Department of Civil Engineering, Laboratory of Energy Efficiency in Buildings, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil.
J Environ Manage. 2022 Dec 1;323:116163. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116163. Epub 2022 Sep 12.
Despite having abundant water sources, some Brazilian regions are likely to face water scarcity within the following decades. In this sense, rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems are considered viable solutions. This study evaluates the influence of rainfall time series indicators on the tank sizes, volumetric reliability and potential for potable water savings in residential buildings in Brazil. The study aimed to determine the most suitable rainfall conditions for RWH systems design. RWH systems were simulated for 27 Brazilian cities considering a daily water balance model. Total water demands and rainfall time series were considered for each city, and RWH-relevant indicators characterised each time series. Generally, cities with higher rainfall availability required smaller tank sizes and yielded greater volumetric reliabilities and potential for potable water savings. Cluster analysis was also used to investigate if similar rainfall patterns generate similar simulation results. Euclidean distance criteria grouped similar time series into ten clustering schemes. Coefficients of variation for tank sizes decreased within each scenario as more clusters were used, i.e. this method is feasible to design rainwater storage tanks. The remaining performance indicators did not show significant variation among the tested clustering scenarios. Similarity analysis resulted in increasingly similar results within each group as the clustering became more refined. As the main conclusion, correlation analysis presented the Seasonality index and indicators related to dry periods as the most influential towards the performance of RWH systems.
尽管拥有丰富的水源，但在未来几十年内，一些巴西地区可能面临水资源短缺的问题。在这种情况下，雨水收集（RWH）系统被认为是可行的解决方案。本研究评估了降雨时间序列指标对巴西住宅建筑中水箱尺寸、体积可靠性和饮用水节约潜力的影响。本研究旨在确定最适合 RWH 系统设计的降雨条件。考虑到每日水量平衡模型，对 27 个巴西城市的 RWH 系统进行了模拟。为每个城市考虑了总需水量和降雨时间序列，并为每个时间序列确定了与 RWH 相关的指标。通常，降雨量较大的城市需要较小的水箱尺寸，并且具有更高的体积可靠性和饮用水节约潜力。聚类分析还用于研究相似的降雨模式是否会产生相似的模拟结果。欧几里得距离标准将相似的时间序列分为十个聚类方案。随着使用的聚类数量的增加，水箱尺寸的变异系数在每个方案中都有所降低，即这种方法可以有效地设计雨水储存水箱。其余的性能指标在测试的聚类方案中没有显示出显著的变化。相似性分析表明，随着聚类变得更加精细，每个组内的结果越来越相似。作为主要结论，相关性分析表明，季节指数和与干旱期相关的指标对 RWH 系统的性能影响最大。
