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Parking Plots

If we are going to have parking lots in the vicinity of water, why not engineer a lot that protects that water from the toxic leaking of cars?


The Hamilton Harbour has become a tourist destination and as McMaster University's Geography and Earth Sciences Professor J. M. Waddington has pointed out, they have done a nice job with their parking.

The non-scientific description is they basically make parking pods that are physically separated by vegetated buffers. These ones include river rocks on the bottom with marsh plants and other species adapted to the conditions. Water run-off is collected in these buffers, rather than discharging directly into the waterway or into the combined sewer catch-basins.

Compare to the design of most massive parking lots at malls (and McMaster University) and you will see the beauty of the design. The alternative looks like this.

From 20m in the air:
Harbour parking at Guise Street

McMaster Parking Lot M

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