Title: Rainwater harvesting in urban areas of developed countries. The state of the art (1980-2017)

Authors: Alvaro-Francisco Morote; María Hernández; Saeid Eslamian

Addresses: Department of Didactics of Experimental and Social Sciences, Faculty of Teaching, University of Valencia, Avda Tarongers 4, 46022 Valencia, Apartado de Correos 22045, Spain ' Department of Regional Geographic Analysis and Physical Geography, University of Alicante, Carretera de Sant Vicent del Raspeig, s/n – 03080, Alicante, Spain ' Department of Water Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract: Many urban areas suffer from water scarcity although paradoxically, a local source such as rainwater is mostly treated as a risk rather than a valuable resource. This change of paradigm is included in the 'integrated water resources management' and 'demand management' approach. The aim of this research is to identify and analyse studies that explore subject matters concerning rainwater in the integrated management systems of water resources into developed countries. The research methodology consisted in a literature review (from the 1980s to 2017) of territorial studies that examine rainwater harvesting in urban areas of the developed countries. To this end, a bibliometric analysis has been carried out in different databases according to the definition of keywords. The results reveal five thematic areas were identified and temporal and spatial differences between some subject matters.

Keywords: rainwater; harvesting; integrated water resources; management; developed countries.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHST.2020.109952

International Journal of Hydrology Science and Technology, 2020 Vol.10 No.5, pp.448 - 470

Received: 24 Jul 2018
Accepted: 11 Jan 2019
Published online: 30 Sep 2020 *

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