“Green structures” for effective rainwater management on roads

Abstract

Abstract Rainwater management is one of the important problems of cities. At very strong downpours, storm sewer systems may not capture the rainwater, which floods pavements and roadways. The water flushes fuel and oil traces after vehicles, fallen debris, and other pollutants, which will be moved to the ground, ponds, rivers, seas, etc. In past, the problems were solved using engineering approaches – a set of rainwater receivers, a duct network, and at best, wastewater treatment plants. Now, the sponge city concept is a better solution that uses a biotechnological way for throttling water flows, drainage, and purifying them. The work aims to improve the design of roads to fully absorb rainwater from them with maximum convenience for road users. We propose a design of roads using special “green structures” – rain-garden bands along the sides of roadways. We tested its ability of water capturing on the example of Kyiv city by matching the ability with the strongest precipitation observed. In addition, the proposed plants can extinguish the energy of bouncing cars during road accidents for the protection of pavements.