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Best Management Practice Fact Sheet 8: Infiltration Practices

ID

426-127 (BSE-276P)

Authors as Published

Authored by David J. Sample, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist, Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech; Laurie J. Fox, Research Associate, School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Virginia Tech; and Carol Hendrix, student, Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech


This publication is available in an enhanced digital version and PDF.

This fact sheet is one of a 15-part series on urban stormwater management practices.

Please refer to definitions in the glossary at the end of this fact sheet.

Glossary terms are italicized on first mention in the text. For a comprehensive list, see Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) publication 426-119, “Urban Stormwater: Terms and Definitions.”

Infiltration practices provide temporary surface and/or subsurface storage, allowing infiltration of runoff into soils. In practice, an excavated trench is usually filled with gravel or stone media, where runoff is stored in pore spaces or voids between the stones (see figure 1). These systems can reduce significant quantities of stormwater by enhancing infiltration, as well as provide filtering and adsorption of pollutants within the stone media and soils. Infiltration practices are part of a group of stormwater treatment practices, also known as best management practices (BMPs)


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Publication Date

December 4, 2019