Bioretention: Parking lots

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On commercial, industrial and multi-unit developments, a popular choice is to integrate bioretention into parking lot landscaped areas. These distributed cells typically accept sheet flow through multiple curb cuts, have shallow depression storage ≤ 100 mm, and a total area of 5 -200 m². Although many parking lot schemes include long linear bioretention cells (≥ 0.6 m wide), infiltration is optimized by having a level grade and a level base, unlike a bioswale.

Winter maintenance

Salt can be damaging to the planting in parking lot bioretention. To help minimise this, bioretention practices adjacent to parking areas should always have an underdrain and slat use be reduced through good design and planning of the parking lot.

Gallery

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  Parking lot bioretention with inspection well in foreground, Kortright centre, Vaughan

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  Parking lot bioretention sharing underground reservoir with adjacent permeable paving, Edwards gardens, Toronto

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  Parking lot bioretention with decorative stone for erosion control, and inspection well in foreground, Earth rangers, Vaughan

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  The sunken curb holds the edge of the asphalt pavement and lets water freely flow to the bioretention cell beside the 7sigma parking lot in Minneapolis, MN (USA)
  Photo credit:BrianAsh

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  Bioretention cells on Elm Drive, Mississauga, are lower then the adjacent road to accommodate a catch basin inlet between the paved surface and the cells.

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  The grade and lack of curb allow for sheet-flow runoff into this bioretention facility. Lakeside Park, Mississauga, ON

See Also

• Bioretention: Streetscapes
• Stormwater planters
• Rain gardens

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• Trees
• Perennials
• Inlets
• Forebays
• Overflow
• Mulch
• Filter media
• Choking layer
• Reservoir
• underdrain

A technique for incorporating shallow depressed areas into urban landscaped areas for storing and infiltrating runoff. Depression storage areas are small and have limited capacity and limited duration of retention in order to address property owner concerns relating to insects, damage to structures and inconvenience of ponded water on their property.

A shallow excavated surface depression containing prepared filter media, mulch, and planted with selected vegetation.

An alternative practice to traditional impervious pavement, prevents the generation of runoff by allowing precipitation falling on the surface to infiltrate through the surface course into an underlying stone reservoir and, where suitable conditions exist, into the native soil.

Includes the protection of soil from dislocation by water, wind or other agents.

A mixture of mineral aggregates bound with bituminous materials, used in the construction and maintenance of paved surfaces.

Ground depression acting as a flow control and water treatment structure, that is normally dry.

The portion of water precipitated onto a catchment area, which then flows as surface discharge from the catchment area past a specified point.

Water from rain, snow melt, or irrigation that flows over the land surface.