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Design Concept for a Self-Sealing Storm Drain

The FloaX is intended to mitigate flooding and prevent mosquito breeding

By Rain Noe - December 2, 2020

In areas prone to flooding, storm surges can occasionally reverse drainage systems, sending dirty water spewing up through storm drains. Additionally, stagnant water beneath a storm drain can become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

The FloaX concept, designed in Taiwan by Yu-Chun Chang & Joseph Kah-Rong Wong, is intended to protect against both problems. The solution consists of a buoyant basin captured in a channel below the drain cover. This basin--the designers, for whom English is presumably a second language, refer to it as a "valve plank"--has a drain hole and contains a buoyant ball larger than the hole.

With this arrangement, water running into the storm drain will displace the ball but not the floating basin:

In the event of flooding from below, the basin itself will rise, plugging itself against the drain cover:

While the FloaX concept wouldn't work for cases of extreme flooding--click here for a GIF of that disgusting scene in Parasite, if you haven't eaten lunch yet--it ought mitigate minor flooding, and provide one less access point for mosquitoes.

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Kyle Lamson

3 years ago

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Does preventing excess flood water to escape the system have adverse consequences? -Where does that excess water and pressure go if it can't exit the storm drain... plumbing fixtures upstream of the sewer perhaps? I'd rather have that water escape at the storm drain than from fixtures in my house... The floating ball concept is good and prevention of mosquito breeding is definitely a plus. I think that the gradient perforation pattern of the storm drain is nicely resolved.

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- Dee An
  
  Kyle Lamson
  
  3 years ago
  
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  I was thinking the same, but perhaps it's intended as part of new-build districts with a holistic flood mitigation plan. Such plans might include more green areas, porous pavement etc
  
  If an entire district used these, then when the storm drain is full additional rainfall can only collect / run down the streets. This clean-ish rainwater might be preferable to water from the storm drain, should flooding be inevitable.
  
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