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.

Brief update on LILa construction

Due to the permitting processes being rounded off, work on the LILa site is finally scheduled to start this September! In this initial phase the ground work consisting of utility cables and pipes (electricity, water, sewage, data) will be developed. Further subsurface placement of sensors for other LILa projects will take place as much as possible in combination with these excavations. Any subsurface path/road foundations can also be laid. I'm looking forward to the project finally taking shape in real life.

World Water Week

From 20-24 August it is World Water Week. As per the organizers, "World Water Week 2023 is focused on innovation at a time of unprecedented challenges. The theme Seeds of Change: Innovative Solutions for a Water-Wise World invites us to rethink how we manage water. Which ideas, innovations, and governance systems will we need in a more unstable and water scarce world?"

Green infrastructure can do a lot to help this goal.We have seen unprecedented rainfall events this summer hitting the Netherlands as extreme climate events are intensifying. Storm Poly even led to a death in the affected areas. Having more options to handle precipitation, in the form of green infrastructure, can help reduce and delay the peaks of storm floods. However, it must be planned with the same care as other infrastructure, both above and below the ground surface. 

Here we see an example when trees did not get sufficient space to develop their roots below ground and instead of helping to reduce water loads and prevent flooding, damaged an entire row of houses.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/07/05/storm-poly-netherlands-germany-sting-jet/

If we look at green roofs, especially blue-green roofs, these can also collect water to be used at a later time, thus alleviating water scarcity. The collected water can be used to water a garden, wash a car, flush toilets, and other uses depending on a country's water quality laws. For drinking water, it must first be purified and treated to remove possible pollutants and pathogens. 

So we see that when it comes to water management, green infrastructure can help reduce negative impacts of climate change such as flooding, and reduce water scarcity. Green infrastructure does require water as well, meaning more insight in the water balance is required.

Examples of Green Infrastructure: wadis

Wadis, as constructed in the Netherlands, are based on a natural principle from northern Africa and southwest Asia, where gullies or streams stay dry unless it is the rainy season. As green infrastructure, it is a natural area with lowered ground surface that has the capacity to hold water when it rains.

Three examples in Enschede show different approaches to this principle. The first example shows a wadi made next to the main street, connected to a new sewage system that anticipates larger rain storms and has a higher storage capacity.

The second example shows a specialized drainage system starting at the roofs of the houses, where rainwater is redirected towards the center of the street, instead of the gutters normally found on the sides of the street. From the center of the street, shallow gullies move the water towards a nearby pond.

 

The third example has a park where a wadi is made, with special stepping stones for children to play in, whether it is dry or wet. 

All of these examples help delay and decrease flood peaks, and help restore ground water levels.