Kennedale Works Yard, Low Impact Development (LID) Demonstration Site, Edmonton

The Kennedale Works Yard is a large-scale test and demonstration site in Edmonton for sustainable urban drainage (SUD) LID techniques, specifically, bioswales and absorbent landscape beds.  The site includes testing a relatively low cost soil mix that is composed of municipal waste compost and normal Edmonton clay loam topsoil. Compared with using custom permeable soil mixes, this approach is significantly less costly and provides beneficial re-use of locally available “waste” materials.  The site exhibits rapid and sustained vegetation establishment, and successfully absorbed an extreme rainfall event one year after installation.