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==Background==  
==Background==  
[[Bayside Park Farm]] is an educational farm located in Humboldt County in the city of Arcata, CA. The farm has the goal to connect citizens, students and local farms through sustainable and organic agriculture methods. [[File:10966917 761596417259858 351131976 n.jpg|thumb|upright=1.7|right|Figure 1: Building before the project implementation]]
[[Bayside Park Farm]] is an educational farm located in Humboldt County in the city of Arcata, CA. The farm has the goal to connect citizens, students and local farms through sustainable and organic agriculture methods. [[File:10966917 761596417259858 351131976 n.jpg|thumb|upright=1.7|right|Figure 1: Building before the project implementation]]
For the course ENGR 305: Appropriate Technology in Humboldt State University (HSU), our group will develop a project for Bayside Park Farm with the intention to reuse rainwater for supply some of the needs of the farm. According to the people who work in the farm, the rainwater collected at the winter should be stored to be used in the summer. Their goal is that the rainwater catchment system can produce enough water for the entire summer.  The demand would be approximately 60 gallon per month. The project will take place between February and May, 2015.
For the course ENGR 305: Appropriate Technology {{at}} Humboldt State University (HSU), our group will develop a project for Bayside Park Farm with the intention to reuse rainwater for supply some of the needs of the farm. According to the people who work in the farm, the rainwater collected at the winter should be stored to be used in the summer. Their goal is that the rainwater catchment system can produce enough water for the entire summer.  The demand would be approximately 60 gallon per month. The project will take place between February and May, 2015.
 


==Problem statement==
==Problem statement==

Revision as of 12:03, 11 February 2015

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Background

Bayside Park Farm is an educational farm located in Humboldt County in the city of Arcata, CA. The farm has the goal to connect citizens, students and local farms through sustainable and organic agriculture methods.

Figure 1: Building before the project implementation

For the course ENGR 305: Appropriate Technology Template:At Humboldt State University (HSU), our group will develop a project for Bayside Park Farm with the intention to reuse rainwater for supply some of the needs of the farm. According to the people who work in the farm, the rainwater collected at the winter should be stored to be used in the summer. Their goal is that the rainwater catchment system can produce enough water for the entire summer. The demand would be approximately 60 gallon per month. The project will take place between February and May, 2015.

Problem statement

This project seeks to plan and implement a rainwater catchment system in the rooftop of one of the buildings of the Bayside Park Farm (Figure 1). The main goal is to canalize the rainwater in order to water part of the crop in the dry months, and provide some water for the gooses, as well.


Literature Review

Rainwater catchment systems are projected with the goal to reuse the rainwater that otherwise would be wasted. Besides, according to Porter et al (2008), the implantation of these kind of systems diminishes the demand from the conventional urban system of water supply, reduces runoff that can cause erosion, flooding, and contamination of surface water. Moreover, the rainwater is better for the plants than other water sources that may contain salts and other minerals that can harm the root zones of the plants. In this way, plants watered with rainwater tends to grow better and are more drought tolerant. [1]

The rainwater is often collected and stored during the wet season to be utilized in the dry season. [2] The water collected from these systems can be used for several purposes, such as agricultural and livestock watering, domestic uses, fire protection, and many more. [1] It means that rain can literally save you money!


Components of rainwater catchment systems

According to Gould & Nissen-Peterson (1999), a rainwater catchment system consists of the components listed below [3] and shown in the Figure 2.

Figure 2: General scheme of a rainwater catchment system [4]


*Surface for rainfall collection:

There are three main types of catchment systems: ground catchment, rock catchment and roof catchment. The collection of rainfall by rooftops, which is the case, are the most commonly used, being generally considered small-scale systems and used for domestic consumption. One advantage of roof catchments is that they have a high runoff coefficient, which means that it drains almost all the rainwater that falls on its surface. For corrugated metal sheets, which is the case, the runoff coefficient varies between 0.7 and 0.9. [5]

*Storage tank(s) or reservoir(s):

The reservoir(s) can be of three types: surface tanks; underground tanks; or dammed reservoirs. For rooftop catchment systems, the most commonly chosen is the surface tanks. The storage is generally the most expensive part of the system [2] [3], and mainly because of this, the storage capacity of rainwater catchment systems tends to be limited. Thus, the rainfall stored by these systems are often not enough to fully supply the demand of water in the dry periods. It is necessary to have alternate sources of water to supplement the rainwater supply in dry seasons. [6]

*Delivery system:

The delivery system is responsible for transporting the water from the roof to the storage tank. For metal sheets roofs, which is the case, the most common rainwater collection methods are suspended gutter or gutter with brackets fixed to walls or rafters.

