An infiltration gallery is a structure including perforated conduits in gravel to expedite transfer of water to or from a soil.

Water supply

Infiltration galleries may be used to collect water from the aquifer underlying a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the ...

. Water from an infiltration gallery has the advantage of bank filtration to reduce the

water treatment Water treatment is any process that improves the quality of water to make it appropriate for a specific end-use. The end use may be drinking, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water recreation or many other uses, inclu ...

requirements for a surface withdrawal. An infiltration gallery may also be the best way to withdraw water from a thin aquifer or lens of fresh water overlying saline water.

Storm water disposal

Infiltration galleries may be used to supplement a

storm sewer A storm drain, storm sewer (United Kingdom, U.S. and Canada), surface water drain/sewer (United Kingdom), or stormwater drain ( Australia and New Zealand) is infrastructure designed to drain excess rain and ground water from impervious surfa ...

, by directing storm

runoff Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to: * RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program * Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed * Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...

from non-road areas. While the catchbasins under sewer grates work well on swift-flowing surfaces like asphalt and concrete, heavy storm water flow on grass lawns or other open areas will pool in low areas if there is no outlet. An infiltration gallery serves this purpose in two ways. Primarily, upright plastic

pipe Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to: Objects * Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules ** Piping, the use of pipes in industry * Smoking pipe ** Tobacco pipe * Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circul ...

s capped with simple grates are placed every 5–8 metres along the low point of a slope, to handle heavy

surface runoff Surface runoff (also known as overland flow) is the flow of water occurring on the ground surface when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other sources, can no longer sufficiently rapidly infiltrate in the soil. This can occur when the ...

. The pipes proceed straight down, about two metres, to a horizontal cross-pipe; this pipe is the secondary system. About ten per cent of the surface area of a horizontal pipe is then perforated slightly and surrounded by

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classif ...

. Initially, runoff will exit the pipe and ''infiltrate'' the gravel to the soil beyond, dissipating naturally. As flow increases, the water will eventually fill the pipe and need to be dissipated more quickly. Thus, a catchbasin is placed at the lowest point of the sloping ground, which is connected to the storm sewer system at large. Such galleries are a relatively new development in

urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water ...

, and are thus found in newer housing developments.http://www.wateraid.org/documents/plugin_documents/ifg_guidelines.pdf

References

{{reflist Drainage Hydraulic engineering Subterranea (geography)