Evaluation of Pervious and Macro-Pervious Pavements as Harvesting Systems for Localized Landscape and Horticultural Irrigation

Abstract

Pervious pavements have been used as water harvesting systems and studies have shown the value of water derived from pervious pavements as irrigation water for landscaping. An alternative system is a modification known as a macro-pervious pavement system. These devices infiltrate water through discrete points into a porous subbase offering all the benefits of the pervious pavement along with an ability to use the specially designed infiltration systems as a means of protecting the sub surface environment from major oil spillages. This paper reports ongoing research aimed at assessing the suitability of water derived from both pervious and macro-pervious pavement installations for irrigation use. Results are reported from ongoing field studies of a 6 year old macro-pervious pavement and, for comparative purposes, a 10 year old pervious pavement system which illustrates the great potential of pavement derived water from both types of system and some of the problems which require care in the management of the irrigation system.