What is permeable pavement?
Permeable pavement, also known as pervious or porous paving, is a type of hard surfacing that allows rainfall to percolate to an underlying reservoir base where rainfall is either infiltrated to underlying soils or removed by a subsurface drain. Permeable pavement can be used instead of standard asphalt and concrete for surfacing sidewalks, driveways, parking areas, and many types of road surfaces. Standard asphalt and concrete are considered to be “impermeable.” Precipitation that falls on or drains to them cannot flow through the surface to the soils below, but runs to the lowest points to be drained away.
Permeable pavement is an alternative to conventional concrete and asphalt materials that allows for infiltration of stormwater into a storage area with void spaces that provide temporary storage. Traditional paved surfaces do not allow water to infiltrate and instead converts almost all rainfall into runoff.
