Page 237 - Çevre Şehir ve İklim Dergisi İngilizce - Özel Sayı

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Spain has launched a subsidy program to promote rainwater use in new
buildings (Domènech & Saurí, 2011). France, on the other hand, introduced a
regulation in 2008 that promoted the use of rainwater use through a tax credit
(De Gouvello et al, 2014). In Italy, technical guidelines for rainwater harvest
have been published (UNI, 2012).
The popularity of rainwater harvesting systems is also increasing in other
European countries like Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, and Denmark. This is
largely due to the increased prices of drinking water (Godskesen et al., 2013;
Ringelstein, 2015). Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm, Sweden, is considered
a good example to water-sensitive and sustainable urban development
practices like rainwater harvesting as well as street runoff water harvesting
(Iveroth et al, 2013).

2.6 Countries of the Americas

The rainwater harvesting practices in the American continent varies across
countries and even states. In the United States, rainwater harvesting systems
are used in over 100.000 homes, typically implemented as simple rain barrels
at the end of downspouts or as more complex large-scale systems, including
those for drinking water use (Lye, 2002). Texas is one of the states with
widespread application of water harvesting systems. In the cities of Austin ve
San Antonio, there are local subsidy programs to promote the installation of
rainwater harvesting systems to increase water conservation. In other states
like Oregon and New Mexico, roof surface rainwater harvesting is allowed
under certain conditions.
Field studies conducted by Debusk et al. (2013) are based on monitoring
different rainwater harvesting systems in the southeast of the US. Two systems
used for cleaning animal pens and irrigating greenhouses have reduced
drinking water demand by 100% and 61%, respectively.
In South America, the potential benefits of rainwater harvesting were utilized
in many areas and pilot applications were made. For example, the “One Million
Cisterns” program launched in Brazil in 2001 aimed to benefit approximately
two million people in rural semi-arid regions without access to drinking water by
constructing over 350,000 cisterns (De Moraes & Rocha, 2013).

3 Work done in Türkiye

In Türkiye, in addition to the water harvesting methods used for plant
production, roof surface water harvesting is also widely practiced. General
Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies (TAGEM) has utilized the
micro-catchment harvesting technique, semi-circular bunds in pistachio

224 Journal of Environment, Urban and Climate