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What is it?
- A gently sloping piece of vegetated land
Where can they be used?
- Between an impermeable surface and a waterway such as a stream or lake
What sectors commonly use them?
- Residential
- Industrial
- High density residential
- Retrofit
- Agriculture
How do they work?
- Accept overland flow from runoff
- As water runs down the hill, it is treated by vegetative filtering
- As water is travelling towards the stream, it infiltrates the ground where appropriate
- Sediment, nutrients, pathogens, and pesticides can be filtered out of the runoff and trapped in the soil and plants
Benefits
- Can treat water originating from large impermeable areas
- Encourages evaporation and infiltration prior to putting runoff back into the watershed
- Easy to build/low construction cost
- Provides effective pre-treatment
- Easily integrated into normal landscaping design and can be aesthetically pleasing if local grass and flower species are added
- Effective at removing solid pollutants through filtration and sedimentation
- Can provide habitats for small birds and animals
- Can prevent bank erosion
Challenges
- Site must not be too steep
- Site must be located next to a water source
- Not suitable for use near locations where groundwater contamination is a concern
- To maintain the effectiveness of a filter strip, the vegetation must be kept healthy without the use of fertilizers or chemicals