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Assorted rainwater harvesting images gallery

Collaborating with rainwater’s potential…

Water harvesting and cycling along with the harvest of sun, shade, and food. Illustration: Joe Marshall
Rain is always free.
A home and landscape draining and consuming resources.
Blue arrows denote runoff flow (dots within dirty blue arrows denote sediment). Black arrow denotes electricity flow.
Illustration: Joe Marshall
A home and landscape harvesting and producing resources.
Blue arrows denote cleaner runoff flow. Dirty blue arrows denote dirtier runoff flow. Black arrow denotes electricity flow.
Dashed lines denote greywater pipe. Solar panels and solar hot water heater added to roof.
Illustration: Joe Marshall
A landscape on the wasteful path to scarcity.
Rain, runoff, and topsoil are quickly drained off the landscape to the street where the sediment-laden water contributes to downstream flooding and contamination.
The landscape is dependent upon municipal/well water irrigation and imported fertilizer.
Illustration: Joe Marshall
A landscape on the stewardship path to abundance.
Rain, runoff, leaf drop, and topsoil are harvested and utilized within the landscape contributing to flood control and enhanced water quality.
The system is self-irrigating with rain and self-fertilizing with harvested organic matter.
Illustration: Joe Marshall
Rainfall collected in newly constructed infiltration basins minutes after a large summer storm.
The basins have not yet been mulched or planted.
Milagro Co-housing, Tucson, Arizona.
Design by Brad Lancaster, David Confer, and Tomas Guido Jr..
Photo: Natalie Hill.
Milagro Co-housing basins mulched and vegetated in 2004.
Basins are designed to infiltrate water quickly so there are no problems with mosquitoes or anaerobic soils. These basins, with their spongy mulch and soil-burrowing plant roots, infiltrate all water within 20 minutes.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Milagro Co-housing basins and their thriving vegetation, irrigated solely with passively harvested rainwater and recycled on-site “waste” water, in 2011.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Rain as our landscape’s primary water source.
Illustration: Joe Marshall
Before. Contour berms of woodchips.
Chris Meuli’s land, Edgewood, New Mexico.
Photo: Chris Meuli
After. Abundant growth of new grasses above and below woodchip berms.
Chris Meuli’s land, 2006, post rains.
Photo: Chris Meuli
Water harvesting creates a spring.
Check dam built long ago atop bare bedrock has accumulated a level terrace of soil and organic matter upslope of the dam in which vegetation now thrives. The harvested soil and organic matter acts as a sand tank that quickly infiltrates stormwater flow, then slowly releases it to the plants’ roots, and as a seeping flow over the bedrock that continues to run for weeks after the last rain. Anastasia Rabin enjoys a drink of this tasty water. Pima Canyon, Tucson, Arizona. See “Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 2, 2nd Edition” for more.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Celebrate the rain and its harvest.
Rain garden in Portland, Oregon.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Pure rainwater.
Illustration: Joe Marshall
Rainwater harvesting system at the paradise of the Halape backcountry camp at Volcano National Park, Big Island, Hawaii.
I loved this place. You hike 10 miles to get there. You camp under a coconut palm on a beach of turquoise water. You defecate in a composting toilet with an incredible view of the ocean. And you get all your fresh water from this simple rainwater catchment system.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Rainwater is the best water source for making compost teas.
The Natural Gardener in Austin, Texas only uses rainwater to make its compost teas because the beneficial life flourishes with rainwater, while the harder (higher mineral and salt content) municipal or ground water comparatively tends to inhibit some of the beneficial growth.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Rainwater is the best water source for making compost teas.
The Natural Gardener in Austin, Texas only uses rainwater to make its compost teas because the beneficial life flourishes with rainwater, while the harder (higher mineral and salt content) municipal or ground water comparatively tends to inhibit some of the beneficial growth.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
The Beckoning Cistern and terraced planters.
This 10-foot (3-m) high, 6-foot (1.8-m) diameter metal culvert cistern reaches upward, capturing roof runoff through the hand’s index finger and sending overflow out its thumb. The overflow water is then caught by a series of terraced planters.
Terrace walls double as seating benches.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Beckoning hand cistern reaching for the rain.
Inflow via forefinger, overflow via the thumb to terraced gardens. Vine Street, Seattle, Washington
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Rainwater cisterns doubling as privacy wall/fence. Brisbane, Australia.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Cisterns doubling as privacy wall/fence. Brisbane, Australia.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
A 10,000-gallon (37,850-liter) steel tank with mural collecting roof runoff for irrigation. Children’s Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Stone-clad rainwater cistern at entrance of Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center. Austin, Texas.
An arched aquaduct covered in vines (to right of person walking) brings distant roof runoff to the cistern via gravity.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
A 7,000-gallon (26,460-liter) poured-in-place concrete tank faced with stone doubles as a patio and collects roof runoff for gravity-fed irrigation of citrus trees and other plants below. Tucson, Arizona. Design: Rocky Brittain.
Photo: Brad Lancaster

For more…

Rainwater harvesting resources

Rainwater harvesting case studies

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Active SystemsPassive SystemsRainwater HarvestingStormwater & Street Runoff Harvesting
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