Carillon Park in Vanier set to become Ottawa's first 'sponge park'

Anne-Michelle Martin's family at Carillon Park, the future location of Ottawa's first sponge park. Photo by CHIDIMMA ALIOZOR /POSTMEDIA

Article content

A park in Vanier will be converted to a “sponge park” in the next few years, the first of its kind in Ottawa.

Article content

Carillon Park is on the corner of Carillon Street and Park Street. A colourful play structure at the park’s centre sits in a large sandpit. Beyond the sand, interlocking pavement, occasionally uneven, covers the ground. A small hole near the fenced back corner of the park exposes the dirt underneath the pavement.

Article content

Article content

Article content

With its renewal date approaching, Carillon Park will undergo a modern makeover. Not only will the park adopt the features of a “sponge park” — including water-permeable surfaces — it will also have a brand new splash pad.

Article content

Article content

Sponge parks are designed to naturally manage rainfall and lighten the load on storm drains and other storm infrastructure. These parks have permeable surfaces allowing water to seep through the ground more effectively.

Article content

“It’s a way to make our cities more resilient against climate change,” said Rideau-Vanier Coun. Stéphanie Plante.

Article content

Plante brought the idea to the Vanier community a couple of years after attending the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in Montreal in 2022.

Article content

At COP 15, Plante learned about measures to make cities more environmentally-friendly, including sponde parks. At the time, Montreal — which has had several floods in recent years — had seven sponge parks and 800 sponge sidewalks.

Article content

The idea stuck out to Plante, who said Vanier has had some flooding in previous years.

Article content

If rain fell on present-day Carillon Park, the water would just run off into the street and into the sewer system, said Debby Baker, chair of Vanier Community Association’s beautification committee. One of the issues she has heard recently at meetings is that the stormwater system is being “overwhelmed.”

Article content

Article content

Ottawa is trying to improve drainage across the city, Baker said. One of the things the city can do to help is build parks that serve as big sponges and reduce the amount of stormwater runoff on the streets.

Article content

Article content

“So it’s a wonderful idea,” she said.

Article content

Sponge parks limit the strain on stormwater drains and wastewater treatment plants, said McGill environmental engineering professor Jim Nicell. Designed first to be permeable, a sponge park allows as much of the water to get into the ground as possible, he said.

Article content

When there’s too much water for all of it to permeate through the ground, a sponge park can still slow the flow of water. They  often have shallow ditches with rain-loving vegetation called bioswales, where excess water pools. The water gradually makes its way to the sewer system, or will eventually soak through the ground, Nicell said.

Article content

“One sponge park is going to do some good. But effectively, the idea here is to design many elements of an urban community to do that across the board,” he said.

Article content

At Carillon Park, the large sand area will be replaced with engineered wood fibre, which soaks up water better. There will still be a small sandbox because it’s popular with children, said Maxime Basque, municipal policy and affairs assistant for Rideau-Vanier.