Development of a rainwater harvesting system for increasing soil moisture in arid rangelands of Pakistan

Soil moisture can be significantly increased with microcatchments that have 4 to 5 m long water catchment aprons and 7 to 15% slope gradients. The increase was by 59% (from 10•9 to 17•3% vol/vol) from the surface to 15 cm depth, by 63% (from 11•5 to 18•8% vol/vol) from 15 to 30 cm depth, and by 80% (from 11•3 to 20•3% vol/vol) from 30 to 45 cm depth. Increases in soil moisture were found in both the late summer and the late winter season when the highest precipitation is received. There are some year-to-year differences depending on how much precipitation is received each year. Rill erosion on the aprons increased with apron length and gradient. Erosion volumes were quite low (14•9 1 to 26•3 1) considering the amount of area of an apron (120 and 150 m2).