Efficiency of rainwater harvesting of microcatchments and the role of their design

The results clearly show that the depth of the pit significantly affects evaporative water losses. The losses were separately computed for the soil cylinder whose upper surface is the bottom of the pit and for the surrounding shell. No differences between treatments were evident for losses from the inner cylinder. Significant differences in water losses were however observed for the surrounding shell where the shallow pits losing as much as six times more than the deeper pits.