Professional Practice

Improving Water Efficiency: Residential Rainwater Harvesting

Stormwater runoff from the garden and roof is channeled into a cistern where the water is captured and gradually seeps into the water table. Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ 2015 Professional Residential Design Honor Award. Brooklyn Oasis, Brooklyn, New York / Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.

Rainwater harvesting is a system that collects, diverts, and stores rain in a catchment tank -- often a barrel or buried cistern. Rainwater can be successfully used for landscape irrigation because rainwater is collected directly from the sky, where it is funneled off roofs. This harvested rainwater can also be used for car washing and toilet flushing. One inch of rainfall can generate 700 gallons of water runoff on a 1,200 square foot roof. A quarter inch of runoff can fill a rain barrel.

Rainwater harvesting is an efficient sustainable water management technique common before public utility departments centralized and then re-distributed water.

Rainwater harvesting benefits include:

• Reduced consumption of distributed potable water: Homeowners use up to half of a home¡¯s total water consumption for landscape irrigation
• Reduced water bills and demand on existing water supply.
• More efficient use of rainwater resources.

Sources: , Texas A & M University; ; , University of Florida

Organizations







, Centre for Science and Environment

Research

"," Heather Kinkade-Levario, New Society Publishers, 2007

¡°,¡± Brad Lancaster, Rainsource Press, 2013

¡°,¡± Patricia H. Waterfall, Extension Agent, University of Arizona

¡°,¡± David A. Bainbridge, Storey Publishing, 2015

¡°,¡± Apryl Uncapher & Cleo Woelfle-Erskine, Timber Press, 2012

Resources

, Urban Design Tools, Low Impact Development

, RiverSides

, Water Environmental Research Foundation

, University of Arizona

, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources

, Greywater Action

Government Resources

, City of Portland
, Department of Consumer & Building Services, State of Oregon

, Seattle Public Utilities

, City of Tempe, Arizona

, Marina Coast Water District

, Water Conservation Alliance of Southern Arizona

, Texas Water Development Board

, Department of Ecology, State of Washington

, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District

, City of Ann Arbor Michigan

, Conservation District of Santa Cruz County

, City of Albuquerque

, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

Projects

Water Calculation and Poetic Interpretation, Monterey Cypress, California
Arterra Landscape Architects

Brooklyn Oasis, Brooklyn, New York
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.

Quaker Smith Point Residence, Burlington, Vermont
H. Keith Wagner Partnership

Mill Creek Ranch, Vanderpool, Texas
Ten Eyck Landscape Architects Inc.