This project is funded by the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, DCC and LAWPRO and is being run in partnership with UCD’s Civil Engineering Department as well as being supported by Wavin Ireland and Version 1.
All project funders, partners and supporters:
NatureRX Rain Garden Pilot
Bí URBAN has been funded to develop a nature-based solution for urban runoff. The NatureRx Rain Garden Pilot will slow down the flow of rainwater using a simple community-based intervention. By diverting urban rainwater from residential rooftops into purpose built rain gardens we will diminish the overflow into storm drains that leads to the pollution of our water-courses.
As with all nature based solutions Bí URBAN’s NatureRx Rain Garden Project has been designed to address multiple urban issues. In addition to absorbing and using rainwater productively these purpose built gardens will:
Divert urban rainwater from storm drains where it mixes with sewage in a ‘combined’ system and leads to pollution of local watercourses.
Create green spaces in otherwise sterile urban environments, increasing levels of well-being
Provide a connection to nature and horticultural opportunities for participants who live with restricted access to biodiversity.
Increase habitat for urban pollinators and wildlife.
Act as a carbon sink
This pilot will be used to create a template and collect the data necessary to scale up the project and make a significant impact on water management in the city while creating enhanced levels of biodiversity and livability.
We believe our Rain Garden Pilot project will demonstrate that collective citizen-lead climate action can have a significant impact on urban problems and that creative partnerships with nature will lead our cities toward a healthier, greener and more sustainable future.
HOW DO THEY WORK?
Built to fit neatly into available space adjacent to a downpipe, these planters harvest rain water and filter it through a purpose built garden to diminish urban run off. Plants which adapt to both dry and damp periods are selected in order to create a self sustaining, maintenance free growing space.
If an extreme downpour takes place, an overflow pipe allows excess water to leave the planter, preventing flooding of plants & soil.
There are many Rain Garden designs with instructions on how to build them available to download online. The diagrams below were sourced from the 10,000 Rain Gardens for Scotland Project.
Drop in and collect a FREE printed copy of Dublin City Council’s ‘A how-to-guide for Rainwater Planters” and register for the next phase of rain garden planters below.
MEDIA COVERAGE
REGISTER YOUR INTEREST In LEARNING FROM THE NatureRX Rain Garden PILOT
Bí URBAN completed the installation phase of the NatureRx Rain Garden Project in February 2024. We have now moved on to the review phase of the project in collaboration with Workhouse Union. The review will feed into the development of a NatureRx publication which will apply learning from the NatureRx Rain Garden Pilot 2021-23 in the design of a highly illustrated, user-friendly and freely downloadable guide to support communities who wish to develop nature based solutions to tackle local water issues in partnership with their local residents, council, authority, not for profit or philanthropic organisation. The publication will be pitched to facilitate community climate action as realistic and achievable through the inclusion of interviews with project partners & participants with links to resources and supports.
Interested in receiving this publication when it is launched? Please fill out the form below:
PROJECT ARCHIVE
Create your own Rain Garden and tell us about it!
If you are itching to get going why not build your own! Rain Gardens are simple to construct and install. You may come up with an innovation that we can use to inform the next stage of our project. Drop into Bí URBAN to collect Dublin City Council’s ‘A how-to-guide for Rainwater Planters’ and see examples of the down pipe connectors we have used in our pilot. Hopefully this will get the creative juices flowing!
YOU MAY BE A WINNER! We will be launching a DIY Rain Garden Competition in 2022 - Details TBA Register above to keep in the know.
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