The perceived barriers to the inclusion of rainwater harvesting systems by UK house building companies

This work investigates the barriers that exist to deter the implementation of rainwater harvesting into new UK housing. A postal questionnaire was sent to a selection of large, medium and small house-builders distributed across the UK. Questions were asked concerning potential barriers to the inclusion of rainwater harvesting in homes separated into five sections; (1) institutional and regulatory gaps, (2) economic and financial constraints, (3) absence of incentives, (4) lack of information and technical knowledge, and (5) house-builder attitudes. The study concludes that although the knowledge of rainwater systems has increased these barriers are deterring house-builders from installing rainwater harvesting systems in new homes. It is further acknowledged that the implementation of rainwater harvesting will continue to be limited whilst these barriers remain and unless resolved, rainwater harvesting's potential to reduce the consumption of potable water in houses will continue to be limited

Mains Water Neutral Gardening: An integrated approach to water conservation in sustainable urban gardens

The role of urban green space in contributing to the liveability of cities and towns is well recognised. Residential gardens make up a large portion of urban green space and how they are designed and managed will determine whether they contribute to environmental enhancement and human wellbeing, or become additional sources of resource depletion and pollution. This thesis demonstrates ways in which gardening can contribute to urban sustainability through thoughtful design and the clever management of water. Two new concepts are presented to achieve this objective: ‘Sustainable Urban Gardening’ and ‘Mains Water Neutral Gardening’. Sustainable Urban Gardening (SUG) is a multi-criteria sustainability framework that promotes a series of goals, including Energy Efficiency; Organic Waste Recycling and Soil Management; Biodiversity and Habitat Restoration; Organic Pest and Disease Management; Local Food Production; Water Conservation; and Health and Wellbeing of Householders. Mains Water Neutral Gardening (MWNG) is a site-responsive, integrated approach to water system design and management in residential gardens. It incorporates available lot-scale alternative water sources, such as greywater, rainwater and groundwater, with efficient irrigation practices and local environmental conditions to establish holistic water budgets that are capable of meeting garden water requirements as part of a water-sensitive landscape design. Three residential case study gardens based on the SUG and MWNG concepts were designed, built and documented as part of this research, whilst also featuring extensively in Australian television and print media. Monitoring demonstrated a reduction in household mains water consumption of between 42% and 92% when compared to local averages whilst addressing the intended SUG goals. The findings show the potential for greywater, rainwater and sustainably managed groundwater to contribute to mains water savings as part of a well-considered landscape design and household, however the high cost of supply in comparison to mains water (on a dollar per kilolitre basis) presents a barrier to broader adoption. Nonetheless, novel methods that optimise these water sources are demonstrated, enabling increased household resilience whilst reducing demand on constrained mains water supplies

A metabolism perspective on alternative urban water servicing options using water mass balance

Urban areas will need to pursue new water servicing options to ensure local supply security. Decisions about how best to employ them are not straightforward due to multiple considerations and the potential for problem shifting among them. We hypothesise that urban water metabolism evaluation based a water mass balance can help address this, and explore the utility of this perspective and the new insights it provides about water servicing options. Using a water mass balance evaluation framework, which considers direct urban water flows (both ‘natural’ hydrological and ‘anthropogenic’ flows), as well as water-related energy, we evaluated how the use of alternative water sources (stormwater/rainwater harvesting, wastewater/greywater recycling) at different scales influences the ‘local water metabolism’ of a case study urban development. New indicators were devised to represent the water-related ‘resource efficiency’ and ‘hydrological performance’ of the urban area. The new insights gained were the extent to which alternative water supplies influence the water efficiency and hydrological performance of the urban area, and the potential energy trade-offs. The novel contribution is the development of new indicators of urban water resource performance that bring together considerations of both the ‘anthropogenic’ and ‘natural’ water cycles, and the interactions between them. These are used for the first time to test alternative water servicing scenarios, and to provide a new perspective to complement broader sustainability assessments of urban water

Rainwater harvesting in urban areas of developed countries. The state of the art (1980-2017)

Many urban areas suffer from water scarcity although paradoxically, a local source such as rainwater is mostly treated as a risk rather than a valuable resource. This change of paradigm is included in the 'integrated water resources management' and 'demand management' approach. The aim of this research is to identify and analyse studies that explore subject matters concerning rainwater in the integrated management systems of water resources into developed countries. The research methodology consisted in a literature review (from the 1980s to 2017) of territorial studies that examine rainwater harvesting in urban areas of the developed countries. To this end, a bibliometric analysis has been carried out in different databases according to the definition of keywords. The results reveal five thematic areas were identified and temporal and spatial differences between some subject matters

Comparison of Household-Scale Rainwater Harvesting and Greywater Recycling Systems in Boston Through Spatial Optimization of Cost and Energy Savings

Household decentralized water systems, including rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling, are often touted as a means to improve the sustainability and resiliency of centralized municipal systems. This research is focused on the spatial distribution of life cycle energy savings and consumer cost savings of adopting decentralized systems for individual households in the city of Boston. Using a Python model simulation, the optimal type and size of decentralized system for each household is selected based on the cost and energy comparison between the installation, operation, and maintenance of the new system and the process of treatment and delivery from the existing utility. The decentralized system selection is based on household characteristics such as distance from the centralized plants, number of tenants, and roof size. The distribution of households was mapped to analyze the spatial distribution of the effects of adopting a decentralized system. Greywater recycling systems largely returned cost and energy savings after 30 years, while rainwater harvesting systems resulted in losses

Urban futures and the code for sustainable homes

Copyright © 2012 ICE Publishing Ltd. Permission is granted by ICE Publishing to print one copy for personal use. Any other use of these PDF files is subject to reprint fees.A 6?6 ha (66 000 m2) regeneration site, commonly referred to as Luneside East, is to be turned from a run down, economically under-achieving area of Lancaster, UK, into a new, distinctive, vibrant, sustainable quarter of the city. As a result several aspects of water planning for 350 new homes and 8000 m2 of workspace needed to be considered before any infrastructure investment was undertaken. This included assessment of the future capacity requirements (i.e. inflows and outflows) for water infrastructure (i.e. mains water supply, wastewater disposal, rainwater storage and stormwater disposal) much of which will be located underground. This paper looks at the implications of various water management strategies on the Luneside East site (e.g. water-efficient appliances, greywater recycling and rainwater harvesting) in line with current policy measures that focus on technology changes alone (e.g. the code for sustainable homes). Based on these findings this paper outlines some basic implications for technological resilience discussed in the context of four ‘world views’ – that is, the urban futures scenarios considered in this special issue. Conclusions are drawn as to how far this can take engineers, planners and developers in understanding and planning for resilient water infrastructure within a development like Luneside East