*Filtration system:

Depending on the use proposed for the rainwater collected, it can be necessary the implementation of a filtration system, which should prevent large leavings and other dross of reaching the reservoir. [2]


Local Climate

When you are interested in create a rainwater catchment system you definitely need to know the climate conditions of the place that the system will be installed. Arcata, the city where this project will be built is a very rainy place. California has an average of 24.71 inches of annual raining, getting 14.5 less inches of rain than the national average (39.17 inches). Differently of the rest of California, in the last 30 years, Arcata has had an annual average of 49.15 inches of rainfall, which is 26% more than the average nationwide and 99% more than the average in California. It means that definitely Arcata does not have a problem with lack of water. The only complication is that it rains a lot in the winter, but not much in the summer. In the winter and fall, the average of rainfall is 23.22 and 13.33 inches per season, respectively. Unlikely, in the summer and spring, the average of rainfall is 2.05 and 10.55 inches per season, respectively. Figure 3 shows the monthly average rainfall for the city of Arcata, where it is clear the difference of rainwater availability in the different seasons of the year. [7]

Figure 3: Montly average rainfall for the city of Arcata, 2014 [7]

Criteria

These following criteria were chosen based on observations by the group members and also on the suggestions of the Bayside Park Farm director. The scale weight (1-10) shows the importance of the criteria according to the constraint of each one.


Criteria Constraints Weight
(1-10)
Security The system must not present risk to people farm and volunteers and leakage problems.
10
Usability The system should produce enough water supply the demand of 60 gallon/month.
10
Cost Try to not have a high budget, using materials that is already available at the farm.
9
Durability The system must last many years, mainly between the seasons, in order to stock water from the wet season to be used in the dry season.
8
Efficiency The system must successfully captures and stocks rainwater.
8
Ease of use Must be simple enough to be used by everyone.
7
Educational The system should provide educational value for the community.
5
Maintainability The system needs a regular and easy maintenance in order to reduce the potential water contamination.
4

References

Template:Reflist

  1. 1.0 1.1 Texas A&M Agrilife Extension. “Rainwater Harvesting”. Booklet B-6153, may 2008. Retrieved from http://www.bseacd.org/uploads/Texas_AgriLIFE_Extension_Rainwater_Harvesting_Booklet.pdf
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Schiller, E.J. & Latham, B.G. "A Comparison of Commonly Used Hydrologic Design Methods for Rainwater Collectors". Water Resources Development, 1987.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Gould, J. & Nissen-Peterson, E. “Rainwater Catchment Systems for Domestic Supply”. Intermediate Technology Publications, 1999.
  4. City of Bellingham, Public Works Department. "Rainwater Harvesting: Guidance toward a sustainable water future". v1, mar 2012. Retrieved from https://wrrc.arizona.edu/sites/wrrc.arizona.edu/files/Bellingham_Rainwater%20harvesting%20manual.pdf
  5. The Caribbean Environmental Health Institute (CEHI). “Rainwater Catch it while you can: A Handbook on Rainwater Harvesting in the Caribbean”. 2013. Retrieved from http://www.caribank.org/uploads/2013/08/em-rainwater-handbook-caribbean.pdf
  6. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). “Harvesting, Storing, and Treating Rainwater for Domestic Indoor Use”. 2007. Retrieved from http://rainwaterharvesting.tamu.edu/files/2011/05/gi-366_2021994.pdf
  7. 7.0 7.1 Find the Best. “Arcata, California Average Rainfall”. 2014. Retrieved from http://average-rainfall.findthebest.com/l/1075/Arcata-California
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