GaiaSoil™ Floating Wetlands

Product Summary

When Leaf Island co-founder, Dr. Paul Mankiewicz, invented GaiaSoil, it was done with the purpose of  bringing green roofs to any rooftop without exceeding bearing capacity. What we realized was that GaiaSoil was quite literally lighter than water, so it floats. This means that we can construct stormwater capture systems with GaiaSoil that can take up as much water as the walls will hold without ever waterlogging the soil medium and causing the plants to die. GaiaSoil will always maintain the correct oxygen levels within the soil column of your wetland.

GaiaSoil™ Floating Wetlands replace traditional rain garden / swale systems, without the high excavation costs that impact the scalability of many green infrastructure projects. They also provide added benefits, including increased pedestrian safety and the air pollution removal. Our floating wetlands are perfect for any industrial site or overpass where high-capacity stormwater capture is required.

The GaiaSoil in our floating wetlands is mostly composed of recycled Styrofoam, a pernicious waste stream material that we turn into something extraordinary. These floating wetlands remove an immense amount of Styrofoam from the waste stream.

Proven Technology

Our first GaiaSoil™ Floating Wetland, the Pier 5 Pop-Up Floating Wetland, developed in partnership with DLANDstudio Landscape Architecture and the U.S. Geological Survey, captured millions of gallons of polluted stormwater runoff from the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx. The Pier 5 Pop-Up Floating Wetland was successful in improving water quality for the Harlem River, and demonstrated the effectiveness and scalability of floating wetlands moving forward.