Rainy Season? How Permeable Pavers Helps Prevent Urban Flooding

Why Flooding Happens

Here’s a thought experiment. Let’s say you go to the soda fountain at your local fast-food restaurant or an all-you-can-eat buffet, cup in hand, and queue up for a free refill. You decide you’re going to drink while your cup is refilling. If you’re not careful, you’ll be sponging Coke off your shorts. That’s because the flow from the dispenser into your cup is faster than the straw can handle.

Cities’ infrastructure is similar. The storm drains in small towns and big cities alike are like that straw; at some point, the inflow of rain, and the resulting storm water runoff, overpowers even a well-designed system. Our streams, creeks, and rivers crest, and our parking lots turn into swimming pools. With hundred-year and even thousand-year floods happening with greater frequency, it’s clear that something has to give.

How Permeable Pavers Work

Permeable pavers capture stormwater and help the soil absorb it. The more that goes into the soil, the less that goes into storm drains. What’s more, returning water to the soil filters out contaminants, aids in soil retention, and can prevent extensive water damage to paved surfaces and built structures alike. And when flooding can’t be prevented (as happened when the Philippines experiences low-pressure areas or typhoons), permeable pavers do a better job of mitigating the impact than impervious pavement.

Permeable pavers are able to do this because instead of a continuous and impervious surface, there are joints filled with a porous compound through which water can pass. It is then filtered through layers of stone that provide the foundation for the pavers.

How Permeable Pavers Prevent Flooding

Now, let’s put it all together. Upgrading infrastructure helps, but it’s time-intensive, disruptive, and expensive. It also doesn’t solve the root of the problem: as development takes hold, and especially once it moves beyond the urban core, more and more of our green spaces are taken over by paved surfaces. Some statistics cite 40% of a cityscape being made up of impermeable pavement.

The opposite is true for permeable surfaces which have come back into favor and is preferred. This is because permeable pavement allows the passage of water to the ground through small openings. It helps to prevent runoff and pollution, replenishes the groundwater supply, and manages stormwater runoff.

When the only place for water to go is a city’s storm drains, it places considerable stress on multiple points in that city’s infrastructure. Soil erosion takes place, water runoff introduces chemicals and pollutants to water treatment plants that are ill-equipped to handle them, and flooding is more or less inevitable. Permeable municipal pavement helps minimize that impact and keep cities greener — and drier.

Hardscape Design For Flood Mitigation

The Philippines isn’t a stranger to flooding and the rainy season. Filipinos are also all too familiar with the flooding that too often follows in its wake. Andorra Roof Tiles and Pavers isn’t just well-acquainted with the problem; we’re also on the vanguard of delivering sustainable paving solutions. Our permeable pavers aren’t simply attractive and durable. They’re part of an approach to sustainable hardscape design that is as environmentally friendly as it is cost-effective. Why not consult with our paving experts in Andorra Roof Tiles & Pavers today?

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