Enhancing rainwater harvesting with short-term rainfall forecasts in water sensitive cities

Rainwater harvesting performance is examined in Brisbane and Sydney for three rainwater tank configurations comprising: 1) A conventional 5 kL tank; 2) A 5 kL tank with a fixed leaking compartment for baseflow (240 L/d); and 3) As withleaking but including a variable diversion compartment (480 L/day) controlled by short-term rainfall forecasts. This concept is referred to as adaptive rainwater diversion (ARD). Result show the ARD system achieves superior emulation ofpre-urban runoff frequencies, runoff volumes and baseflows, while maintaining the household rainwater supply to within 90% of conventional systems, and also while producing an additional water resources of up to 60 kL/hh/y. With these outcomes, the ARD system could potentially create an avenue to approach water sensitive cities inEastern Australia.