Practice
Rainwater harvesting
Also known as: Rainwater catchment, Rain harvesting
Capturing rainfall — typically from rooftops — for direct use, storage, or infiltration into the landscape. Practiced for thousands of years (Roman cisterns, Indian step-wells, traditional Iranian qanats). Modern rainwater harvesting ranges from simple rain barrels (50-100 gallons, garden irrigation) to large household cisterns (5,000-30,000 gallons, full domestic supply) to industrial-scale water-management infrastructure. Brad Lancaster's Tucson, Arizona work and the Indian Centre for Science and Environment's rainwater-revival in Rajasthan are foundational modern references.
Forms of rainwater harvesting
- Rain barrels — 50-100 gallons; simple, garden-irrigation-only
- Above-ground cisterns — 1,000-10,000+ gallons; can supply meaningful household demand
- Below-ground cisterns — 5,000-30,000+ gallons; full household water supply in suitable climates
- Earthworks (passive harvesting) — swales, basins, berms that direct rainfall into [[soil|the soil]] rather than away
- Roof-to-garden direct flow — rainfall directed via downspouts and channels to garden beds
- Greywater + rainwater integration — multi-source water systems
Math
A 1,000-square-foot roof in a 30-inch-annual-rainfall area produces ~18,000 gallons of rainwater per year. With a 5,000-gallon cistern and conservative use, this can supply substantial portions of household water. In drier climates, larger storage and more conservative use are needed; in wetter climates, smaller storage works.
Brad Lancaster (Tucson)
Brad Lancaster’s home in Tucson, [[sedona|Arizona]], harvests 100,000+ gallons of rainwater per year through cistern and earthwork combinations. His two-volume Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond (2006-2008) is the canonical English-language reference. His advocacy work with the Tucson city government produced one of the U.S.’s most-developed urban rainwater-harvesting policy frameworks.
Indian Rajasthan revival
Through the 1980s-2000s, the Centre for Science and Environment (Anil Agarwal, Sunita Narain) and grassroots Tarun Bharat Sangh (Rajendra Singh) led a revival of traditional rainwater-harvesting structures (johads, talabs, baoris) across Rajasthan. Tens of thousands of johads were rebuilt; recharged aquifers brought back rivers that had run dry; villages that had been abandoned to drought repopulated. Rajendra Singh is sometimes called “the waterman of India” for this work.
Permitting and policy
- States with permissive rainwater-harvesting laws — Texas, [[sedona|Arizona]], New Mexico, [[asheville|North Carolina]], others actively encourage
- States with restrictive laws — [[boulder|Colorado]] historically restricted, since liberalized; some Western states have water-rights complications
- Internationally — most countries permit; many encourage with subsidies
See also
Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.
- Shares approach with: [[water-cycle]] · [[earthship]]
- Member of: [[practice]]
Sources
- Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Brad Lancaster (Rainsource Press, multiple volumes)
- Dying Wisdom, Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narain (CSE, 1997)
- Texas Water Development Board rainwater-harvesting guides
Rooted in life.
What links here, and how
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Practical
counterpart to
- Dryland Farming rainwater-harvesting concentrates water onto growing zones; dryland-farming spreads management across whole field to capture diffuse rainfall in soil profile
shares approach with
- Earthship Earthships harvest, filter, and reuse all water on-site through a four-stage water system
- Greywater greywater and rainwater harvesting are complementary household-water strategies — multi-source water cycling
- Living roof living roofs reduce stormwater runoff and slow rainfall; complement rainwater-harvesting systems
- Off-grid living off-grid homes often harvest rainwater; some (Earthships) use rainwater as primary water source
opposes
- Groundwater Depletion concentrating rainwater into recharge zones, alongside reducing aquifer extraction, is part of the structural answer
6 inbound links · 3 outbound