Beyond direct costs, pervious concrete offers a number of benefits to both the community and the owner/developer.

For the City, county or village responsible for storm water in the area:

• Recharges ground water to maintain sufficient Aquifer levels
• Eliminates the need to construct new storm sewer facilities or enlarge existing lines
• Improves tree growth and reduces sidewalk maintenance
• Eliminates hydrocarbon pollution from asphalt pavement and sealers
• Provides a quieter concrete surface to reduce noise pollution

For the owner or developer:

• Increases land usage per square foot by developing the area set aside for a retention pond
• Reduces lighting needs and costs due to brighter surfaces
• Eliminates resealing and keeps parking lots open
• Drastically reduces stormwater maintenance costs
• Lowers lifecycle costs
• Allows easier compliance with tree shading ordinances
• Provides brighter, safer lots for customers or tenants
• Contributes to LEED credits

Heat Island Story

What is the “heat island” effect? The urban heat island effect refers to the fact that urban cities are generally hotter than surrounding rural areas because of the amount of pavement, which absorbs heat. Pavement usually makes up about 40 percent of the materials used to construct an urban city.

How does it affect us? Urban heat islands can cause the energy demand to peak, increase air conditioning costs and air pollution and also cause more heat-related mortalities.

Why use pervious? Rain falls in an urban city with regular pavement, 55 percent of that water is runoff, and only 15 percent penetrates the ground - the rest is evaporated. The water that penetrates can go either to the surrounding vegetation, like trees, or all the way down to groundwater. But the runoff water can go to a variety of places, one of them being infiltration basins, which can sometimes affect public fields or streams. Road pollutants are concentrated and then flow into a wide variety of settings; from soccer fields to streams and it can harm wildlife and increase algae growth.

How does pervious concrete help? Installing pervious concrete reduces the amount of urban heat island impact. Pervious concrete allows water to flow through and infiltrate the ground. Pervious can also reflect harmful ultraviolet rays. The negative effects of urban heat island could be decreased if everything with the pervious pavement goes as expected. With pervious pavement, 10 percent is runoff and 50 percent directly infiltrates the ground. This ultimately causes vegetation to thrive, the energy demand to decrease and the air quality to increase. Toxins can be filtered and degraded by Earth's natural processes.

http://www.asufoundation.org/news/stories/0130-concrete.asp - to learn more.

For additional info on how pervious concrete can reduce the heat island effect:

http://www.concretethinker.com/Papers.aspx?DocId=29