Permeable Pavements: Investigation on the Infiltration Rates and Testing Methods of Permeable Pavements

Water sensitive urban design (WSUD) is a term used in Australia to describe the engineering design approach to the urban water cycle, including stormwater, to ultimately minimise environmental degradation. There are many common WSUD practices that aim to minimise environmental degradation as well as improving the aesthetic and recreational appeal to the area and one of these is permeable pavements. Permeable pavement systems are an alternative to impervious pavements and they allow the infiltration of rainwater to be stored in underground reservoirs or be filtered through the soil to ultimately recharge the water table and limit the amount of water runoff. Common applications of permeable systems include residential driveways, car parks, pedestrian walkways, and slope stabilisation. The permeability of a pavement is governed by the infiltration rate of the system. This infiltration rate is dependant upon many critical factors including the location, age, traffic load, and maintenance. Little research has been conducted on the maintenance of permeable pavements and this has led to many councils and developers not maintaining the pavement properly or at all. This research sets out to come up with an innovative method of testing a permeable pavement to determine whether or not the permeable pavement requires maintenance. This method will need to be simple, fast, and cheap to perform, to appeal to local councils and government bodies as a solution to the maintenance problem. This method has been the named the storm water infiltration field test, for the purposes of this report.Submitted in the fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Engineering (Civil Engineering), University of the Sunshine Coast, 2014