Living Bioswale Technology
Living Bioswale Technology
A bioswale here? You’re kidding!
Many of our projects involve unique challenges. One large project was built on a very complicated “knife-shaped” ridge that extended to an ocean-facing cliff. Not only was it was built on a bird sanctuary but there was almost no room to work.
Another 30-acre estate had its primary residence in harm’s way of emergency storm runoff from its agricultural fields should the drainage system became overwhelmed.
Standard drainage systems designed from “status quo” expectations are not only very costly in these circumstances; they can actually fail to protect the owner from loss of property and land.
Engineered Synchronicity
Overall solutions in all of these cases included optimizing every part of the site in combination with an intensive living bioswale system with focused traditional “grey” stormwater piping. This involved several features that worked in synchronicity with each other to create a highly resilient site that can weather severe and unexpected storms anywhere they occur. The images here represent projects that would have incurred substantial loss if their site were not highly “resilient” to stormwater.
The key is to start with the soil and end with the entire site.
3 Benefits from using Erosion Control Soils
All of these projects used EssentialSoil Erosion Soils throughout the site. These soils accomplished 3 things simultaneously. First, they completely prevented erosion from occurring even without protection. Second, with a high infiltration rate, they provided a cushion or a buffer against high precipitation throughout the site that decreased the burden on any needed piping system. Third, the soils promoted stability on all slopes by their own intrinsic and “internal angle of friction” and by growing very deep roots quickly.
Living Bioswales: nature’s improved catch basins
Living bio-swales accomplish three things with water; they filter, absorb, and purify. Water purification takes place partially through phytoremediation, which means through plant and root growth. Absorption occurs when water slowly seeps into the ground. Filtration occurs when sediment gets trapped from plants and also settles to the bottom when the water slows down. “Grey” water systems can’t do all three things.
Despite their effectiveness, sometimes projects require what is known as a “forebay” or “backbay” system of bio-swales to accommodate stormwater. One such project shown in the images uses one primary intense bio-swale next to a road, then pipes the overflow to a secondary “backbay” or living bio-swale further down the site where there was a small bit of flat land.
Living bioswales receive stormwater, they infiltrate it into the ground and purify the water through natural sediment filtration and phytoremediation. Despite their effectiveness, sometimes projects require what is known as a “forebay” or “backbay” system of bioswales to accommodate stormwater. One such project shown in the images uses one primary intense bioswale next to a road, then pipes the overflow to a secondary “backbay” or living bioswale further down the site where there was a small bit of flat land.
Together, using highly permeable soils, with a network of living bioswales can truly make a project resilient against unpredictable stormwater events.
Stop Thinking in Compartments: The Land Doesn’t Work that Way
It’s critical, however, that managers and designers do not always think in terms of engineered hydraulic capacity of drainage systems. This compartmentalized thinking excludes the land’s inherent potential to solve some of our worst stormwater problems.
The land itself needs to be thought of in terms of its living resiliency to accommodating stormwater. This means focusing on the entire site. It means thinking differently and thinking of the soil as part of the system and solution everywhere on-site.
Furthermore when thinking of the land not just as a solution to a problem, but as a living potentiality for celebrating, purifying, witnessing, and conserving water over time we find interesting happens:
We solve our problems even better.
This type of thinking requires new approaches to project insight management, It requires new thinking in our protocols and practices – and in our engineering and design. The projects represented in the images could not have been executed without living bioswales and our permeable soils.
Welcome to the Hendrikus group. We’ve been thinking like this for 30 years.