An infiltration gallery is a structure including perforated conduits in gravel to expedite transfer of water to or from a soil.
Water supply
Infiltration galleries may be used to collect water from the aquifer underlying a
river
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...
. Water from an infiltration gallery has the advantage of
bank filtration to reduce the
water treatment
Water treatment is any process that improves the quality of water to make it appropriate for a specific end-use. The end use may be drinking, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water recreation or many other uses, inc ...
requirements for a surface withdrawal. An infiltration gallery may also be the best way to withdraw water from a thin aquifer or lens of fresh water overlying saline water.
Storm water disposal
Infiltration galleries may be used to supplement a
storm sewer, by directing storm
runoff
Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to:
* RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program
* Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed
* Runoff or run-off, a stock marke ...
from non-road areas.
While the catchbasins under sewer grates work well on swift-flowing surfaces like asphalt and concrete, heavy storm water flow on grass lawns or other open areas will pool in low areas if there is no outlet. An infiltration gallery serves this purpose in two ways.
Primarily, upright plastic
pipe
Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to:
Objects
* Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules
** Piping, the use of pipes in industry
* Smoking pipe
** Tobacco pipe
* Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circular ...
s capped with simple grates are placed every 5–8 metres along the low point of a slope, to handle heavy
surface runoff. The pipes proceed straight down, about two metres, to a horizontal cross-pipe; this pipe is the secondary system.
About ten per cent of the surface area of a horizontal pipe is then perforated slightly and surrounded by
gravel. Initially, runoff will exit the pipe and ''infiltrate'' the gravel to the soil beyond, dissipating naturally. As flow increases, the water will eventually fill the pipe and need to be dissipated more quickly. Thus, a catchbasin is placed at the lowest point of the sloping ground, which is connected to the storm sewer system at large.
Such galleries are a relatively new development in
urban planning
Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...
, and are thus found in newer housing developments.
[http://www.wateraid.org/documents/plugin_documents/ifg_guidelines.pdf ]
References
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Drainage
Hydraulic engineering
Subterranea (geography)