Contributing to the sustainable use of stormwater: the role of pervious pavements

Abstract

The city of Melbourne, Australia is experiencing a water crisis with potable water storage reservoirs at an all time low. With increasing urbanisation there is an ever increasing need to research and explore sustainable water management initiatives. There is potential to minimise the negative impacts of stormwater runoff and augment dwindling supplies of potable water through adoption of pervious paving technology. The traditional approach to stormwater management has focused on constructing drainage networks to carry stormwater away from developed areas as quickly as possible to avoid the risk of flooding. The main aim of this research project was to establish relationships between rainfall intensity, infiltration rate and pervious pavement runoff and to examine the improvement to stormwater quality after infiltrating through pervious pavements. This paper describes the laboratory experiment set-up to determine the infiltration patterns and stormwater quality improvement for simulated storms precipitating on pervious pavements. Next, the scaling-up of the experimental rig to a field-based trial is explained. Preliminary results from this work are presented to demonstrate the potential benefits of pervious pavements in the Australian landscape.

Groundwater Contamination Potential from Infiltration of Urban Stormwater Runoff

“…Enterococci removal was statistically significant only in the peat-sand column. Microbially-contaminated sediments often function as a reservoir in which microorganisms can persist (Jensen, 2002).…”

“…Research is ongoing at field installations and laboratories both in the U.S. and in other countries. Active researchers in the water-quality impacts of, and controlling factors for, infiltration through both engineered and natural soils include several researchers in Florida, Villanova University, the University of New Hampshire, North Carolina State University, the University of Maryland, the U.S. EPA Urban Watershed Management Branch (investigations in both New Jersey and Kansas City, Missouri), France, Germany, Norway, Australia, and Switzerland (Davis, 2008;Dechesne et al, 2005;Dechesne et al, 2001;Dierkes et al, 2006;Emerson et al, 2008;Ferguson, 1990;Fischer et al, 2003;Guo et al, 2006;Hathhorn and Yonge, 2005;Hatt et al, 2007;Hatt et al, 2008;Hsieh and Davis et al, 2007a,b;Hunt et al, 2008;Jayasuriya et al, 2007;Kumar et al, 2006;Kwiatkowski et al, 2007;Li and Davis, 2008a, b;Lucas and Greenway, 2008;Marcos et al, 2002;McKenzie and Irwin, 1988;Mikkelsen et al, 1997;Muthanna et al, 2007a,b;Nogaro et al, 2007;Osenbruck et al, 2007;Sample and Heaney, 2006;Sansalone and Glenn, 2007;SRF Consulting Group, 2004;Sun and Davis, 2007;Thomas, 2000;Van Cuyk and Siegrist, 2007;Warnaars et al, 1999;Welker et al, 2006;Zhang and Ross, 2007;Zheng et al, 2006;Zomorodi, 2006).…”

A Review of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems Considering the Climate Change and Urbanization Impacts

“…The process of city development can not only cause a significant change in runoff patterns in terms of both peak flow volumes and speed of runoff due to its impacts on impervious surfaces [3,4], but also vulnerabilities to flood hazards due to the change in urban intensity and distribution [5,37,38]. Meanwhile, land cover modifications generally associated with the economic explosion, such as removal of vegetative surface, replacement of raw land with impervious pavements, clearance and filling of natural ponds and streams, could induce increased amount of pollutants and harm the quality of urban water systems [7,[39][40][41][42]]. …”

“…One successful application of permeable pavements to mitigate stormwater runoff was presented in Jayasuriya et al, which shows the potential of pervious pavement to reduce peak flow and to improve water quality in extreme rainfall [41]. Stewart and Hytiris demonstrated a case study using SUDS techniques (mainly swales, filter drains and an infiltration basin) to mitigate the risk of flooding in a new development area [47].…”

Applications of SuDS Techniques in Harvesting Stormwater for Landscape Irrigation Purposes: Issues and Considerations

“…The eicacy of pervious pavements in intercepting and immobilising or degrading traic-derived pollutants has been the subject of a large body of research in many countries including England [14,15], Scotland [16], Spain [17], Australia [18,19] and the USA [20].…”