Whether it’s a homeowner tired of spending time and resources on a water-intensive lawn or a commercial property owner looking for a lasting solution to their site flooding issues, landscaping professionals are being challenged by their clients to rethink how outdoor spaces are designed and maintained.
Adding to this challenge… tune into any news channel or scroll through the news feed on your phone and it’s nearly impossible to ignore the frequency and intensity of today’s weather events. As weather patterns become more unpredictable, clients are increasingly looking for landscaping solutions that can manage water effectively.
This is why having a foundational understanding of Low Impact Development (LID) strategies and knowing how to apply them is such a timely topic of conversation.
Low Impact Development explained
Rather than collecting runoff in piped or channelized networks and controlling the flow downstream in a large stormwater management facility, LID takes a decentralized, nature-based approach that prioritizes the use of products that help manage water closer to where it falls.
Replace water-intensive grass areas or non-porous surfaces
To effectively put LID principles into practice, landscape professionals should consider how different surfaces affect water movement. Large grass areas, for example, are maintenance-intensive because they require regular mowing and watering and are susceptible to rutting and puddles from heavy foot traffic. Conventional concrete and asphalt surfaces also present challenges. Because these impermeable materials prevent water from soaking into the ground, rainfall can become runoff that contributes to drainage issues, standing water, and soil erosion. Left unresolved, these site issues will most likely worsen over time, leading to more complex and costly repairs down the road.
Flexible permeable paving systems offer landscaping professionals a smarter alternative. Flexible permeable paving systems, like Invisible Structures’ plastic porous pavers, feature a grid-like structure that can be filled with grass or gravel. In application, they deliver up to 92 percent void space to let rainwater seep through the surface and penetrate the ground below. This process mimics natural infiltration to reduce stormwater runoff, which helps stabilize the soil conditions and mitigate the risk of flooding on a property. Because they are strong and durable, plastic porous pavers are ideal for load-bearing outdoor applications like slow-speed driveways, parking lots, fire lanes, walkways and outdoor event spaces. This offers greater flexibility across a wide range of both residential and commercial projects.
Once installed, Invisible Structures’ porous paving systems integrate seamlessly into the landscape design. Instead of choosing between a conventional paved outdoor surface and a landscaped area, property owners can achieve the look and feel they want and significantly improve how the ground handles water. Grasspave2, for example, can look like a continuous lawn that blends seamlessly with the existing landscape…the paving system is hardly noticeable. Or consider Gravelpave2 to create a textured, natural-looking gravel surface using aggregate that can be selected to blend into the rest of the landscape. The strong grid framework holds everything in place without the common issues of shifting stones or ruts while still allowing water to seep into the ground.
It’s important to underline that in most applications, ongoing maintenance of porous paving systems like Invisible Structures’ Grasspave2 and Gravelpave2 is limited to routine landscape care or occasional redistribution of gravel in high-traffic areas. This makes them an appealing long-term solution for property owners looking to reduce the cost and time dedicated to ground maintenance.
Porous paver systems support effective water management
Invisible Structures’ plastic porous paver systems can remind landscaping professionals that integrating LID solutions does not mean sacrificing an aesthetically beautiful project—it means creating outdoor spaces that work more like natural systems.
To learn more about putting LID strategies into practice, landscape planners and architects are invited to participate in Invisible Structures’ continuing education presentations.