Reliability and Cost Analysis of a Rainwater Harvesting System in Peri-Urban Regions of Greater Sydney, Australia

Water

Evan Hajani¹ 

[1] School of Engineering, University of Duhok, 38 Zakho Street, Duhok, Kurdistan Region 1006 AJ, Iraq; E-Mail:

关键词: rainwatertanks;    peri-urban region;    water sensitive urban design;    water conservation;    life cycle cost analysis;   

DOI  :  10.3390/w6040945

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

In large cities, rainwater tanks are used to save mains water, but in peri-urban and rural areas, rainwater tanks are used as a sole water supply for many households, as these regions often do not have any other means of water supply. This paper investigates the performance of a rainwater harvesting system (RWHS) in peri-urban regions of Greater Sydney, Australia. Considering the daily rainfall data over the entire period of record at ten different locations, it has been found that a 5 kL tank can meet 96% to 99% of the demand for toilet and laundry use depending on the location in Greater Sydney regions. However, in the driest year, a 5 kL tank can meet 69% to 99% of toilet and laundry demand depending on the location. Based on the results of life cycle cost analysis, it has been found that a 5 kL tank has the highest benefit–cost ratio (ranging from 0.86 to 0.97) among the eight possible tank sizes examined in this study. Interestingly, for a 5 kL tank, with a combined use (i.e., toilet, laundry and irrigation), the current water price in Sydney needs to be increased by 3% to 16% to achieve a benefit–cost ratio exceeding one. A set of regression equations are developed which can be used to estimate reliability using the average annual rainfall data at any arbitrary location in the peri-urban regions of Greater Sydney. The method presented in this paper can also be applied to other Australian states and other countries to estimate water savings and reliability of a RWHS using daily rainfall data.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.