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Water-harvesting parking lot, garage, and driveway image gallery

Directing pavement runoff to boost pavement-side life, while increasing available rainfall multifold…

A parking orchard of low-water-use, food-producing shade trees passively irrigated by runoff from a raised parking area harvested within sunken, mulched basins. Ideally, many perennial understory plantings are also included.
Blue arrows denote water flow.
Illustration: Joe Marshall.
Parking lot- and sidewalk-runoff is directed to adjoining vegetated bioswale to grow filtering plants and trees that will shade cars, people, and hardscape.
Portland, Oregon
Blue arrows denote water flow.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
An oasis of life within a industrial part of Portland, Oregon where parking lot runoff is directed to the sunken bioswale.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Water-harvesting parking lot, New Seasons Market, Portland, Oregon. Parking area drains to adjoining sunken, mulched planting areas. Wheel stops keep cars out, but let water pass by. Trees are planted on slope/terrace so their roots can access the harvested water, while their root crowns are well drained. As trees grow, they will canopy over the asphalt and concrete hardscapes.
Blue arrows denote water flow.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Impervious parking bays direct their runoff to adjoining downslope vegetated bioswale recently planted. While porous paving upslope of the parking bays directly infiltrates rainfall.
Downtown Seattle Washington.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
A diversion berm/speed hump directing parking lot runoff into a vegetated basin. Arrow denotes water flow.
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Trees that shade and cool the parking garage are irrigated for free with runoff passively harvested from the top of the garage via stormwater-harvesting planting basins along the side of the building. Liberty Centre Parking Garage- NE Oregon between 6th and 7th. Portland, Oregon.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Liberty Centre Parking Garage downspout directs runoff from top of garage into the planting basin. The stormwater runoff then fills the planting basin to within 2 inches (50 mm) of the the top of the sidewalk’s 8-inch (20-cm) tall raised curb.
Blue arrow denotes water flow.
Blue lines denote the level to which captured water will rise before overflow.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Liberty Centre Parking Garage planting basin will fill with runoff from top of garage, and irrigate all plantings for free, before overflowing to raised overflow grate in bottom left of image.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Note how the overflow grate is 6 inches (150 mm) above the bottom of the basin (but 2 inches [50mm] lower than the top of the sidewalk-side curb, thus making the water-harvesting basin 6-inches (15-cm) deep. This way most of the garage’s roof runoff is harvested within the on-site soil and vegetation, rather than all overflowing away. Liberty Centre Parking Garage.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
This vegetated oasis used to be hot and exposed parking spaces beside this school’s entrance and classroom windows. Roof runoff is now directed to this rain garden to irrigate all for free and absorb the water before it can flow to, and flood downstream areas.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Ole and Maitre Ersson’s driveway planted with strawberries, Portland, Oregon. Limiting pavement just to the wheel tracks can reduce impervious hardscape by more than 50%. Even better is to also shorten the length of the driveway to no more than the length of the car or cars parking on it. This way the driveway becomes a parkway, as you only park on it. Leave the driving to the street.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Replacing a driveway with a garden, Portland, Oregon. A concrete driveway used to run the length of the property. It was cut with a rented concrete-cutting saw. A curvilinear path was left, while the rest of the concrete was jackhammered and sledgehammered into smaller pieces that were then reused elsewhere as urbanite footer blocks for cob walls. For more information see www.CityRepair.org.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Harvesting runoff from my neighbor’s driveway. General slope is toward the street (and me taking this photo). So I made a subtle diversion berm (under brown arrow) that diverts the flow into basins (lower than the driveway) on my property on other side of fence. Water flows through the fence. I just need to check the system in rains to make sure the berm is still intact and no detritus is damming up the flow into my yard and basin—fun stuff when all is flowing! Dunbar/Spring Neighborhood, Tucson, Arizona.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Drain across driveway captures driveway runoff and directs it into adjoining gardens. Thanks to this and many other passive water-harvesting strategies on site, more water is infiltrated and invested into the site’s soil and groundwater than is pumped out from the garden’s well.
Kailash Ecovillage, Portland, Oregon
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Parking lot runoff is directed to a tree basin that is more or less on contour (perpendicular to the slope). The downslope concrete curb is raised to hold the incoming water like a boomerang berm, while the upslope curb is flush or level with the asphalt, so runoff water can freely enter the basin.
Overflow exists the two upslope edges of the raised curb on either end.
A good system, but the tree basin would ideally be much wider to capture and hold more water, while also giving the trees’ roots more aerated and less compacted soil in which to grow.
Tucson, Arizona
Photo: Brad Lancaster
A sunken, water-harvesting tree basin/island within a parking lot freely harvesting parking lot runoff to grow more shade to cool the parking lot and surrounding area.
Tucson, Arizona
Photo: Brad Lancaster
Parking lot runoff is directed to perimeter swale to freely irrigate native trees and other vegetation.
Note the bus stop shelter behind the far tree, and how this system is helping shade the shelter, bus riders, and pedestrians on the public sidewalk.
Things would be even better if roof runoff were directed to the planting area with cacti next to the building on the right. There would then be enough harvested water to freely water and grow a native shade tree to cool the building and more of the parking area.
Tucson, Arizona.
Photo: Brad Lancaster
This basin is unique in that it has no concrete curb, which reduces costs and materials consumed.
Though there are concrete wheel stops to keep vehicles from driving into the basin.
Blue arrows denote water flow.
Red lines denote how much the basin could’ve been expanded to harvest more water, better aerate the tree’s roots, and reduce the use and cost of asphalt.
Tucson, Arizona.
Photo: Brad Lancaster

For more…

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This is THE book to start with, giving you the integrated overview of how to make the most of all your free, on-site waters.

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Lots of great strategies for many different contexts, along with the step-by-step instructions for implementation.

Be sure to read:

Chapter 9 on Diversion Swales (think diversion speed humps and daylighting previously paved waterways in the paved context).

Chapter 8 on Reducing Hardscape, Harvesting Its Runoff, and Creating Permeable Paving

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