CERIS, Department of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Georesources, IST - University of Lisbon, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001, Lisbon, Portugal.
RISCO - Department of Civil Engineering, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2018 Jul;25(20):19283-19297. doi: 10.1007/s11356-017-0648-0. Epub 2017 Nov 10.
Water is an essential and increasingly scarce resource that should be preserved. The evolution of the human population and communities has contributed to the global decrease of potable water availability and the reduction of its consumption is now compulsory. Rainwater harvesting systems (RWHS) are emerging as a viable alternative source for water consumption in non-potable uses. The present study aims to contribute to the promotion of water efficiency, focusing on the application of rainwater harvesting systems in commercial buildings, and comprises four stages: (i) development of a technical evaluation tool to aid the design of RWHS and support their financial evaluation; (ii) validation of the tool using operational data from an existing RWHS installed at Colombo Shopping Center, in Lisbon, Portugal; (iii) assessment of the sensibility of the technical evaluation tool results to the variation of the inputs, namely the precipitation and consumption, through a parametric analysis for the Colombo Shopping Center; and (iv) comparison of the performance and financial feasibility of hypothetical RWHS in two existing commercial buildings. The technical tool was applied to two Sonae Sierra's shopping centers, one in Portugal and one in Brazil. The installation of a 200-m tank is advised for the first case study, allowing non-potable water savings of 60% but a payback period of about 19 years. In the Brazilian shopping, the implementation of a tank with a capacity ranging from 100 to 400 m leads to non-potable savings between 20 and 50%, but with smaller payback period, under 2 years, due to the relatively lower investment costs and higher water fees.
水是一种必不可少且日益稀缺的资源，应该加以保护。人类人口和社区的发展导致全球可饮用水的供应减少，减少其消耗现在是强制性的。雨水收集系统（RWHS）作为非饮用水消耗的可行替代水源正在出现。本研究旨在促进水的效率，重点是在商业建筑中应用雨水收集系统，包括四个阶段：（i）开发一种技术评估工具，以帮助 RWHS 的设计和支持其财务评估；（ii）使用安装在葡萄牙里斯本 Colombo 购物中心的现有 RWHS 的运行数据验证该工具；（iii）通过对 Colombo 购物中心进行参数分析，评估技术评估工具结果对输入（即降水和消耗）变化的敏感性；以及（iv）比较两个现有商业建筑中假设的 RWHS 的性能和财务可行性。该技术工具已应用于 Sonae Sierra 的两个购物中心，一个在葡萄牙，一个在巴西。建议为第一个案例研究安装一个 200 立方米的水箱，可节省 60%的非饮用水，但投资回收期约为 19 年。在巴西的购物中心，实施容量在 100 至 400 立方米之间的水箱可节省 20%至 50%的非饮用水，但由于投资成本相对较低且水费较高，投资回收期较短，不到 2 年。
