WCW24

Cityscapes were initially designed around a purpose and in the case of Winnipeg, it was being a hub for commerce and distribution. While practical for the time it was built, this design neglected natural processes from the beginning and the issues with these oversights will only grow overtime. Concrete environment - while an excellent medium for building foundations - are not what would be considered ideal for stormwater management and as such, require plenty of catch basins, piping and maintenance all to plan ahead for the 100-year flood event. Soil as Infrastructure for Stormwater Retention, Detention and Water Quality will detail an approach using soil cells to allow for an uncompacted soil beneath concrete to be utilized for stormwater management. This approach involves placing support structures underneath concrete where there typically would be a 95 Proctor compacted aggregate used to support the hardscapes in urban landscapes. These structures provide a 90% void space that can be filled with uncompaced soil, allow for utilities to run through them rather than underneath and can hold a firetruck on top of them to allow for the typical loading the compacted medium under concrete may need to endure. The pore space of uncompacted soil allows for stormwater to remain inside the urban environment, acting as an additional layer of flood mitigation where it would normally be considered a hazard. This water can then be utilized for social infrastructure - namely, growing large mature trees - which add to stormwater mitigation through interception in their large canopies, enrich the surrounding environment and create more desirable and prestigious landscapes. These projects include blocks on Broadway and Selkirk Mainstreet, two of the earliest developments in Manitoba's history as a trading hub. With several projects around Manitoba already constructed or currently scheduled, soil cells are already demonstrating effects when it comes to flood mitigation, peak flow reduction and water quality. An area of potential for this technology for this approach would be using it to reduce the size of detention ponds suburban developments. This would allow for new developments to make full use of the land or to substitute in some other feature.