A scoping review of roof harvested rainwater usage in urban agriculture: Australia and Kenya in focus

This review is particularly relevant to three of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (i.e. Cleaner and Sustainable Cities; Health and Wellbeing and No Hunger). It is found that there is a considerable potential to supply water to urban agriculture using customised roof RWH system designs. For example, one study reports that up to 41% of urban horticulture sites in Rome could be sustained by water harvested from local roofs. Irrigating a small garden (20 m2) with harvested rainwater can increase the yield by about 20% meeting the caloric requirements of a typical Indian household. Further research is needed on the integration of roof rainwater harvesting and urban agriculture to maximise its contribution to food production and sustainability.