Stormwater Quality Benefits of Permeable Pavement Systems with Deep Aggregate Layers

Abstract

Green infrastructure (GI) stormwater control measures (SCMs), such as permeable pavement systems, are common practices used for controlling stormwater runoff. In this paper, two permeable pavement strips were studied to quantify their water quality performance. The quality monitoring was coupled with comprehensive rainfall analysis to investigate the effects of common rainfall characteristics on the quality performance of the systems. The pavements utilized deep aggregate layers to promote higher infiltration, and were installed in parking lanes of an urban neighborhood. Water quality samples were collected from upgradient stormwater runoff and from stormwater captured by the permeable pavements. In addition to total suspended solids (TSS), nutrients, and dissolved metals, this research also investigated bacterial contamination (Escherichia coli, E. coli). The results indicated that the two permeable pavement systems significantly reduced concentrations of TSS, E. coli, total phosphorus, and ammonia. The average reductions of TSS and E. coli between the two systems were 47% and 69%, respectively. It was also observed that pollutant loadings in the stormwater runoff, as well as pollutant reductions, were affected by the intensity of sampled rainfall events. Thus, it is suggested to consider the effects of rainfall characteristics when reporting the water quality benefits of stormwater GIs.

A Comparison of Three Types of Permeable Pavements for Urban Runoff Mitigation in the Semi-Arid South Texas, U.S.A

“…The performance of permeable pavements has not been totally consistent globally but the overall results have been very positive to improve water quality and runoff. Some researchers have recommended continued field data collection from permeable pavements and other LID control practices for different climatic regions (cold, subtropical, and semi-arid) and geographic locations with specific land use including low traffic areas, such as parking lots, walkways, parking lanes, highway shoulders [38,44,51,57]. Current research trends suggest an assessment of optimal permeable pavement system design for different climatic regions through field investigations of performance and analysis of parameters that affect the performance [60].…”

“…For comparison, a total of four TSS and BOD 5 samples (Tables S6-S8) were analyzed for COB-PCP, COB-TAP, and CCDD#1-PICP during the monitoring period. Although our number of water quality samples for these two sites was sparse, the dataset was justifiable in the assessment BMPs performance, as advocated by previous studies [48][49][50][51]. TSS concentration was relatively high in those pavement surfaces in comparison to values from the International Stormwater Database (ISD).…”

“…The results from recent research suggest that the hydrologic performance of permeable pavements can be affected by many factors, such as surface type, pavers geometrical configurations (e.g., block dimensions, spacing, cross-sectional design, aggregate characteristics, and climatic conditions (e.g., rainfall depth and intensity), and soil conditions [44,46,51,[57][58][59][60]. This work emphasized how permeable pavement performance can be affected by as-built design properties in terms of surface and base reservoir in the semi-arid climatic region based on design values and aggregate properties.…”

Optimal Planning of Low-Impact Development for TSS Control in the Upper Area of the Cau Bay River Basin, Vietnam

“…Braswell et al [9] indicated that the TSS removal efficiency of a series consisting of permeable interlocking concrete pavement and a proprietary box filter reached 96%. Abdollahian and Kazemi [10] pointed out that the TSS removal efficiency of permeable pavement was in the range of 47-69%. The event mean concentration reduction rate of suspended solids (SS) of all types of extensive green roofs ranged from 64.3-73.1% [11].…”

Development of Test Equipment for Evaluating Hydraulic Conductivity of Permeable Block Pavements

“…Permeable pavements have been recognized as a cost-effective source control measure that can reduce discharge peak rates and runoff volumes, which can eventually eradicate the risk of downstream flooding [1,[3][4][5][6]. This pavement material has also proven its ability to improve water quality by filtering stormwater pollutants, including oils, suspended solids, chemicals, and organic materials [7][8][9][10][11]. As shown in Table 1, permeable pavements are effective in eliminating suspended solids in particular, having an outstanding 82-95% removal rate [9].…”