Rain Catchment Data
The small scale rain catchment system that we set up was very successful. It took a while to get all the buckets set up and ready to take data but once all of them were set up, we had 13 buckets total, not including the 3 large bins that acted as the large collection bins.
Nearly every time that it rained, all our buckets were full or overflowing. We developed a system of pouring the water into another bucket so that we could get the first bucket out from under the gutter and then continued on with the rest. Day after day we measured and emptied the water into the large bins we had down there and took data. Eventually when we felt like we had enough data as well as water, we stopped collecting water and data and removed our buckets from under the gutters. When we finally put together our data we were pleasantly surprised.
Here are the table and graph of our data collection.
Here are the table and graph of our data collection.
We had our buckets set up from April 27th to May 10th and in that amount of time, it rained 7 times out of the 14 days. As you can see on the table, for some of the days we didn't have data for certain buckets because in the early days of our project we didn't have as many buckets as we did in the end.
Despite the fact that we didn't have 13 buckets for the entirety of the project and there were certain variables that resulted in us having to get rid of some water, we collected A LOT of water. We filled a 110 gallon bin as well as two 32 gallon trash cans to the brim. In total we collected over 180 gallons of water because there were a few buckets that colluding fit in those bins, as well as some overflowing which leads us to believe that we could potentially collect nearly 200 gallons of water if we had the tools necessary to do so.
Despite the fact that we didn't have 13 buckets for the entirety of the project and there were certain variables that resulted in us having to get rid of some water, we collected A LOT of water. We filled a 110 gallon bin as well as two 32 gallon trash cans to the brim. In total we collected over 180 gallons of water because there were a few buckets that colluding fit in those bins, as well as some overflowing which leads us to believe that we could potentially collect nearly 200 gallons of water if we had the tools necessary to do so.
Once we were done collecting water and data, we began looking for recycled gallon jugs at home and around campus to transport the water. It was very difficult to transport but we made it work and we are still currently watering the māla by the aquaponics as well as giving water to the boarders to water their māla by their dorm.
We are estimating that in 7 days, we were able to collect nearly 200 gallons of water. If after 7 days of collecting water, we were able to collect over 180 gallons of water, imagine how much water we could collect if we made this an ongoing system?