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A rainwater harvesting system in buildings with green roofs and a rooftop greenhouse in Pyongyang

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Abstract

A rainwater harvesting system plays an important role in improving water management and implementing sustainable urban development. This present paper aims to conduct a feasibility study of a rainwater harvesting system in buildings with green roofs and a rooftop greenhouse, while analyzing the runoff coefficient and reliability in the Ryomyong street, Pyongyang, the DPR Korea. The results show that the annual average runoff coefficient of the green roofs accounts for an average of 0.12, while the monthly average runoff coefficients varies in a range of 0(Jan.–Apr., Oct.–Dec.)–0.58(Jul.) in the period of 37 years. With regard to the irrigation of rainwater in the rooftop tank to the greenhouse, the water demand in the period of Dec.-Jun. need to be additionally collected from other sources. When rainwater in the tank under the building is additionally supplied to the greenhouse, the annual average reliability increased from 91% (20 m3) to 99% (50 m3) according to the increases in the tank volumes. It shows that, when both the rooftop tank 20 m3 and the tank 50 m3 under the building are used to the water supply, the demand for the greenhouse could be fully met. Moreover, the results show that, on one hand the annual average reliability is not sensitive to increases in the tank volumes, on the other hand, the increase in catchment surface could substantially lead to improving the reliability of the RWH system. The research findings could assist water management authorities and would be valuable for the local planners and managers in the municipality.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are very thankful to the officials of Hydro-Meteorological Bureau and the General Bureau of State Designing who provided the data of daily/monthly precipitation and daily water demand.

Funding

This current study was supported by the Kim Il Sung University, including salaries, equipment, and supplies.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Land Planning, Faculty of Global Environmental Science, KIM IL SUNG University, Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

    C.-U. Kim, Y.-H. Ryu & J.-N. Ri

  2. Department of Environmental Conservation, Faculty of Global Environmental Science, KIM IL SUNG University, Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

    N.-C O

Authors
  1. C.-U. Kim
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  2. Y.-H. Ryu
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  3. N.-C O
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  4. J.-N. Ri
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Contributions

C-UK contributed to Conceptualization; C-UK and Y-HR contributed to methodology; J-NR and Y-HR contributed to data collection; C-UK and N-CO contributed to analysis and investigation; C-UK and N-CO contributed to writing of original draft and preparation; C-UK and J-NR contributed to writing of review and editing.

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Correspondence to C.-U. Kim.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Editorial responsibility: Rui Zhao.

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Supplementary file1 (DOCX 57 KB)

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Kim, CU., Ryu, YH., O, NC. et al. A rainwater harvesting system in buildings with green roofs and a rooftop greenhouse in Pyongyang. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 20, 12295–12306 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-04822-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-04822-y

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