Rainwater harvesting case study: FCT/UNL campus

Dissertação apresentada para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia do Ambiente, Perfil Engenharia Sanitária

With increasing pressure on the environment, particularly on water resources, due to outside forces such as climate change and population growth, water is nowadays a scarce and a valuable resource. With the need to find new alternatives, rainwater harvesting should be seen as an important strategy for better management of water resources, once it constitutes a free source of potable water. Rainwater harvesting systems, which already have a global implementation, are a recognised way for urban buildings to reduce their reliance on the public mains supply. Its applications are predominantly non-potable, namely toilet flushing and gardening. The aim of this report is to produce a comprehensive assessment of rainwater harvesting and its potential use all over the world, as well as the potential economical and environmental benefits. It is provided a description of all the rainwater harvesting system components, as well as water quality requirements according to the water final purpose. A case study is presented, which main object is to evaluate the feasibility of rainwater harvesting for gardening, applied to the University Campus of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of Universidade Nova, Lisbon (FCT/UNL). A detailed characterization of the existing irrigation system on campus is provided, as well as its potential ability to collect rainwater. According to the supply and demand balance, several scenarios are presented in order to provide the necessary information for the decision-makers to evaluate the best solution for the desired application. For such, all the available information was analyzed, in order to determine the environmental, technical and economical viability of the project.