Toxic pollutants, such as car oil or chemicals from pesticides, are picked up by runoff water from pavement and dumped into nearby bodies of waters, such as rivers, streams and lakes where our supply of drinking water becomes slowly contaminated and harms the environment.Īnother option includes concrete or brick pavers, which are blocks that are strategically placed with a small gap in between to allow water to soak into the ground through the cracks. The high volume and speed of this built up waters may lead to flooding, which can cause costly damages. Once runoff water discovers it can’t penetrate concrete and other impermeable surfaces, water diverts into storm sewage systems, into streams, and then eventually into local bodies of water. Infrastructure and development such as highways, patios, walkways, roofs, driveways, even tennis courts all keep water from recharging into the ground. Over the years, the amount of available groundwater has severely depleted partly due to the impermeable surfaces used in developments in and out of cities, which disallow rain and snow to recharge groundwater.
Our source of drinking water comes mainly from groundwater, which is also an important sources of nutrition for plants and trees. They both can work alone or with each other but both are a huge part of how the environment functions and of course in both the large and microscopic processes. Permeability is a measure of how easy a fluid can move through a porous rock. Porosity is the measure of how much a rock has open spaces or pockets between cracks and cavities that hold water. Although similar, they both do carry their own meaning. First, it needs to be addressed that permeability and porosity are often confused with one another. You may remember the word from your science class but if not, the idea is simple. Fortunately, pervious pavers are an alternative material for a solid foundation that allows water to soak back into the ground. The disruption of waters natural cycle and its journey across concrete’s impervious surface causes problems. Rain and water runoff is incapable of soaking back into the ground whenever there is concrete. Apart from that, there are more cons to concrete. Filed under Permeable Driveway, permeable pavers, permeable-pavement ĭespite lasting a good amount of time – homeowner needs such as walkways, driveways, patios and roads – a large amount of energy is used to produce concrete.