224: Goodwood Museum & Gardens Water Management Plan

Goodwood Museum and Gardens has dealt with serious storm damage for years because of poor drainage. Heavy rain often washes away gravel from walkways and parking lots, costing the museum a lot of money to fix. Since the museum runs on a tight budget, these repairs are difficult to afford. Another big issue is flooding in the basement of one of the buildings, where water seeps through the walls.

The goal of this project was to solve these problems in a way that was affordable and didn’t harm the site’s appearance. However, we didn’t find a solution easily. The museum is a historic site with protected trees and a limited budget. We rejected ideas like installing underground drainage pipes or an underground tank to store rainwater for irrigation because they were too expensive and could damage tree roots.

After reviewing different options, we chose several solutions that could be implemented separately. Our primary plan was to create terraces on the east lawn, which would work like steps in the ground, slowing the water flow. Other ideas included redirecting downspouts away from foundations, building a wall to keep water away from basements, planting rain gardens to absorb excess water and adjusting gravel walkways to stop water flow along them. We selected these solutions partly because the museum’s grounds crew wanted to make improvements themselves, allowing them to prevent future storm damage.