Key physical characteristics used to assess water harvesting suitability

• Statistical analysis to examine existing, functioning water harvesting sites.
• Examine variability and relationships between physical characteristics of existing WH sites.
• WH takes place under a much wider range of landscape conditions than the commonly used guidelines specify.
• The commonly used guidelines only represent optimal conditions.
• New guidelines suggested which account for upper and lower limits of suitability for WH.

Water harvesting (WH) techniques, which aim to increase water availability to crops, have long been used in arid and semi-arid areas to decrease the risk of reduced yields and crop failures due to dry spells. The landscape conditions dictate the type of WH system that can be implemented as well as the quantity and quality of water that will be collected. The measurement and understanding of how these landscape characteristics influence the hydrological function of WH systems is important and essential for further studies which seek to understand and enhance efficiency, extend uptake and model the impacts of WH within a catchment. However, commonly used guidelines often only prescribe optimal conditions for WH which results in many sites which may be suitable being over looked. Various statistical analyses was performed on 28 WH sites gathered from the available literature to try and identify whether the landscape conditions under which WH is currently taking place differs to the recommended guidelines. The results show that WH is taking place under a much broader range of conditions than those recommended by the guidelines. The recommendations for minimum and maximum slope in particular are too restrictive, with examples of successful WH taking place on slopes much steeper than the stipulated guidelines. A new set of guidelines are suggested, which take into account not only optimal conditions but also a range of suitable conditions on either side of the optimal range.