Urban Water TMU at the Green Infrastructure Research Symposium

Urban Water researcher Dr. Hitesh Doshi and graduate students Zahra Khan and Ariel Zhu presented at the Green Infrastructure Research Symposium which was hosted by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities virtually on October 25th, 2023. This symposium focused on sustainable solutions for urbanized areas with current advances in green infrastructure research.

Zahra’s work investigates the use of raised vegetative systems on green rooftops that are just as effective at managing stormwater and providing shade, but do not add extra weight like larger greenhouses do. It was found that Virigina Creeper, a flowering vine species, provided the most shade to the roof (about 60%) during the summer months and this may be implemented more in the future!

Blue roofs are known to temporarily hold water and slowly release it as an effective stormwater management strategy. Ariel’s work focuses on the detention performance (e.g., via peak flow reduction) of blue roofs using Stormwater Detention Assemblies (SDAs) in an effort to establish a performance-based guideline. It was found that passive systems have better peak flow reduction performance and reduce flood risk better than active systems that need a staggered drainage time for better performance.

For more information on the Symposium agenda and abstracts see: https://greenroofs.org/green-infrastructure-research-symposium-2023 (external link)