ABSTRACT
This chapter starts with highlighting the fundamentals of Water Cycles in rural and urban areas, detailing their sources, demand measures and supply mechanisms, as well as the strategies the built environment projects can incorporate to reduce the overall water consumption, both indoors and outdoors. Discussing essential strategies to reduce the pressure on and contamination of groundwater in urban areas, Rainwater Harvesting, Stormwater Management and Sustainable Urban Drainage focuses on different methods for effectively implementing water capture, storage, filtration and reuse practices in built areas. Water cycles in urban and rural areas exist in the context of water’s circulation and accumulation on land, below ground and in water bodies, influencing quality of habitats and ecological stability of ecosystems. Water recycling and reuse is a process of treating wastewater by removing contaminants, and utilising it for sanitation, cleaning, agriculture and drinking purposes.
