Permeable Concrete in Preventing City Flooding
As infrastructure develops, cities face more and more environmental challenges. But out of many potential natural disasters, one stands out as incredibly challenging: floods. With the unpredictability of flood impact and flood timetables, it is incredibly difficult to tell when a flood will hit or how hard it will hit. And because of this, engineers have to do the most to be prepared to such flooding.
Permeable pavement may play a key role in this flood protection. There are many materials for such pavement (including gravel and concrete), but resin-bound pavement stands as the most viable option for creating permeable pavement. Inherently, this resin has many spaces within its material structure, which allows it to be formed into permeable concrete without much effort.
These pavements help reduce flooding in a variety of ways. One of these is through the effective drainage of water. By adding an omnipresent drainage system, a city becomes less reliant on drainage systems that may be prone to overuse. Also, having more surface area for drainage increases the rate at which water is removed.
Also, this infrastructure can return water to the environment more readily. Instead of returning water to a drainage system or a basin, permeable pavement returns water to the soil, and replenishes water reserves in turn. Also, when it returns to the soil, the water does not need to undergo contaminant treatment, which is a requirement in drainage systems.
In cities like New Orleans, where rainfall and flooding is common, permeable concrete has been implemented in many parts of the city. It was found that utilizing this concrete instead of traditional concrete was only 10% more expensive, making it a generally economical replacement. Also, it was found that integration of permeable pavement has led to decreased reliance on retention ponds within this city.
With many cities already using such concrete, the viability of shifting to permeable concrete is undeniable. It has countless environmental benefits, and protects the citizens of a city from major flooding. A duty of engineers is to utilize proactive measures to benefit the citizens of a city, and permeable concrete is merely one example of many of these measures.
