Performance of pervious pavement parking bays storing rainwater in the north of Spain

Abstract

Pervious pavements are drainage techniques that improve urban water management in a sustainable manner. An experimental pervious pavement parking area has been constructed in the north of Spain (Santander), with the aim of harvesting good quality rainwater. Forty-five pervious pavement structures have been designed and constructed to measure stored water quantity and quality simultaneously. Ten of these structures are specifically constructed with different geotextile layers for improving water storage within the pavements. Following the confirmation in previous laboratory experiments that the geotextile influenced on water storage, two different geosynthetics (Inbitex and a One Way evaporation control membrane) and control pervious pavements with no geotextile layers were tested in the field. Weather conditions were monitored in order to find correlations with the water storage within the pervious pavement models tested. During one year of monitoring the three different pervious pavement types tested remained at their maximum storage capacity. The heavy rain events which occurred during the experimental period caused evaporation rates within the pervious pavements to be not significant, but allowed the researchers to observe certain trends in the water storage. Temperature was the most closely correlated weather factor with the level of the water stored within the pervious pavements tested.

Water quality and quantity assessment of pervious pavements performance in experimental car park areas

“…Figure 1 shows the general car park bay features and details of the manhole access for sampling. Each car park bay in the three experimental parking areas was designed and constructed in order to store stormwater separately (Gomez-Ullate et al (2010). This was achieved by tanking the bays individually using a waterproof bituminous membrane, protected from damage due to the sub-base aggregates with a geotextile.…”

“…Others including pH, Electric Conductivity (EC) and Dissolved Oxygen (DO) were chosen as they represent water quality parameters used in previous research (Gomez-Ullate et al 2010). Finally, Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) were measured since they have been found to be one of the most common pollutants present in runoff (Horner et al, 1994).…”

Water Quality Improvement Performance of Geotextiles Within Permeable Pavement Systems: A Critical Review

“…Different types of pervious pavements were tested in Northern Spain [33][34][35]. Pervious surface materials had a greater effect than the geotextile layer in terms of water quality improvements.…”

An evaluation of enhanced geotextile layer in permeable pavement to improve stormwater infiltration and attenuation

“…PPS's efficiency as a tool for source control is due to its capability to infiltrate stormwater into hard surfaces and gradually attenuate it into the soil or a drainage outlet (Newman et al 2003). The PPS have been shown by previous studies to be capable of removing most stormwater pollutants especially hydrocarbons through filtration, sorption and biodegradation (Coupe 2004;Brattebo and Booth 2004;Newman et al 2006;Gomez-Ullate et al 2010).…”

“…Numerous studies have shown that the geotextile material is an important component of the PPS design which is effective in stormwater pollutant retention (e.g. by filtering out heavy metals and adsorbing hydrocarbons) and serves as the site for biodegradation process within the system (Pratt, 1995;Bond, 1999;Coupe 2004;Culleton et al 2005;Newman et al 2006;Nnadi 2009;Gomez-Ullate et al 2010) and hence must be incorporated in the design in order not to compromise the efficiency of the system.…”