Rain Water Harvesting techniques in urban areas

Rain Water Harvesting in Urban Areas

In urban areas, rain water available from roof tops of buildings, paved and unpaved areas goes waste. This water can be recharged to aquifer and can be utilized gainfully at the time of need. The rain water harvesting system needs to be designed in a way that it does not occupy large space for collection and recharge system. A few techniques of roof top rain water harvesting in urban areas are described below.

Roof Top Rain Water Harvesting Through Recharge Pit

• In alluvial areas where permeable rocks are exposed on the land surface or at very shallow depth, roof top rain water harvesting can be done through recharge pits.
• The technique is suitable for buildings having a roof area of 100 sq.m. and are constructed for recharging the shallow aquifers.
• Recharge Pits may be of any shape and size and are generally constructed 1 to 2 m. wide and 2 to 3 . deep which are back filled with boulders (5-20 cm),gravels (5-10mm) and coarse sand (1.5- 2mm) in graded form. Boulders at the bottom, gravels in between and coarse sand at the top so that the silt content that will come with runoff will be deposited on the top of the coarse sand layer and can easily be removed. For smaller roof area, pit may be filled with broken bricks/ cobbles.
• A mesh should be provided at the roof so that leaves or any other solid waste / debris is prevented from entering the pit and a desilting /collection chamber may also be provided at the ground to arrest the flow of finer particles to the recharge pit.
• The top layer of sand should be cleaned periodically to maintain the recharge rate.
• By-pass arrangement be provided before the collection chamber to reject the first showers.

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Rain Water Harvesting to augment ground water resources

Rain Water Harvesting to augment ground water resources

Rain water harvesting is the technique of collection and storage of rain water at surface or in sub-surface aquifers, before it is lost as surface run-off. The augmented resource can be harvested in the time of need. Artificial recharge to ground water is a process by which the ground water reservoir is augmented at rate exceeding that under natural conditions of replenishment.

Rain Water Harvesting Need

To overcome the inadequacy of waters to meet our demands.
To arrest decline in ground water levels.
To enhance availability of ground water at specific place and time and utilize rain water for sustainable development.
To increase infiltration of rain water in the subsoil which has decreased drastically in urban areas due to paving of open area.
To improve ground water quality by dilution.
To increase agriculture production.
To improve ecology of the area by increase in vegetation cover, etc.

Rain Water Harvesting Advantages

Cost of recharge to sub-surface reservoir is lower than surface reservoirs.
The aquifer serves as distribution system also.
No land is wasted for storage purpose and no population displacement is involved.
Ground water is not directly exposed to evaporation and pollution.
Storing water underground is environment friendly.
It increases the productivity of aquifer.
It reduces flood hazards.
Effects rise in ground water levels.
Mitigates the effects of drought.
Reduces soil erosion.

Design Considerations:

The important aspects to be looked into for designing a rainwater harvesting system to augment ground water resources are: -

Hydrogeology of the area including nature and extent of aquifer, soil cover, topography, depth to water level and chemical quality of ground water.
The availability of source water, one of the prime requisite for ground water recharge, basically assessed in terms of non-committed surplus monsoon runoff.
Area contributing run off like area available, land use pattern, industrial,residential, green belt, paved areas, roof top area etc.
Hydrometerological characters like rainfall duration, general pattern and intensity of rainfall.

Potential Areas

Where ground water levels are declining on regular basis.
Where substantial amount of aquifer has been de-saturated.
Where availability of ground water is inadequate in lean months.
Where due to rapid urbanization, infiltration of rain water into subsoil has decreased drastically and recharging of ground water has diminished.

Methods & Techniques

The methods of ground water recharge mainly are:

Urban Areas 
Roof Top Rain Water /Storm run off harvesting through
i) Recharge Pit
ii) Recharge Trench
iii) Tubewell
iv) Recharge Well

Rural Areas 

Rain Water Harvesting through
i) Gully Plug
ii) Contour Bund
iii) Gabion Structure
iv) Percolation tank
v) Check Dam/ Cement Plug/ Nala Bund
vi) Recharge shaft
vii) Dugwell Recharge
viii) Ground Water Dams/Subsurface Dyke

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Front Desk Architects Project Profile

FDArchitects Projects Profile


Front Desk Architects is an architectural design firm based in Jaipur having successfully completed different building types as institutional, commercial, industrial, health care, etc.  We believe in on time delivery, considering the functional, aesthetic and financial aspects.

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Heat transmission : Convection, Conduction and Radiation

Heat transmission

Thermal insulation is the reduction of heat transfer between objects in thermal contact or in range of radiative influence.

Acoustic Insulation is any means of reducing the intensity of sound with respect to a specified source and receptor.

How Heat Is Transmitted



Conduction: the transmission of heat from one molecule to another within a material or from one material to another when they are held in direct contact.

Convection: the transfer of heat by another agent, such as air or water. Convection Currents: the flow of air that is created within the space.

Radiation: the transmission of heat through a wave motion, similar to the way light is transmitted.

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Thermal and Acoustic Insulation : Vermiculite Concrete

Vermiculite Concrete : Insulation material

Vermiculite lightweight insulating concrete is highly suitable for building. A 5:1 – vermiculite to cement mixing ratio, it is light, insulating and, fire resistant with a great degree of sound absorption .

Comparing the insulating lightweight concrete produced by mixing vermiculite and cement, depending on how it is mixed, this concrete is around 80% to 90% less heavy in weight sense, per same volume, than a conventional heavy/hard concrete. One inch or 25.4mm of vermiculite insulation layer thickness will have the equal insulating property values as 508 millimeters – 20″ thick regular concrete layer has.

Lighter in weight is better” is the rule for insulating. 
As loose-fill insulation: Exfoliated vermiculite treated with a water repellent is used to fill the pores and cavities of masonry construction and hollow blockwork to enhance fire ratings (e.g. Underwriters Laboratories Wall and Partition designs), insulation and acoustic performance. Coarse grades of exfoliated vermiculite can be used to insulate lofts and attics. Exfoliated vermiculite has the benefit of being easy to use with application consisting of pouring the vermiculite between the joists and then leveling

It depends on the size and how they pop it; crushed volcanic mineral rock goes into kilns and in the heat they pop it just like a pop corn in the heat. The result is the mineral puff enlarges, expands into vermiculite in the heat and becomes that light.

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