Date

2021-2

Author

Ruso, Mustafa

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Rainwater harvesting is a sustainable water resources management technique to harvest, store and reuse rainwater through rainwater harvesting systems (RWHSs). This study aims to determine the optimum rainwater storage (RWS) tank size of a RWHS to minimize the cost of water supplied from the utility network, wastewater cost and the RWS tank cost to attain the maximum financial benefit and analyze the rainwater harvesting potential for Northern Cyprus. A Linear Programming (LP) model is developed to achieve this aim. The LP model considers the daily precipitation data, the collector area at the roof of the building, the water consumption per capita, the number of residents, the unit water cost, the unit wastewater cost, the unit cost of the RWS tank and the discount rate as inputs. This model is applied to 33 case study locations (CSLs) selected from semi-arid Northern Cyprus, Cyprus Island, Eastern Mediterranean. Results show that the RWHS investment is financially feasible for almost one-third of the CSLs investigated. The optimum RWS tank sizes at the CSLs are calculated to range from 1.6 m3 to 3.2 m3. The financial benefit and the RWS tank size’s sensitivity to the number of residents, the collector area, the discount rate, the daily average water consumption per capita and the RWS tank unit cost are further analyzed. Sensitivity analysis results show that the utilization of accurate parameters in the LP model is necessary because the change in the parameters affects the optimum RWS tank size and the net financial benefit of the RWHS considerably. From the environmental point of view, a total annual CO2 equivalent emission of 444 ton/year, a total annual social carbon cost of nearly 150,000 TL/year (i.e., $18,750/year) and a total annual electrical energy generation cost of 640,000 TL/year (i.e., $80,000/year), resulting from Turkey – Northern Cyprus Water Supply Project, can be avoided if RWHSs are implemented at Girne, Mağusa, İskele and Lefke.

Subject Keywords

Sustainable water use, Rainwater harvesting, Linear programming, Optimum tank size, Cost minimization

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/93026

Collections

Northern Cyprus Campus, Thesis