What I’ve Learned About Bioretention: Part 2
Read Part 1 of this post here. 2. Bigger is not better Like most everything we design, when big things fail, they fail in a big way. Bioretention works best in applications where the drainage area to an individual cell is less than about a quarter acre. Larger bioretention areas are more likely to fail due to erosion because of larger flows, creation of low spots due to variations in the surface, and clogging of the surface layer. This can be avoided by dividing the area into multiple cells with smaller drainage areas. [caption id="attachment_6401" align="aligncenter" width="770"] Larger basin divided into three cells[/caption] The largest bioretention area I know of is an example of this. Designed by others, it collects runoff from several acres at a highway rest stop. The measures designed to evenly distribute incoming flow have been overwhelmed by large flow rates, the engineered soils mix layer does not drain quickly enough, and...
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