RAIN TANK SOFTWARE
The development of software associated with the 'sizing' of rainwater tanks for domestic and industrial applications, has undergone an evolution since the original model was developed for the Handbook - called Procedure 9 - in 2004. This employed spread sheet technology and was based on station daily rainfall records. Procedure 9 could be used to produce graphs showing the relationship between rainwater (quantity) harvested and daily household demand for a range of domestic roof areas and practical rain tank storage volumes ( 1.0 kL to 10 kL). Graphs illustrating output from Procedure 9 for capital cities of Australian states and territories are included in the Handbook as Figures 8.1 to 8.4 inclusive.
The principal shortcoming of Procedure 9 was its dependence on a long-term record being available for any particular location of interest. This deficiency led to the search for a model which could give the same output as Procedure 9, but whose data base was based on regional considerations - sites with characteristics common across members of the five (Australian) climate regions used for pollution control/management practices in the Handbook: these range from tropical in the north to semi-arid in the south of the continent, detailed in Figure 3.8. The resulting step-by-step process was called Procedure 10. The output from Procedure 10 represented a more efficient - more compact - way to present information linking catchment roof area, raintank capacity, daily demand and rainwater (quantity) harvested than given by Procedure 9. It also solved the problem of not having a long-term rainfall record at a particular location of interest.
The next development involved bringing together the best characteristics of both Procedures 9 and 10 and adding other features, in particular, economic considerations. This contribution exists as software which can be accessed (free) by clicking on 'Rain Tank Analyser', below. This software reverts to the Procedure 9 data requirement - a long-term station (daily) rainfall record. But the existence of over 7,000 sites across Australia for which suitable data are available (through Bureau of Meteorology), makes it a satisfactory 'tool' for the great majority of applications. Procedure 10 is (still) appropriate to use in situations which are well removed from any of the sites having long-term daily rainfall records.
The Rain Tank Analyser software includes explanatory notes on a number of its features.
NOTE: Introductory information on Urban Water Resources Centre including background, consulting capabilities/resources and research opportunities etc can be found under http://www.unisa.edu.au/water/research/UWRG/