Location is Everything.
While designing paving systems, you must consider location. It rains DIFFERENTLY in California than Alabama. Each system can have a number of different soils, each draining and retaining water DIFFERENTLY. Lets take a deeper look into how rain events, annual precipitation and soil type effect permeable paving systems.
While designing paving systems, you must consider location. It rains DIFFERENTLY in California than Alabama. Each system can have a number of different soils, each draining and retaining water DIFFERENTLY. Lets take a deeper look into how rain events, annual precipitation and soil type effect permeable paving systems.
The US is divided into 4 rain event classes.
- Type I – Parts of CA, AK and HI with wet winters and dry summers.
- Type IA (least intense) – Pacific NW maritime region with wet winters and dry summers.
- Type II (most intense short duration rainfall) – Most of the U.S. not directly affected by ocean climates.
- Type III – Gulf of Mexico & Atlantic coast where tropical storms bring large 24-hour rainfall amounts
It rains MORE in the Appalachians than Death Valley. Canada and U.S. precipitation averages are as follows:
Furthermore, different locations contain different soils. Those different soils have different carrying capacities for water and different infiltration rates. The infiltration rate is a key component to the sizing formula discussed in the previous lesson section.
USCS Soil Classification Chart
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