Permeable pavements
Definition: Sidewalks/pavements are made of permeable materials, thanks to which water on their surface does not accumulate but infiltrates deeper layers of the soil – which relieves the existing municipal sewage system.
There must be the so-called open joints between the clinker bricks. You can also lay clinker in the so-called open systems (filled with aggregates or grass) and semi-open systems. They are not suitable for routes with heavy traffic.
A solution for professionals and local communities.
Environmental benefits: mitigating climate change, lowering air temperature, rainwater retention, mitigating surface water runoff.
Social benefits: new spaces for recreation, increasing the esthetics of the place.
Economic benefits: reduction of surface runoff to storm drains.
They are part of creating green networks in the city:
– rain gardens, bioswales, swales, flower meadows, community gardens.
Examples:
Easy and cheap examples of unsealing concreted and asphalted surfaces.
In cities, we have many urban spaces that do not fulfill this specific function, but are tightly covered with concreted or asphalt surfaces. Their complete liquidation and removal of the material (concrete or asphalt) is often very expensive. This is why more and more designers are increasingly using these elements in new spatial planning. They may be inspired by post-industrial areas that are subject to degradation and are spontaneously inhabited by ruderal vegetation, filling the gaps in cracked surfaces.
Designers apply two types of concrete / asphalt space modifications.
- a) breaking them down. All components of the crushed concrete paving are removed from a given space and then arranged in the form of a mosaic. The gaps between the blocks are so large that vegetation is planted between them, which can over time cover a large area of the concrete blocks. Unsealing the surface also contributes to rainwater retention and its infiltration into the deeper layers of the soil.
b) by creating gaps in the pavement. These gaps are filled with the soil substrate, and then – we can wait for the plants to grow spontaneously in these spaces (succession process) or we can make use of new plantings of species selected by us. Over time, this vegetation will cover a large part of the concrete or asphalt surface. Increasing the possibility of rainwater retention and its infiltration into the deeper layers of the soil.
Source:
https://www.nap.edu/read/24852/chapter/4#10