Rainwater Harvesting Umbrella Scales Up
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 12. 2.08
Rainwater harvesting is a big deal, especially in Australia. Designer Chris Buerckner has developed this idea for a harvesting umbrella for urban sports grounds; it spreads out in the rain to gather water and channel it into an underground tank, and folds up to get out of the way at other times (unless it is being used to provide shade as well)
I do wonder how this is better than just letting the water soak into the ground and be stored naturally; I suppose the release of the water can be more accurately controlled.
And Chris does owe a debt to our Japanese practitioner of Chindogu, the inventor of the Personal Rain Saver. Chris Buerckner via Ecofriend
Rainwater Harvesting, Personalized
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hehe I love that Japanese photo...
anywho, the concept is actually for Sports grounds. We're in a big drought at the moment here in australia and during the summer our grounds go as hard as concrete. The idea is to collect rain water, from outside the playing surface, during the winter months and then use that stored water to maintain the playing surfaces over the summer months :)
cheers
Chris