The effect of climate change on domestic Rainwater Harvesting

• Tipo: Artigo em Revista Científica Internacional
• Data: 2020-08-10

Autores

Cristina Santos (Autor) FEUP; Monzur Alam Imteaz (Autor) Outra; Enedir Ghisi (Autor) Outra; Cristina Matos (Autor) Outra

Revista

Título: Science of the Total Environment

Vol. 729

Páginas: 1-8

ISSN: 0048-9697

Editora: Elsevier

Indexação

ISI Web of Science

Scopus

Outras Informações

DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138967

Abstract (EN): One of the main strategies that are being applied to improve the efficiency of water consumption in buildings is the use of non-potable water for pavement washing, toilet flushing, irrigation, and others. According to several guidelines, the design and assessment of a Rainwater Harvesting System (RWHS) should be made using recent official records of precipitation. However, there is not an indication whether historical or future projections should be used, leaving space for the designer to choose. This article presents the study of RWHS in southern Europe, namely in Portugal, considering two case studies (a dwelling in Oporto and an apartment in Vila Real). The main goal was to explore the impacts that climate change will have on these systems and, for that purpose, a daily simulation using future rainfall data was performed for both cases considering two scenarios: RCP 4.5 which is more optimistic, and RCP 8.5 which is more pessimistic. The RWHS in Oporto showed a better performance in the future decades, comparing with simulations based on recent decades, for both scenarios. However, the savings will not have a significant variation (less than 5 ¤/year). In the future, this system will provide around 47 (±2.4) m3 of rainwater per year to the selected non-potable purposes, leading to savings of around 66 (±3.3) ¤/year. Vila Real case study also revealed a slight improvement of the system's efficiency in the future decades but the results for rainwater collected and used are so similar to the recent ones that it can be concluded that the performance will be sustained. This system will provide around 50 (±2.5) m3 of rainwater per year to the selected non-potable purposes, leading to savings of around 200 (±10.2) ¤/year. It can be concluded that there will be no significant changes in RWHS performance in the future, in the studied areas. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.

Idioma: Inglês

Tipo (Avaliação Docente): Científica

Nº de páginas: 8