98889
Drainage Behaviour of Sports Pitches – a Case Study Review

See more from this Division: ITRC Program
See more from this Session: Establishment & Management I

Tuesday, July 18, 2017: 8:15 AM
Garden State Ballroom

Paul Fleming1, Matthew Frost1, Murray Simpson1, Robert Everett2 and Richard Gibbs3, (1)School of Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, United Kingdom
(2)Sports Surface Design, Sports Turf Research Institute, Bingley BD16 1AU, United Kingdom
(3)STRI, Bingley, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Abstract:
The drainage behaviour of sports pitches has traditionally been designed from experience with hydraulic performance rarely measured in detail. Within the wider industry and regulatory bodies there is a perception that storm water and increased drainage rates from sports pitches contribute to local flood risk. Empirical observations have suggested that in reality pitch drainage systems may discharge water at low volumes and rates and there is often limited surface run-off. Furthermore it appears that lack of technical guidance on the discharge of water from sport pitch drainage systems may have led to misunderstanding their drainage behaviour and possible benefits they could bring to water management as opposed to perceived dis-benefits. This paper summarises selected results of a case study which included field measurements of weather and discharge behaviour on a range of natural turf sports pitches in England. The findings from this study indicate that natural turf sports pitches can provide resistance to flow and hence advantageous attenuation of rainfall and storm water. Additionally sports pitches can store large volumes of water within the pervious materials used in their design. The study has confirmed that sport pitches demonstrate the key functions that are reflected in the design requirements of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDs) such as pervious pavements providing source control of surface rain water.

See more from this Division: ITRC Program
See more from this Session: Establishment & Management I