Enhancing Sustainability in Construction

Introduction

Rainwater harvesting is one of the essential techniques that can be used for the storage of rainwater before it reaches the actual aquifer. It is one of the easiest methods and classified into two different categories like "Roadside Rainwater Harvesting" and "Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting". Thus the rainwater that is falling on the roads around the buildings can be stored for a different purpose using this concept. L& D is a medium-sized company that basically works on a contract and dealing with civil and construction projects. They were appointed for the project that is "Student residence hall" and it will be entirely based on the "Winston Churchill avenue". Thus the project is classified or divided into different subcategories and in this study the method of rainwater collection under the superstructure section will be discussed. The primary objective of the study is to identify different methods related to rainwater-collection that can be utilized for roads and parking runoff.

Discussion

The different methods that can be used for the collection of rainwater for roof and parking runoff will be discussed or evaluated in this section. This method will help the better utilization of resources for a project that will be undertaken.

Method of rainwater collection for roads and the parking runoff

Rain Barrels: It is one of the most common methods that can be used for the project. It basically involves the installation of a typical barrel at the "gutter downspout" to help collect rainwater (Boers and Ben-Asher, 2018). The barrel might be a recycled one or a newly manufactured one. There are many benefits of using this method for the rainwater collection of roads and parking like it can easily get implemented without the involvement of any critical process or stages for any construction project. It is available easily at any store and is fitted with any location (watercache.com, 2020). [Referred to Appendix 2]

“WET” System method: It is the method of rainwater collection that can be followed by the project. It basically includes locating the number of collective pipes that are situated underground so that to connect with the multiple numbers of downspouts from a various list of gutters. Thus the rainwater will able to fill the pipes located underground and hence the water level gets increased until and unless it finally gets spills to the respective tanks. This method can be beneficial for the roads and parking of the project as it has the capability to collect a large collection of rainwater from the gutter and the downspouts (Kadam et al. 2012).

Rain saucer method: The "Rain saucer" method can be useful for the collection of rainwater and it is easier to get installed at any location without any probability of obstacles. The rain-saucer fills us faster and it gets unfold to form the funnel that easily fills the space of content within it. It is very easy to get deployed as it catches the rain directly from sky and stores it without any contamination.

Rain-Reservoir method: The water that is falling on the top of the roof of construction building can be allowed to run through utilization of pipe and then stored in tank or slump. This water gets easily filtered and finally after removing all particles it can get accumulated in rainwater harvest tanks. Thus it can be utilized for the purpose of roads and parking in the project. It will also be helpful in saving a larger part of the environment through the corrector accurate utilization of rainwater (thebetterindia.com, 2020).

Soil storage and Infiltration system: The method can be applied for the collection of rainfall runoffs from the roof and roads of buildings. The system is basically consisting of the gutter with downspouts so that it can be able to collect the runoff from the roof. It is useful to reduce the volume of the actual runoff that is analyzed to contain a larger part of the contamination of pollution (Ward et al. 2016). It is also adaptable to get used at any constructive location without many difficulties (agrilifeextension.tamu.edu, 2020)

Tarp method for collecting Rainwater: The slope can be created at one side of the road so that the water gets collected at one corner through road runoff. It needs proper measurement of Tarp so that it provides a better inclination for the water storage.

The rooftop harvesting method can also be applicable for the construction of the project using different components like catchment, first flush, transportation and filter. The method is mostly used concept for the construction of any project and thus it will be useful for the project of "Student residence hall" also. The catchment is the area of a roof that receives the maximum amount of rainfall directly to the surface. Thus it can store a large amount of rainwater for the purpose of the project. The first-flushing method is one of the appreciative methods that can be used to ensure that whatever pollutants are contaminated in the rainwater does not affect the construction The components like the filter is used in "rooftop rainwater harvesting method" to remove all the pollutants collected in a large amount for the roof. The filter can be classified into different types like "Sand Filters", "Dewas filters" and many others. The construction of "water harvesting ponds" can be also used for recharging the groundwaters through the help of seepage pits. Thus it allows a large amount of surface runoff to get entered into the wells or through other sources of water. [Referred to Appendix 1]

Conclusion

There are many useful methods like "rooftop rainwater harvesting" that can be used as analyzed in the study for the construction of the project. The collection of the rainwater for the "roads and parking runoff" can be done using the above discussed method. But there needs proper maintenance and measurement for each method as it might reduce the process if not installed or constructed properly. Thus it can be recommended that before adopting any method the proper measurement and the calculation must be done and then it must be finalized.

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Reference List

Boers, T.M. and Ben-Asher, J., 2018. A review of rainwater harvesting. Agricultural water management, 5(2), pp.145-158.

Kadam, A.K., Kale, S.S., Pande, N.N., Pawar, N.J. and Sankhua, R.N., 2012. Identifying potential rainwater harvesting sites of a semi-arid, basaltic region of Western India, using SCS-CN method. Water resources management, 26(9), pp.2537-2554.

Ward, S., Memon, F.A. and Butler, D., 2016. Rainwater harvesting: model-based design evaluation. Water Science and Technology, 61(1), pp.85-96.