Date: 07 Jun 2023
The purpose of the project is to investigate the effectiveness of green roofs in reducing stormwater runoff from developments and the extent of flooding.
Dublin piloting innovative smart green roof monitoring project as part of Climate Action initiative
The purpose of the project is to investigate the effectiveness of green roofs in reducing stormwater runoff from developments and the extent of flooding.
Extreme rainfall events or ‘cloudbursts’ results in large amount of water falling in a short period of time. In an urban area like a city or large town, much of this rain falls on hard surfaces such as paths and roofs and then enters the drainage network which can become overloaded, resulting in flooding.
Roofs have the potential to act like sponges in capturing this rainfall. Nature based solutions like green roofs and roof gardens can use some of this water for plant growth as well as slowing the release of water to the drainage network, which has benefits in terms of alleviating flooding. Flooding has been identified as one of the key risks in the Dublin Local Authority Climate Change Action plans so implementing solutions such as green roofs, rain gardens and sustainable urban drainage solutions can ease the pressure on the drainage network as well as provide recreational and biodiversity benefits
In this project, experimental green roofs are been measured by AquaRoot – NanoPower’s EcoMet, an IoT sensor platform specially designed for environmental monitoring. It involves the deployment of highly instrumented smart green roofs on the rooftops of four buildings in the greater Dublin area. The roof tests sites are been provided by Hibernia Real Estate Group as well as test site in UCD Rosemount. A wide range of environmental variables such as temperature, flow rate and humidity are been monitored to provide evidence-based data to assess the performances of green roof plants in different urban and meteorological conditions.
The project is supported by Dublin Metropolitan Climate Acton Regional Office (CARO) and lead by Francesco Pilla, Professor in Smart Cities & Urban Environment, University College Dublin.
For further information:
Prof Francesco Pilla, UCD (francesco.pilla@ucd.ie)
Vincent Farrelly, AquaRoot Technologies Ltd (v.farrelly@aquartec.com)
CARO – David Dodd Caro@dublincity.ie www.caro.ie