Experimental parking area monitored by GITECO. Parque de Las Llamas (Santander)

Construction and monitoring of pavement biodegrading, Escuela de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos (Santander)

Permeation test carried out on a pavement section

Hydraulic analysis of the samples, laboratory examination

The staff of the laboratory section in GITECO is specialised in testing water quality and System Sustainable Urban Drainage

SUDSlab, support to research

Sustainable growth and its application to construction are indispensable today in civil engineering. Among the wide variety of sustainable constructive procedures, sustainable drainage systems in general are of great importance to improve water management, essential resource for human development.

SUDSlab actively participates in the development of research projects related to sustainable drainage systems. The Lab works as experimental support for the Construction Technology Applied Research Group (GITECO), which currently is working with the research line:

  • CONSTRUCTION OF SUSTAINABLE DRAINAGE SYSTEMS

    Systems of Catchment, Storage and In Situ Treatment of Runoff Water, with special interest in pervious pavements as the most complete technique.

Featured Projects

The SUDSlab laboratory has participated in several research projects, taking charge of the evolution of the experimental part both in our facilities as in the different experimental sites built. Some of the most outstanding projects are:

  • Hydrological rehabilitation of urban road infrastructures(RHIVU project, financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness), ref. BIA2012-32463.
  • Development of catchment and store rainwater systems, using porous pavements in parking lots, for non potable use with geothermal low enthalpy energy (VEA)(VEA project, financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation), ref. BIA2009-08272.
  • Development of new catchment, pretreatment & in situ treatment systems for hydrocarbon contaminated water coming from urban runoff in parking lots with inpervious pavements (TRAPI project, financed by the Spanish Ministry Education and Science), ref. CTM2006-00310.
  • Desarrollo de nuevas estructuras de firmes filtrantes biodegradantes de hidrocarburos (FIDICA project, financed by the Spanish Ministry Education and Science), ref. REN2003-05278.
  • Desarrollo de mezclas bituminosas para pavimentos permeables.

Experimental sites

SUDSlab has built a series of experimental sites, which have conformed an important source of data to evaluate the performance of sustainable drainage systems and to make their expansion and design easier.

  • Ecodesign of parking lots for vehicles to reduce environmental impact of runoff water.
  • Design, control and monitoring of a porous parking lot built with slag and steel waste.
  • Design, control and monitoring of a lineal system of sustainable drainage.
  • Design, research and instrumentation of parking lot built with pervious pavements degrading hydrocarbons.