Groundwater is a vital resource in Australian agriculture. Increased demand for water resulting from rapid economic development accompanied by poor climatic conditions (e.g. low rainfall levels) has induced an increased reliance on groundwater harvesting to sustain intensive irrigation practices. Overdraft of groundwater as a result of reduced surface water availability, increased economic viab...

Current centralized urban water supply depends largely on energy consumption, creating critical water-energy challenge especially for many rapid growing Asian cities. In this context, harvesting rooftop rainwater for non-potable use has enormous potential to ease the worsening water-energy issue. For this, we propose a geographic information system (GIS)-simulation-based design system (GSBDS) t...

Groundwater vulnerability assessment is of crucial importance for land use/cover management. Some methods have been proposed specifically for the karst hydrogeological settings. Among them, COP and PaPRIKa, as two commonly applied recent methods, were adopted for the resource vulnerability assessment of a humid temperate karst region, north of Iran. Comparison of water bacterial content and dis...

In this study, Chlorella zofingiensis harvesting by dissolved air flotation (DAF) was critically evaluated with regard to algal concentration, culture conditions, type and dosage of coagulants, and recycle ratio. Harvesting efficiency increased with coagulant dosage and leveled off at 81%, 86%, 91%, and 87% when chitosan, Al(3+) , Fe(3+) , and cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) were used at...

Trend of rapid urbanization has increased the number of hilly communities around many large cities and raise both water and energy consumption, as modern water supply systems heavily depend on energy supply. Locally available rainwater was examined in this study as a potential approach for urban water-energy conservation scheme. Using hilly communities of Taipei Metropolitan as a case study, th...

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is perhaps the most ancient practice to meet water supply needs. It has received renewed attention since the 1970s as a productive water source, water savings and conservation means, and sustainable development tool. In RWH, it is important to know how much water can be harvested at a given location from a given catchment size, whether the harvested water meets the in...

Previous studies of the bacterial quality of roof-harvested rainwater have been confined to either detection of specific pathogens and faecal indicator organisms, or epidemiological studies of health effects associated with consumption of stored rainwater. As yet however, a general consensus on tank-water quality has not been reached. In this paper it is proposed that achieving reliable microbi...

Acquiring water is a challenge for desert animals, and organisms inhabiting arid regions have evolved morphological, physiological, and behavioral traits to maintain an appropriate water balance. On four occasions, I observed rain-harvesting or observed behaviors suggestive of rain harvesting in a population of speckled rattlesnakes (Crotalus mitchellii) in the Mojave Desert of southwestern Nor...