Understanding urban hydrology through measurements of infiltration capacity of permeable pavements under real-live circumstances

Over the past decades, various types of permeable pavements have been implemented in different municipalities in the Netherlands in order to improve infiltration capacity in urban areas and therewith being able to better treat stormwater runoff. With initial promising results, this adaptation measure seemed to be the solution for urban flooding due to extreme precipitation.
However, in practice, foreseen infiltration capacities were usually not met, often due to unknown reasons. To better understand the functioning of permeable pavements in practice, we have studied - as part of the project Infiltrating Cities - over 100 existing permeable pavement installations in the Netherlands. At each location, infiltration capacity was tested through a full-scale infiltration testing procedure (flooded area about 40 m2) while conditional on-site factors were collected (location, age, type of permeable pavement, street-type, traffic density, vicinity of urban green, regular maintenance regime, etc.). By coupling this information we analyzed how these factors influence the infiltration capacity of permeable pavements in practice, e.g. through accelerated deterioration of infiltration capacity through time. In addition, we evaluated for a selected number of installations, how various types of maintenance may counteract this deterioration, hence improving the infiltration capacity of permeable pavements.