Middle-Term Evolution of Efficiency in Permeable Pavements: A Real Case Study in a Mediterranean climate

Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) are solutions used to reduce the effects of soil sealing and to contribute to sustainable storm water management. In recent years, many projects have been implemented in Europe, the United States, and Australia, but most of them have either not been monitored at all or have only been monitored in the short-term, so there is little information on the evolution of efficiency and clogging. Experiences in the Mediterranean are even rarer, so the main purpose of this research is to provide information about the long-term behavior of one kind of SuDS, the permeable pavements, in the middle-term under Mediterranean climatic conditions. This work shows the results of a real project developed in southern Spain, which has been monitored for five years. The evolution of efficiency in permeable pavements and their relationship with saturation are analyzed and discussed in this research. These results will help to manage and maintain permeable pavements in areas with a Mediterranean climatology.