Stormwater managment, groundwater protection, infrastructure
~ Simon Bayona
Today, there are 33 billion meters of road that cover the planet. The roads, sidewalks, and parking lots that make up the places many people live are often ignored as they blend into the background of the day-to-day. But there is so much to look at and understand how these systems are complex in how they interact with their surroundings. Specifically, this field guide will be diving into how pavement interacts with the cars and people who traverse it, but also with the sunlight that heats it up, and the water that can stay trapped on it to cause damage through potholes or through the possibility of flash flooding. By looking at the different phenomena created on the surface of the pavement and giving them names and descriptions, this project hopes to create a greater understanding of how these systems can affect more than the passengers who traverse them.
There are two important things to know about me to understand where this project is coming from. 1) I get bored really easily 2) I get strangely passionate about very small details. One of these small details that I became aware of during a period of boredom is just how many defects the pavement that is all around me has. Parking lot puddles and potholes are the ones that irked me the most. As I learned more about water systems I realized how these defects in the pavement were a cause of pavement systems interacting with water systems.
There are several ways that these systems directly interact with each other that this project aims to bring attention to. The first, and most important of these is how pavement can stop the percolation of water to the soil below. This can increase the risk of flash floods in areas with a high amount of pavement, and it can make the re-filling of water tables that become depleted. The water can also affect the pavement either from underneath and from above. Sinkholes and certain varieties of potholes are caused by the movement of water under the pavement. Parking lot puddles, cracks, and other varieties of pavement are caused by water on the surface seeping between poorly created pavement or causing heat differences between wet and dry areas of pavement.
Bio – Simon Bayona
Hi! My name is Simon Bayona, my Colombian heritage and my multitude of living situations have pushed me to explore design and environmental issues through the lens of interesting and often unnoticed phenomena.
Instagram – @simbayona