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What is the purpose of a swale?
For many years they have been used along rural highways and residential streets to convey runoff. Today, swales not only convey stormwater but also help to treat runoff to reduce pollutants. Like ditches, swales collect stormwater from roads, driveways, parking lots and other hard surfaces.
What is a swale in a yard?
A: A swale is simply a shallow ditch that is used to carry off water. Swales are often so wide and so shallow that you do not notice them. On most city lots, where homes are 10 to 15 feet apart, there is a swale between the homes. Such swales collect water from the roofs and yards and carry it to the street.
What is a berm and swale?
A vegetated swale is a grass-lined depression that slows down runoff water velocity and infiltrates the water into the soil. Berms are low earthen walls adjacent to ditches that can be used to help retain runoff in a designated area along the downhill side of the locaon.
What does swale mean in construction?
A swale is a depression created in the ground that carries rainwater by gravity away from your home and property.
How deep is a swale?
Six- to 12-inches deep
There are no hard rules about the size of a swale, but the bigger it is the more water it can absorb during a rainstorm. Six- to 12-inches deep and 3- to 4-feet wide are typical dimensions. Smooth out the shape of the berm with a hard metal rake to form a planting bed.
Where can I dig swales?
The swale should be built to carry water to a spot where it will be safely released. This could be a buried dry well or a garden bed that has adequate drainage. The swale must slope downhill, and has to gradually get deeper, ideally sloping 1 inch for every 10 feet in length.
What are swales permaculture?
A permaculture swale is a technique that captures water in the landscape for passive irrigation and for slowing runoff. For many gardeners and farmers, catching rainwater in the landscape can be a low-maintenance way to irrigate and improve soil quality at the same time.
Is a swale a ditch?
Swale drains are broad, shallow ditches that can be lined with grass, vegetation, or rocks. It’s a more natural way to help drain yards to prevent flooding, puddling, and erosion.
How deep should swales be?
Six- to 12-inches
Is a swale a soakaway?
A swale is a shallow drainage channel with gentle side slopes in the ground where water running off a site can collect and soak away. When building a swale, you can include check dams to slow the flow of water. …
Which is the best definition of a swale?
Definition of swale. : a low-lying or depressed and often wet stretch of land; also : a shallow depression on a golf course.
What is the purpose of a swale in permaculture?
A natural swale. Swales as used in permaculture are designed to slow and capture runoff by spreading it horizontally across the landscape (along an elevation contour line), facilitating runoff infiltration into the soil.
Why do you need a swale for a land development?
The adding of swales to a land development project is an important part of the overall stormwater management system. Swales could be what are required in open space and grass areas in order to get certain areas of your site or certain offsite areas to drain to your system.
What do Swale trees do on a beach?
Swale (landform) Trees and shrubs along the swale can provide shade and mulch which decrease evaporation. The term swale or “beach swale” is also used to describe long, narrow, usually shallow troughs between ridges or sandbars on a beach, that run parallel to the shoreline.