Rainwater Harvesting and Stormwater Reuse for Arid Environments - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 364

the Asian and Middle Eastern countries as well as island communities still use some type
of water catchment devices due to low water supply and low water quality.
In the United States, rock cisterns known as the Hueco Tanks in Texas and Tinajas in
Arizona trapped rainwater for native dwellers, from the archaic hunters to the Mescalero
Apaches, and they later became a stopping point for stagecoach travelers and Jesuit
Missionaries. 1 In early communities of Texas, central plazas went beyond social and market
places to be collection surfaces for vast underground cisterns, which stored the collected
rainwater for use by adjacent shops and homes.
Today, many inhabitants in arid, urban environments are rethinking the use of this ancient
strategy for conserving and managing water in their cities. The typical metropolitan area
has large commercial and industrial buildings with expanses of impermeable surfaces;
more of the land is covered throughout with rooftops, asphalt and concrete, and less
rainwater finds its natural intended path to soil/groundwater reserves or surface water
lakes and rivers. One plausible solution in arid as well as other environments is to use the
freely available natural processes that work for the benefit of watershed maintenance on
an individual site basis. Taking advantage of the capacity of plants and the site's soils to
aid in absorbing water and filtering pollutants is considered a more sustainable approach
to stormwater management (Figure 21.1).
Rainwater harvesting and stormwater reuse guidelines are meant to enhance traditional
development practices and techniques to achieve what is known as a low-impact
development approach. At the site level, the design approach is focused on passive and
active strategies for filtering, detaining, and infiltrating runoff to remove pollutants,
reduce runoff contributions to storm sewers, and potentially lessen drainage and erosion
problems. The goal of developing a more environmentally sensitive approach is to mitigate
the development-generated impacts at the source. Basically, an outcome that achieves
a more ecologically and hydrologically responsive development through integration of
rainwater harvesting and stormwater reuse techniques on-site.
The reduction of runoff in an urban environment through the use of rainwater harvesting
and stormwater reuse structures and techniques will additionally assist with compliance
of the Clean Water Act, which regulates the discharge of pollutants through the National
FIGURE 21.1
Upside-down umbrellas shade patio below as well as capture rain and direct it to the site's vegetation.
(From Kinkade-Levario, H., Forgotten Rain, Rediscovering Rainwater Harvesting , Granite Canyon Publications,
Forsyth, MO, 2004.)