Rainwater Harvesting System in a Congested Residential Estate

Authors

  • Evon E.W. Tang Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.
  • Darrien Y.S. Mah Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33736/jaspe.165.2015

Keywords:

Rainwater Harvesting, Detention, Flash flood, Stormwater runoff, Urban drainage, Water Sensitive Urban Design.

Abstract

Occurrences of flash floods in urban areas have increased significantly and become an issue of concern to the public. However, physical development continues unabated due to urbanisation and high demands for residential houses. Towards this end, a Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) approach such as rainwater harvesting system is proposed for residential development to mitigate flash floods without discouraging economic development of a city. Conventional rainwater tank is not suitable anymore as most of the residential housing developments are providing smaller land space. Thus, a design to cater for limited empty spaces is emerging. This has been the intension of this paper to introduce a wall-mount rainwater harvesting system in congested residential estates. In this research, super slim rainwater tank and air conditioner-sized tank have been designed to fit into a standard housing compound. The rainwater tanks act as a tool to store certain amount of stormwater runoff from roof area before it is discharged into drainage system. It is found that the peak runoff discharge is reduced from 0.003100 m3/s to 0.002703 m3/s and 0.002152 m3/s for the two types of aforementioned tanks. Reductions of 13% and 31% on peak runoff discharge are registered respectively by testing different configuration of water tanks. Due to the reduction of peak runoff discharge, the stormwater runoff could be controlled and subsequently mitigate the occurrence of flash flood. Sustainability could be achieved by managing stormwater runoff in an effective way with the aids of rainwater harvesting system.

References

Zakaria, N.A., Ab Ghani, A., Abdullah, R., Sidek, L.M., Kassim, A.H., and Ainan, A. (2004). MSMA - a new urban stormwater management manual for Malaysia. 6th International Conference on Hydroscience and Engineering (ICHE-2004), May 30 - June 3, Brisbane, Australia.

Pizzuto, J.E., Hession, W.C., and McBride, M. (2000). Comparing gravel-bed rivers in paired urban and rural catchments of southeastern Pennsylvania. Geology, 28(1), 79-82.

https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(2000)028<0079:CGRIPU>2.0.CO;2

Borneo Post Online (2011). Flood makes village road impassable. Available on http://www.theborneopost.com/2011/12/27/flood-makes-village-road-impassable/ [Accessed on 17th October 2014]

Sieker, H., and Klein, M. (1998). Best management practices for stormwater-runoff with alternative methods in a large urban catchment in Berlin, Germany. Water Science and Technology, 38(10), 91-97.

https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.1998.0384

Coombes, P.J., Argue, J.R., and Kuczera, G. (2000). Figtree Place: a case study in Water Sensitive Urban Development (WSUD). Urban Water, 1(4), 335-343.

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1462-0758(00)00027-3

Foley, B.A., and Daniell, T.M. (2004). The role of WSUD in improving the sustainability of urban developments. International Conference on Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD2004), Adelaide, Australia.

Beecham, S., and Chowdhury, R. (2012). Effects of changing rainfall patterns on WSUD in Australia. Proceedings of the ICE-Water Management, 165(5), 285-298.

https://doi.org/10.1680/wama.10.00115

Chilton, J.C., Maidment, G.G., Marriott, D., Francis, A., & Tobias, G. (2000). Case study of a rainwater recovery system in a commercial building with a large roof. Urban Water, 1(4), 345-354.

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1462-0758(00)00032-7

Che-Ani, A.I., Shaari, N., Sairi, A., Zain, M.F.M., and Tahir, M.M. (2009). Rainwater harvesting as an alternative water supply in the future. European Journal of Scientific Research, 34(1), 132-140.

Chiu, Y.R., Liaw, C.H., and Chen, L.C. (2009). Optimizing rainwater harvesting systems as an innovative approach to saving energy in hilly communities. Renewable Energy, 34(3), 492-498.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2008.06.016

Eroksuz, E., and Rahman, A. (2010). Rainwater tanks in multi-unit buildings: a case study for three Australian cities. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 54(12), 1449-1452.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2010.06.010

Imteaz, M.A., Shanableh, A., Rahman, A., and Ahsan, A. (2011). Optimisation of rainwater tank design from large roofs: a case study in Melbourne, Australia. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 55(11), 1022-1029.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2011.05.013

