Water harvesting and infiltration in arid areas affected by surface crust: examples from Jordan

In arid and semi-arid areas, surface runoff occurs at low rainfall intensities due to the presence of the surface crust. Variation in surface runoff can be attributed to the variation in rainfall amount and intensity, soil water content, infiltration, and watershed size and slope. Three micro-watersheds were selected within Muwaqar region to investigate runoff–rainfall characteristics and infiltration in soils affected by surface crust. The sites were selected to represent different sizes and slopes with well defined outlets or wadis. Flood measurements were carried out using rectangular sharp-crest contracted weirs and a Steven-water height recorder to record water height above the crest weir. In arid areas affected by surface crusts, increasing watershed size increased total volume of runoff water and decreased both volume of runoff water per unit area and runoff coefficient owing to the fact that increasing watershed size increased infiltration, evaporation and depression storage losses. Owing to reduction in infiltration, evaporation and depression storage losses as the slope of the watershed increases, increasing watershed slope increased total volume of runoff water, volume of runoff water per unit area and runoff coefficient. Rainwater harvesting works best on sloped soil with a surface crust that has a low infiltration rate. This indicates the potential for rainwater harvesting when topography and soil conditions are favourable.