bioswale
Federal Land Management in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Glossary
Glossary and Key Word List
Definition: A relatively wide, shallow, open channel, typically vegetated with turf grasses, with a slight gradient. These systems are designed to let water flow slowly through the turf grasses. The roughness of the turf slows the runoff velocity and provides some filtration and settling of suspended solids. Runoff volumes can also be reduced through infiltration depending on the porosity of the underlying soils. Swales can be designed with underdrains to convey excess runoff from saturated soils.
dune and swale (ridge and swale)
Nearshore Terrestrial Ecosystems Glossary
Glossary and Key Word List
Definition: Dunes or ridges that run parallel to a lake and on the ancestral lake bed; the dunes are dry and sandy, the swales are wetland areas.
grassed swales
Federal Land Management in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Glossary
Glossary and Key Word List
Definition: A term to describe a vegetated, open runoff channel planted with grasses or turf. Similar terms include grassed channel, dry swale, wet swale, biofilter, or bioswale. Such systems are designed to treat and attenuate stormwater runoff. As runoff flows along the channels, the vegetation in the channel promotes filtration, settling, and infiltration of runoff into the underlying soils. The specific design features and methods of treatment differ in each of these designs but are improvements on the traditional drainage ditch. The designs incorporate modified geometry and other features for use of the swale as a treatment and conveyance practice.
swales
Federal Land Management in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Glossary
Glossary and Key Word List
Definition: Vegetated, open-channel management practices designed specifically to treat and attenuate stormwater runoff for a specified water quality volume.
vegetated swales
Federal Land Management in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Glossary
Glossary and Key Word List
Definition: A shallow drainage conveyance that has vegetative turf (typically grasses) with relatively gentle side slopes, generally with flow depths of less than one foot.
Bioswale
EPA EV-Built Environments-Waste Systems
Taxonomy
Definition: A relatively wide, shallow, open channel, typically vegetated with turf grasses, with a slight gradient. These systems are designed to let water flow slowly through the turf grasses. The roughness of the turf slows the runoff velocity and provides some filtration and settling of suspended solids. Runoff volumes can also be reduced through infiltration depending on the porosity of the underlying soils. Swales can be designed with underdrains to convey excess runoff from saturated soils. [EPA Guidance for Federal Land Management in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Glossary at http://www.epa.gov/owow_keep/NPS/chesbay502/pdf/chesbay_glossary.pdf]
Natural Swale
EPA EV-Natural Environments-Oceanic Environments
Taxonomy
Definition: A long, narrow, generally shallow trough-like depression between two beach ridges and aligned roughly parallel to the coastline. These typically will be found in the intertidal or supratidal zones. [Federal Geographic Data Committee Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard, June 2012 FGDC-STD-018-2012]
Natural Swale/Slack
EPA EV-Natural Environments-Oceanic Environments
Taxonomy
Definition: A long, narrow, generally shallow trough-like depression between two beach ridges and aligned roughly parallel to the coastline. These typically will be found in the intertidal or supratidal zones. [Federal Geographic Data Committee Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard, June 2012 FGDC-STD-018-2012]
Swale
EPA EV-Built Environments-Waste Systems
Taxonomy
Definition 1: A swale, sometimes called a biofilter, is a grass-lined channel that is designed to convey stormwater in shallow flow. Pollutant removal is accomplished through filtration through the vegetation and swales are frequently designed to allow for infiltration of stormwater. [EPA Stormwater Discharges from Developed Sites; Glossary from Owner/Developer Long Questionnaire; 4/16/2010 DRAFT VERSION Quoted on NAHB website] Definition 2: Vegetated, open-channel management practices designed specifically to treat and attenuate stormwater runoff for a specified water quality volume. [EPA Guidance for Federal Land Management in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Glossary at http://www.epa.gov/owow_keep/NPS/chesbay502/pdf/chesbay_glossary.pdf] 
