Soil Moisture and Aeration Beneath Pervious and Impervious Pavements

Abstract

Pervious paving has been increasingly installed in urban areas as a stormwater management strategy. Pervious pavements exhibit similar strength to impervious analogues, but are highly permeable to air and water. These functional characteristics have led to speculation that pervious paving, used instead of impervious paving, could benefit urban trees. Given that permeability to air and water will have a direct effect on the soil environment, this paper describes research that explores the effect of pervious pavement on underlying soil physical conditions. Results indicate that while soil moisture and aeration dynamics differ greatly beneath paved and unpaved surfaces, differences are usually insignificant between pervious and impervious paving. If urban trees do benefit from overlying pervious paving relative to impervious paving, it is probably not a consequence of soil moisture or aeration. The results challenge existing theories and contribute to the understanding of how pervious pavements affect the moisture and aeration dynamics of underlying soils.