Abstract: Water harvesting is the intentional collection and concentration of rainwater and runoff to offset irrigation demands. Secondary benefits include decreased flood and erosion risk. Water harvesting techniques include micro- and macro-catchment systems, floodwater harvesting, and rooftop and groundwater harvesting. The techniques vary with catchment type and size, and the method of water storage. Micro-catchment water harvesting, for example, requires the development of small structures and targets increased water delivery and storage to the root zone whereas macro-catchment systems collect runoff water from large areas. The sustainability of water harvesting techniques at the local level are usually constrained by several factors such as labor, construction costs, loss of productive land, and maintenance, suggesting that multiple solutions are required to sustain the benefits of water harvesting techniques.

Abstract: Groundwater abstracted from aquifers in the Vale of Pickering, North Yorkshire, UK and monitored over the period 2015–2022, shows evidence of variable but commonly high concentrations of dissolved CH4. Sampled groundwater from the Jurassic organic-rich Kimmeridge Clay Formation (boreholes up to 180 m depth) has concentrations up to 57 mg/L, and concentrations up to 59 mg/L are found in groundwater from underlying confined Corallian Group limestone (borehole depths 50–227 m). The high concentrations are mainly from boreholes in the central parts of the vale. Small concentrations of ethane (C2H6, up to 800 μg/L) have been found in the Kimmeridge Clay and confined Corallian groundwaters, and of propane (C3H8, up to 160 μg/L) in deeper boreholes (110–180 m) from these formations. The concentrations are typically higher in groundwater from the deeper boreholes and vary with hydrostatic pressure, reflecting the pressure control on CH4 solubility. The occurrences contrast with groundwater from shallow Quaternary superficial deposits which have low CH4 concentrations (up to 0.39 mg/L), and with the unconfined and semi-confined sections of the Corallian aquifer (up to 0.7 mg/L) around the margins of the vale. Groundwater from the Quaternary, Kimmeridge Clay formations and to a small extent the confined Corallian aquifer, supports local private-water supplies, that from the peripheral unconfined sections of Corallian also supports public supply for towns and villages across the region. Dissolved methane/ethane (C1/C2) ratios and stable-isotopic compositions (δ13C-CH4, δ2H-CH4 and δ13C-CO2) suggest that the high-CH4 groundwater from both the Kimmeridge Clay and confined Corallian formations derives overwhelmingly from biogenic reactions, the methanogenesis pathway by CO2 reduction. A small minority of groundwater samples shows a more enriched δ13C-CH4 composition (−50 to −44 ‰) which has been interpreted as due to anaerobic or aerobic methylotrophic oxidation in situ or post-sampling oxidation, rather than derivation by a thermogenic route. Few of the existing groundwater sites are proximal to abandoned or disused conventional hydrocarbon wells that exist in the region, and little evidence has been found for an influence on groundwater dissolved gases from these sites. The Vale of Pickering has also been under recent consideration for development of an unconventional hydrocarbon (shale-gas) resource. In this context, the monitoring of dissolved gases has been an important step in establishing the high-CH4 baseline of groundwaters from Jurassic deposits in the region and in apportioning their sources and mechanisms of genesis.

Abstract: Mitigation of localized pluvial flooding is one of the major resiliency goals in urban environments, and Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) has the potential to deliver such an outcome. However, there is a lack of systematic approaches to prioritize investment in different candidate areas. This study provides a framework to identify vulnerable stormwater drainage inlets and their contributing areas, prioritize them, identify dominant factors in their selection, assess the potential of GSI in mitigating their overflows, and compare the impact and its cost to gray infrastructure upgrade alternatives. Using SWMM 5.1.013, decision trees, and a volumetric-based assessment of GSI overflow capture, we applied the framework to the City of Dallas, Texas, for three design storms with three GSI practices— bioretention cells, raingardens, and rainwater harvesting tanks. Results showed that there was a significant increase in the number of overflowing stormwater drainage inlets, referred to as hotspots, and their contributing subwatersheds, referred to as opportunity areas, with more intense storms especially in problematic watersheds. Also, prioritization results provided a series of maps to rank the opportunity areas based on overflow severity, recurrence of the overflows, and GSI availability. Moreover, classification results showed that inlet features, especially the inlet depth, were the dominant factors in the identification of the non-problematic inlets. Finally, the GSI impact assessment showed substantial overflow mitigation even at the “very high” severity levels when GSI is comprehensively deployed across opportunity areas. Despite gray infrastructure upgrades yielding higher reduction levels, their cost per cubic meter was higher than GSI. Therefore, a combination of GSI and gray results in maximum overflow reduction at a lower cost compared to common practices.