Gladstone East Shores Parklands Large-Scale Wicking Bed
Gladstone Ports Corporation
The Gladstone East Shores Parkland is a major new civic parkland for the City of Gladstone located on the foreshore of Auckland Inlet. In collaboration with Urbis, E2Designlab led the concept and detailed design of sustainable water management initiatives to promote the ‘passive irrigation’ of landscapes using stormwater harvested from hard surfaces within the parklands. The integrated parkland design features an innovative application of 'wicking bed' technology to store locally harvested stormwater runoff for passive irrigation of two high use open lawn areas.
The wicking beds use the natural process of soil capillary rise, driven by evapotranspiration, to draw water reserves held in shallow artificial aquifers to the active root zone thereby ensuring optimal soil moisture conditions for healthy turf growth. This no-imported energy, low maintenance irrigation system helps to sustain the lawn areas between rainfall events and increases the usability and resilience of these areas after heavy rainfall events through improved sub-soil drainage. In conjunction with the wicking bed, vegetated swales, bioretention and permeable pavers form part of the parklands overall sustainable water management strategy.
Water Sensitive City Outcomes:
- passively irrigated open space
- resilient green spaces
- demonstration of new technologies
