Description
Permeable pavement allows the infiltration of water while providing structural support. The pavement system includes subsoil, reservoir, and the pervious pavement. They can include several types of materials or designed systems such as:
- Pervious concrete
- Pervious aggregate/binder products
- Pervious paver systems
- Modular paver systems
Recent studies on the design, longevity, and infiltration characteristics of permeable pavement systems are available on the University of Central Florida’s website:
http://stormwater.ucf.edu/
Included in these studies are data on the sustainable void spaces.
If pervious pavement is used as detention, then the capture volume is calculated. Pollution control media that is traffic-bearing can be used in the reservoir.
However, permeable pavement systems are usually retention systems. They are typically part of a treatment train to reduce stormwater volume and pollutant load from parking lots or similar types of areas.
As with all infiltration BMPs, the treatment efficiency is based on the amount of annual runoff volume infiltrated, which depends on:
- Available storage volume within the pavement system
- Underlying soil permeability
- Ability of the system to recover storage volume
The volume of storage reduces over time due to the build-up of solids. Therefore, a sustainable void space is used and included within the BMPFast software.
A cross-section of a permeable pavement is shown below.
Input Data
Required Inputs
The following must be specified:
- Permeable pavement area
- Reservoir cross section
- Type of pavement
- Type of reservoir aggregate
For this example, the following inputs are used:
The storage area calculated from this input is:
1.00 acre-foot
The resulting retention effectiveness is:
68%
