Feasibility and Implementation Plan for Rainwater Harvesting in Peach Springs, AZ on the Hualapai Indian Reservation

The strain on available freshwater resources has increased during the past century. With nearly half of the global population, roughly 4 billion people, living in conditions of severe water stress for part of the year and with expected climate change in the coming decades, finding additional renewable water resources is crucial to ensure safe drinking water and attain food security. Rainwater harvesting (RWH), the practice of centralizing, collecting, and storing rainwater for later use, has the potential to help alleviate some water stresses in rural communities. Although RWH is not a new concept, it has not been widely practiced in arid and semi-arid environments in the United States. This study assesses the feasibility of rooftop RHW at a small scale, in Peach Springs, Arizona, on the Hualapai Indian Reservation. Working alongside the Federally Recognized Tribal Extension Program (FRTEP) agent for the Hualapai Tribe, this study considers RWH from four prospective buildings to supplement irrigation practices for food production. An average total of ~28,141 liters can be collected from one of the buildings considered for RWH during the growing season of April to September. Annual precipitation amounts were classified into normal, dry, and wet years to assess variability over the last 41 water years. The study indicated that more precipitation is accumulated during the winter, rather than summer, months of a wet year compared to a normal or dry year, where most precipitation is falling during the monsoonal months of July and August. The Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) AquaCrop model was used to determine the area that can be cultivated by four staple crops -maize, tomatoes, dry beans, and sunflowers- that are currently being grown in the community garden, solely using the captured rainwater. Cultivable areas range from 8.7 m2 to 71 m2 depending on the catchment size, crop, and classified precipitation year - wet, dry of normal precipitation year. A total of 81.2 kg of dry corn can be harvested during a normal precipitation year, solely using the collected rainwater. Climate projections for Peach Springs show an increase in average daily temperature which will lead to higher reference evapotranspiration (ETo), resulting in more water needed to sustain a healthy crop yield. Temperature increases and variability in precipitation shown in the climate projections could have an intense effect on crop yields in the Southwest.

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's Degree

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Hernandez Rosales , Brianda N

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lutz, Alexandra

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Albano, Christine
• Rybarski, Susan

• climate
• feasibility
• food security
• rainwater harvesting
• Southwest
• water security

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11714/8190

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarwolf.unr.edu:11714/8190