Terracrete™ permeable hard lawn pavers play a vital role in sponge city design

The sponge city concept is an urban planning model that uses nature-based solutions (NbS) to manage stormwater and reduce the impact of urban development on ecosystems. The goal is to improve urban liveability by imitating the natural water cycle and increasing evaporation. Sponge cities are designed to absorb rain, prevent flooding, and improve the urban climate.
Terracrete, a permeable interlocking concrete paver (PICP) developed by Terraforce, retaining block developer based in South Africa in 1999, is ideally suitable for this purpose, as it is a paving block with larger openings (40% open), compared to paving blocks with widened joints (15% open). Says Rust, founder, Terraforce: “The bigger openings allow for coarse infill to be used which means better infiltration and easier maintenance. In addition, something that is often neglected, this allows tree roots to breathe, to absorb water and nutrients that get washed off the paved areas.”