IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/recore/v127y2017icp56-67.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Residential rainwater harvesting: Effects of incentive policies and water consumption over economic feasibility

Author

Listed:
  • Dumit Gómez, Yapur
  • Teixeira, Luiza Girard

Abstract

Rainwater harvesting is currently a recurring theme as part of the sustainable practices for urban constructions. The economic feasibility of implementing a system capable of capturing, treating and distributing rainwater for residential uses concerns the user who intends to benefit from such practice. To this end, twelve single-family houses of different construction standards were selected for this research in the city of Belém, Pará, Brazil. The design and budget for the installation of a rainwater harvesting system were prepared for each house. The hydrological performance and economic feasibility were evaluated under different consumption and economic policies scenarios using the rainwater harvesting simulation software. The main conclusion is that rainwater systems are more economically feasible in households with higher water demand, regardless of the size of the catchment area. The cost of implementing rainwater systems has little variation with the construction standard of the residence where it is installed. The tariff structure makes it economically unfeasible to harvest rainwater in any scenario for houses where water consumption is below the social tariff or receives fixed price water bill. A combination of rising water prices to the same level of water production costs and reduced implementation costs improves the economic feasibility of rainwater harvesting.

Suggested Citation

  • Dumit Gómez, Yapur & Teixeira, Luiza Girard, 2017. "Residential rainwater harvesting: Effects of incentive policies and water consumption over economic feasibility," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 56-67.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:recore:v:127:y:2017:i:c:p:56-67
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.08.015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344917302549
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.08.015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kristin Komives & Vivien Foster & Jonathan Halpern & Quentin Wodon, 2005. "Water, Electricity, and the Poor : Who Benefits from Utility Subsidies?," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6361.
    2. Farreny, R. & Gabarrell, X. & Rieradevall, J., 2011. "Cost-efficiency of rainwater harvesting strategies in dense Mediterranean neighbourhoods," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 55(7), pages 686-694.
    3. David J. Pannell, 2008. "Public Benefits, Private Benefits, and Policy Mechanism Choice for Land-Use Change for Environmental Benefits," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 84(2), pages 225-240.
    4. Enedir Ghisi & Pedro Schondermark, 2013. "Investment Feasibility Analysis of Rainwater Use in Residences," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(7), pages 2555-2576, May.
    5. Silva, Cristina Matos & Sousa, Vitor & Carvalho, Nuno Vaz, 2015. "Evaluation of rainwater harvesting in Portugal: Application to single-family residences," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 21-34.
    6. Rahman, Ataur & Keane, Joseph & Imteaz, Monzur Alam, 2012. "Rainwater harvesting in Greater Sydney: Water savings, reliability and economic benefits," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 16-21.
    7. Stec, Agnieszka & Kordana, Sabina, 2015. "Analysis of profitability of rainwater harvesting, gray water recycling and drain water heat recovery systems," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 105(PA), pages 84-94.
    8. Imteaz, Monzur Alam & Ahsan, Amimul & Naser, Jamal & Rahman, Ataur, 2011. "Reliability analysis of rainwater tanks in Melbourne using daily water balance model," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 80-86.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nandi, Santosh & Gonela, Vinay, 2022. "Rainwater harvesting for domestic use: A systematic review and outlook from the utility policy and management perspectives," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. Sabina Kordana-Obuch & Mariusz Starzec, 2020. "Statistical Approach to the Problem of Selecting the Most Appropriate Model for Managing Stormwater in Newly Designed Multi-Family Housing Estates," Resources, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-20, September.
    3. Monzur A. Imteaz & Hassaan Ahmad & Iqbal Hossain, 2023. "Pioneer Use of Pseudo Sub-Daily Timestep Model for Rainwater Harvesting Analysis: Acceptance over Hourly Model and Exploring Accuracy of Different Operating Algorithms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-13, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jing, Xueer & Zhang, Shouhong & Zhang, Jianjun & Wang, Yujie & Wang, Yunqi, 2017. "Assessing efficiency and economic viability of rainwater harvesting systems for meeting non-potable water demands in four climatic zones of China," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 74-85.
