Impact of pervious pavement in urban areas on catchment basin recovery

Urbanization and disorderly occupation of urban areas have created several environmental problems, such as floods. Among the main causes of these problems is soil sealing associated with urban sprawl. Impervious surfaces provide less precipitation to recharge catchment basins by diverting water that should be restored in that region to other basins. This study compares two existing paving systems: concrete pavers with permeable joints and porous concrete pavers. Our objective was to learn which system better promotes the recovery of catchment basins and, consequently, mitigate problems caused by increasing surface runoff in urban areas. In order to reach the results, precipitations were simulated using lysimeters and a rainfall simulation infiltrometer at rainfall rates of 45, 60, and 90 mm h-1. The analyzed paving systems represented characteristics of public sidewalks. This experiment indicates that porous concrete pavers (99.86%) and concrete pavers (99.59%) present mean infiltration similar to that of grass cover (100%) and thereby can promote water infiltration into soil and the recovery of catchment basins in urban areas.