Brodie, I. (2012). Stormwater harvesting and WSUD frequent flow management: a compatibility analysis. Water Science & Technology, 66(3), 612-619.

https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2012.214

Mah, D.Y.S., bin Mohamad Salehe, A.H., and Putuhena, F.J. (2014). Water Sensitive Urban Design in existing urban settings: case study of dry detention pond in Kuching City. In InCIEC 2013, 315-322, Springer Singapore.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-02-6_27

Huber, W.C. (2005). EPA Storm Water Management Model, SWMM5. In: Huber, W.C., Rossman, L.A. and Dickinson, R.E., Watershed Models, 339.

https://doi.org/10.1201/9781420037432.ch14

Rossman, L.A., Dickinson, R.E., Schade, T., Chan, C., Burgess, E.H., and Huber, W.C. (2005). SWMM5: The USEPA's newest tool for urban drainage analysis. Proceedings of 10th ICUD, Copenhagen, 1-8. ftp://152.66.121.2/Oktatas/Epito2000/KozmuhalozatokTervezese-SP2/swmm/epaswmm5_manual.pdf [Accessed 11rd August 2014].

Jang, S., Cho, M., Yoon, J., Yoon, Y., Kim, S., Kim, G. and Aksoy, H. (2007). Using SWMM as a tool for hydrologic impact assessment. Desalination, 212(1), 344-356.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2007.05.005

United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2013). Storm Water Management Model (SWMM). Available from http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/wswrd/wq/models/swmm/ [Accessed 11th August 2014].

Downloads

Published

2015-09-30

How to Cite

Tang, E. E., & Y.S. Mah, D. (2015). Rainwater Harvesting System in a Congested Residential Estate. Journal of Applied Science &Amp; Process Engineering, 2(2), 64–73. https://doi.org/10.33736/jaspe.165.2015

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 2 (2015): Journal of Applied Science & Process Engineering, Volume 2, Number 2, 2015

Section

Articles

License

Copyright Transfer Statement for Journal

1) In signing this statement, the author(s) grant UNIMAS Publisher an exclusive license to publish their original research papers. The author(s) also grant UNIMAS Publisher permission to reproduce, recreate, translate, extract or summarize, and to distribute and display in any forms, formats, and media. The author(s) can reuse their papers in their future printed work without first requiring permission from UNIMAS Publisher, provided that the author(s) acknowledge and reference publication in the Journal.

2) For open access articles, the author(s) agree that their articles published under UNIMAS Publisher are distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work of the author(s) is properly cited.

3) For subscription articles, the author(s) agree that UNIMAS Publisher holds copyright, or an exclusive license to publish. Readers or users may view, download, print, and copy the content, for academic purposes, subject to the following conditions of use: (a) any reuse of materials is subject to permission from UNIMAS Publisher; (b) archived materials may only be used for academic research; (c) archived materials may not be used for commercial purposes, which include but not limited to monetary compensation by means of sale, resale, license, transfer of copyright, loan, etc.; and (d) archived materials may not be re-published in any part, either in print or online.

4) The author(s) is/are responsible to ensure his or her or their submitted work is original and does not infringe any existing copyright, trademark, patent, statutory right, or propriety right of others. Corresponding author(s) has (have) obtained permission from all co-authors prior to submission to the journal. Upon submission of the manuscript, the author(s) agree that no similar work has been or will be submitted or published elsewhere in any language. If submitted manuscript includes materials from others, the authors have obtained the permission from the copyright owners.

5) In signing this statement, the author(s) declare(s) that the researches in which they have conducted are in compliance with the current laws of the respective country and UNIMAS Journal Publication Ethics Policy. Any experimentation or research involving human or the use of animal samples must obtain approval from Human or Animal Ethics Committee in their respective institutions. The author(s) agree and understand that UNIMAS Publisher is not responsible for any compensational claims or failure caused by the author(s) in fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements. The author(s) must accept the responsibility for releasing their materials upon request by Chief Editor or UNIMAS Publisher.

6) The author(s) should have participated sufficiently in the work and ensured the appropriateness of the content of the article. The author(s) should also agree that he or she has no commercial attachments (e.g. patent or license arrangement, equity interest, consultancies, etc.) that might pose any conflict of interest with the submitted manuscript. The author(s) also agree to make any relevant materials and data available upon request by the editor or UNIMAS Publisher.

To download Copyright Transfer Statement for Journal, click here