Stormwater management means more than getting rid of pesky puddles and mosquito love shacks through effective green roof systems.
it means saving our cities from pollution, disease and structural damage.
Massive quantities of rain and snow fall from the sky every year, burdening city infrastructures and causing pollution, disease and erosion. (Also it’s lame to wear so many coats. Thanks for that, Midwest.)
While nature is equipped to handle such output, cities are not … as you probably know. Instead, they’re coated with impermeable surfaces: cement, concrete, asphalt. These surfaces cling to the ground, rooftops and everything in between, giving water nowhere to go but into the sewers, causing combined sewer overflow events (CSO events or CSOs).
These occur because our sewers aren’t mean to manage stormwater. They handle wastewater and sewage from our homes and businesses, funneling them toward treatment plants before they head back into the environment, and they only have so much capacity.
When stormwater overfills infrastructure and causes sewage to flow back out into the world, the results are gross … if not downright disastrous. Think of stormwater like the bad guy, with a cape made from untold gallons of water just waiting to cause all that damage.
We say: No to that, Stormwater Guy. We’re having none of your shenanigans.
In addition to green roofs, the gold standard for stormwater management, here are a few other ways we can defeat him.
Rain Gardens
Just another paved space won’t make a dent in stormwater, whereas green and growing spaces can do much. Rain gardens are shallow depressions that soak up the water running off impermeable surfaces nearby, filtering it to remove pollutants and providing a sight for sore eyes at the same time.
Rainwater Harvesting
Guess what? The sky gives us free water all the time … so why shouldn’t you make use of it? With our sustainable rainwater harvesting methods, you can capture and store rain to be used later on landscapes or household tasks.
Bioswales
Stormwater carries high loads of pollutants, which plants and soils do a fantastic job filtering out. The goal, then, is to put that water in contact with plants who can take care of those pollutants … and that’s exactly what a bioswale accomplishes.
These gentle troughs collect water and funnel it slowly toward drainage, picking up and retaining chemicals and toxins along the way. By the time water reaches its final destination, it is much cleaner and much safer. Thanks, bioswale!
Ready to talk stormwater?
permeable pavers
Traditional impermeable surfaces send stormwater flowing away from the site on which it falls. Permeable pavers seek to fix this, by providing a similarly robust surface on which to walk or park a car without the waterproof aspect. Instead of placing components tightly side by side, permeable pavers leave space between them to encourage water to percolate into the ground. These pavers may be engineered in a variety of ways, but overall are an amazing way to fight stormwater in situ.