Manage Overflow to the Advantage of the Environment
You must plan for overflow. Properly managed a rainwater catchment system can rapidly exceed any storage capacitiy that you have created very rapidly in most areas. Creating a diverse and dense biocover in the path of the overflow allows for the water to be absorbed and positively impact the area.
Rain in drylands generally runs off leaving no positive effect on the soil, foliage or environment.
Catchement basins and marsh areas allow water to stand and slowly perculate into the ground increasing the water table (level of ground water).
Rainwater is Inefficient If Not Harvested
Some people fear rainwater catchment in the belief that such practices will harm the environment. Done wisely, that cannot be further from the truth. In fact this is what happens to unhavested rainwater, 30-35% of rainwater gets evaporated into the atmosphere annually, 50-55% runs of into the salt oceans becoming complex to make potable and worthless to the ground water table, soil and crops. Less than 10% of the rain becomes moisture in the soil feeding vegitation. Less than 3% actually enters into and adds to the ground water.
The fact is that rain comes down (generally) at a rate and volume far exceeding the ability of the surrounding environment to absorb and make use of. The result of the uncontrolled excess is erosion, destruction of habitats, flooding and more.
There is little likelihood that you could ever build or afford the storage capacity to store rain water in an amount that would negatively impact the environment.
How Rain Water Relates to the Environment
Simple Calculation
.559 X square feet of surface X inches of rain = # of Gallons
Consider the impact in real terms:
If 1 inch of rain fell today on a one square mile area and you were able to capture all of it the amount of rain that you would have to store would be 187,008,307.2 gallons of water.
The average person in the USA uses 100 gallons of water each day. That means that in one year each person needs 36500 gallons of water to maintain their normal lifestyle.
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