An infiltration approach to reducing pavement damage by street trees

Terry Lucke; S Beecham

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.357

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An infiltration approach to reducing pavement damage by street trees

Journal article

Peer reviewed

An infiltration approach to reducing pavement damage by street trees

Terry Lucke and S Beecham

Science of the Total Environment, Vol.671, pp.94-100

2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.357

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Abstract

street trees

permeable pavements

tree roots

pavement damage

Planting of street trees in cities and other high-density urban environments can provide significant social, economic and environmental benefits. However, street trees in pavements can often lead to shallow root growth resulting in damage to pavements, kerbs, roads and buried services. This study investigated whether pavement damage by tree roots could be reduced by planting trees in a permeable pavement system with an underlying layer of 20 mm diameter gravel to direct tree roots deeper into the pavement structure. A six-year duration field experiment was conducted to compare the growth of trees and their root systems in a conventional impermeable pavement with growth in a series of permeable pavements with different depths of underlying gravel basecourse. The results demonstrated that permeable pavements with underlying gravel layers encouraged tree roots to travel deeper into the underlying subgrade soil, thereby reducing costly pavement damage. This effect was more pronounced with deeper rather than shallower basecourse layers. While permeable pavements affected tree root growth, they had no significant influence on tree height after six years' growth.

Details

Title: An infiltration approach to reducing pavement damage by street trees
Authors: Terry Lucke (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
S Beecham (Author) - University of South Australia
Publication details: Science of the Total Environment, Vol.671, pp.94-100
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date published: 2019
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.357
ISSN: 0048-9697
Organisation Unit: School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99450879302621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Environmental Sciences

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