Research Rep., Seoul, Korea.
Leavesley, G. H., Lichty, R. W., Troutman, B. M., and Saindon, L. G. (1983). Precipitation-runoff modeling system; User’s manual, U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Investigations, 83–4238.
Lee, K. T., Lee, C. D., Yang, M. S., and Yu, C. C. (2000). “Probabilistic design of storage capacity for rainwater cistern system.” J. Agric. Eng. Res., 77(3), 343–348.
Li, X. Y., Xi, Z. K., and Yan, X. K. (2004). “Runoff characteristics of artificial catchment materials for rainwater harvesting in the semiarid regions of China.” Agric. Water Manage., 65, 211–224.
Ling, B., and Guangen, H. (2001). “Disinfecting effects on collected rainwater and cost analysis.” Proc., 10th Int. Rainwater Catchment Systems Conferences: Rainwater Int. 2001, Mannheim, Germany.
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. (2003). “The development of rainwater utilizing system for domestic water at agricultural and fishing district.” Research Rep.
Ministry of Construction and Transportation. (1996). “Comprehensive water resources plan.” Research Rep., Seoul, Korea.
Ministry of Construction and Transportation. (2001). “Comprehensive water resources plan—Water vision 2020.” Research Rep., Seoul, Korea.
Ministry of Environment. (2003). “Programs for extension policy of rainwater harvesting facilities.” Research Rep., Seoul, Korea.
Ministry of Science and Technology. (2004). “21st century frontier R&D program—Sustainable water resources research program ‘Technology for rainwater storage and utilization.’” Research Rep. (4–3-1), Seoul, Korea.
Nolde, E. (1999). “Greywater reuse for toilet flushing in multi-story buildings over ten years experience in Berlin.” Urban Water, 1(4), 275–284.
Plazinska, A. (2001). “Microbiological quality of rainwater in selected indigenous communities in Central Australia.” Proc. 10th Int. Rainwater Catchment Systems Conferences: Rainwater Int. 2001, Mannheim, Germany.
Seoul Development Institute. (2003). “A study on the flood damage prevention and water saving through rainwater utilization.” Research Rep. (SDI 2003-R-13), Seoul, Korea.
Sugawara, M. I., Watanabe, I., Ozaki, E., and Katsuyame, Y. (1983). “Reference manual for the TANK model.” Rep., National Research Center for Disaster Prevention, Tokyo, Japan.
Tabios, G., III, Obeysekera, J. T., and Salas, J. D. (1991). “Forecasting and control of water resources system (NWS-PC Model).” U.S. National Weather Service Center.
Thomas, T. (1998). “Domestic water supply using rainwater harvesting.” Build. Res. Inf., 26(2), 94–101.
Vaes, G., and Berlamont, J. (2001). “The effect of rainwater storage tank on design storms.” Urban Water, 3, 303–307.
Villarreal, E. L., and Dixon, A. (2005). “Analysis of a rainfall collection system for domestic water supply in Ringdansen, Norrlöping, Sweden.” Build. Environ., 40, 1174–1184.
Wung, T. C., Lin, S. H., and Huang, S. M. (2006). “Rainwater reuse supply and demand response in urban elementary school of different districts in Taipei.” Conserv. Recycl., 46, 149–167.
Yu, T. J., Han, M. Y., Kim, Y. W., and Kim, S. R. (2003). “Cost analysis of rainwater utilization.” Proc., 3rd Int. Workshop on Rainwater Harvesting, 31–39.
Zaizen, M., Urakawa, T., Matsumoto, Y., and Takai, H. (1999). “The collection of rainwater from dome stadiums in Japan.” Urban Water, 1, 355–359.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 14 • Issue 6 • June 2009
Pages: 545 - 561
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Jul 19, 2007
Accepted: Sep 26, 2008
Published online: Feb 16, 2009
Published in print: Jun 2009
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.