CITY PARK WETLANDS

CITY PARK WETLANDS

For the New Orleans City Park, Dana Brown & Associates designed a 2-acre constructed wetland system to intercept subsurface drainage from the City Park Festival Grounds. The system filters stormwater, while providing a means of temporary detention to filter out pollutants and to allow the downstream drainage system time to catch up before the water is released during heavy rain events. DBA created a design to include the usage of a variety of native wetland species that function as a natural wetland, and designed an outfall water dispersion structure to prevent wetland erosion. Its success is greatly due to the coordination of volunteers who planted and maintain the wetland. Diverse groups of people learned first-hand how wetlands can be used as a sustainable strategy to treat and store stormwater runoff. DBA has adopted the wetlands and organizes volunteers to conduct maintenance.