Highways Agency Reports

This article deals with the growing need to treat potential pollution from paved surface runoff, as well as the need for flow attenuation and for water quality monitoring. This has lead to the expansion of vegetative treatment systems for the purpose of surface runoff. The article provides a review of engineering methods for the collection, transport and treatment of paved surface runoff. It then goes on to describe the different types of vegetative treatment systems which are available, their value and role, and appropriate situations for their use. Finally, consideration is given to the need to monitor the efficiency of these systems in order to establish their effectiveness, and a description is given of monitoring methods which may be appropriate.