    2. Silva, Cristina Matos & Sousa, Vitor & Carvalho, Nuno Vaz, 2015. "Evaluation of rainwater harvesting in Portugal: Application to single-family residences," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 21-34.
    3. Moreira Neto, Ronan Fernandes & Carvalho, Isabella de Castro & Calijuri, Maria Lúcia & Santiago, Aníbal da Fonseca, 2012. "Rainwater use in airports: A case study in Brazil," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 36-43.
    4. Hashim, H. & Hudzori, A. & Yusop, Z. & Ho, W.S., 2013. "Simulation based programming for optimization of large-scale rainwater harvesting system: Malaysia case study," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1-9.
    5. Imteaz, Monzur Alam & Ahsan, Amimul & Shanableh, Abdallah, 2013. "Reliability analysis of rainwater tanks using daily water balance model: Variations within a large city," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 37-43.
    6. Daniel Słyś & Agnieszka Stec, 2020. "Centralized or Decentralized Rainwater Harvesting Systems: A Case Study," Resources, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-18, January.
    7. Agnieszka Stec & Daniel Słyś, 2022. "Financial and Social Factors Influencing the Use of Unconventional Water Systems in Single-Family Houses in Eight European Countries," Resources, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-25, January.
    8. Okoye, Chiemeka Onyeka & Solyalı, Oğuz & Akıntuğ, Bertuğ, 2015. "Optimal sizing of storage tanks in domestic rainwater harvesting systems: A linear programming approach," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 104(PA), pages 131-140.
    9. Karim, Md. Rezaul & Bashar, Mohammad Zobair Ibne & Imteaz, Monzur Alam, 2015. "Reliability and economic analysis of urban rainwater harvesting in a megacity in Bangladesh," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 104(PA), pages 61-67.
    10. Silva Vieira, A. & Weeber, M. & Ghisi, E., 2013. "Self-cleaning filtration: A novel concept for rainwater harvesting systems," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 67-73.
    11. Ghisi, Enedir & Rupp, Ricardo Forgiarini & Triska, Yuri, 2014. "Comparing indicators to rank strategies to save potable water in buildings," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 137-144.
    12. Rodriguez, D., 2014. "Applying results-based financing in water investments," IWMI Working Papers H046875, International Water Management Institute.
    13. Jiang, Zhujun & Lin, Boqiang, 2014. "The perverse fossil fuel subsidies in China—The scale and effects," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 411-419.
    14. He, Xiaoping & Reiner, David, 2016. "Electricity demand and basic needs: Empirical evidence from China's households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 212-221.
    15. C. Pezon, 2018. "Retrospective analysis of the Urban Water Supply sector in Senegal: a PPP over time," Post-Print hal-02012229, HAL.
    16. Nordblom, Thomas L. & Hume, I.H. & Finlayson, J.D. & Pannell, David J. & Holland, J., 2013. "Upstream-downstream benefit analysis of policy on water use by upstream tree plantations," 2013 Conference (57th), February 5-8, 2013, Sydney, Australia 152173, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    17. Emile Noël, 1996. "Quelques réflexions sur les perspectives politico-institutionnelles de l'intégration européenne en 2000 et au-delà," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 39, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    18. Anastasio J. Villanueva & Klaus Glenk & Macario Rodríguez-Entrena, 2017. "Protest Responses and Willingness to Accept: Ecosystem Services Providers’ Preferences towards Incentive-Based Schemes," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(3), pages 801-821, September.
    19. Silva, Marcos Dornelas Freitas Machado e & Calijuri, Maria Lúcia & Sales, Francisco José Ferreira de & Souza, Mauro Henrique Batalha de & Lopes, Lucas Sampaio, 2014. "Integration of technologies and alternative sources of water and energy to promote the sustainability of urban landscapes," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 71-81.
    20. Wodon, Quentin & Banerjee, Sudeshna & Diallo, Amadou Bassirou & Foster, Vivien, 2009. "Is low coverage of modern infrastructure services in African cities due to lack of demand or lack of supply ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4881, The World Bank.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:recore:v:127:y:2017:i:c:p:56-67. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kai Meng (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/resources-conservation-and-recycling .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.