Urban Green Infrastructure Walk Shops

The Climate Centre and the Living Innovation Lab (LILA) at the University of Twente invite you to attend a collaborative “walkshop” focused on the functions of different green infrastructure projects. The event will include a networking lunch with fellow blue-green roof experts, a guided tour of several green infrastructure examples at UT, and a design workshop focused on brainstorming barriers and solutions to green infrastructure projects.

 Read more and register here.

 Event Details

• Date: 19^th of October, 2023
• Time: 0900 - 1300
• Location: The Design Lab at UT (Hengelosestraat 5007521 AN Enschede, The Netherlands)
• This event will be hosted in English
• This is a free event hosted by the University of Twente

 Another round will be held during sustainability week during the last week of November.

 

 

Examples of Green infrastructure: Green roofs

The shopping center Miro in Enschede has a green roof. It is mostly invisible from the ground and therefore as a visitor you might not be aware of the many benefits provided right above your head. It reduces the energy consumption of the shops below significantly.

The water retention capacity of this extensive green roof is 10 mm, estimated to retain 80% of the annual precipitation. The parking lot features additional underground water storage in crates, equally invisible from the ground surface. Water stored here is transported to a local stream, not the sewage. 

For making your own green roof in Enschede, and other measures to counter climate change, you can get a subsidy from the municipality. The prerequisites are described here in Dutch.

Green Panels first results

As part of a BSc thesis the first test results of the Green Panels are in. The results cover 5 full days in August for the different types of materials applied as substrate in the Green Panels: rockwool, recylced fabric, and soil. While differences are observed, the current setup and data range are still too preliminary to draw strong conclusions. See the thesis for details on sensor placement, comparison to weather data, and validity tests.

 

National Resources Day

7 September is National Resources Day. While there is not a lot of information to be found on this annually recurring event for 2023, issuemakers.nl describes it as follows.

"With the National Raw Materials Day we want to draw attention to the task and new role of governments in the field of reuse on upgrading residual streams. The government is an important player here because it:

•     is the provider, producer and owner of those residual streams, such as biomass, old asphalt and old street furniture.
•     is the driver for innovation and implementation through tendering and procurement
•     can be the buyer of the new products from these raw materials

We are talking about millions of tons of waste. That is why governments play an important role in working together to make the Netherlands circular 2050."

Our government has recently enforced a new price on plastic packaging. This helps people think about all the packaging being used at what it could be repurposed for. For our green roof/wall project, repurposed plastic might be used for:

-packaging of equipment, transport cases for equipment

-sensor exteriors to protect from weather elements

-crates to store water for blue green roofs

-attachments of materials/layers to existing roofs/walls in the form of clamps or other ring/clasping structures

-signposts and signs to educate visitors

-chairs and desks, bookcases in meeting rooms

With this in mind, we can rethink the design and eventual orders for materials and equipment for this projejct and ask suppliers if they have any repurposed plastics or other materials to offer.