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Impluvium

A check at impluvium Enampor in Lower Casamance ( Senegal )

A catchment area is a system for capturing and storing water from rain.

Introduction

It consists mainly of:

a catchment area that can take different forms: roof (eg in the Roman houses), drains cut into the rock (eg some aiguiers ), etc..
a transportation system consisting of pipes of varying lengths covering the distance between the place of capture and storage location
a "reservation" buried or above ground (pool built or carved into the rock, reservoir, tank, tank, etc.).

To this, by geography and by the use of water, can add different elements such as:

filters designed to prevent the arrival of tank contamination
a deflection system for the first rains (so that the roof is washed without contaminating the water tank)
a collection system of surface waters

The word origin is Latin and can be understood in two senses:

It means a large pool shape more or less rectangular in the floor of the atrium of the Roman house. It was designed to receive rainwater. These fell by compluvium (open roof) also originally Etruscan.
It can also refer to both the pool and the roof opening. The current use of the word refers primarily to that effect.