Abstract
In the last decades, there has been a widespread implementation of Green Infrastructures worldwide. Among these, green roofs appear to be particularly flexible sustainable drainage facilities. To predict their effectiveness for planning purposes, a tool is required that provides information as a function of local meteorological variables. Thus, a relatively simple daily scale, one-dimensional water balance approach has been proposed. The crucial evapotranspiration process, usually considered as a water balance dependent variable, is replaced here by empirical relationships providing an a-priori assessment of soil water losses through actual evapotranspiration. The modelling scheme, which under some simplification can be used without a calibration process, has been applied to experimental runoff data monitored at a green roof located near Bernkastel (Germany), between April 2005 and December 2006. Two different empirical relationships have been used to model actual evapotranspiration, considering a water availability limited and an energy limited scheme. Model errors quantification, ranging from 2% to 40% on the long-term scale and from 1% to 36% at the event scale, appear strongly related to the particularly considered relationship.
Highlights
In the last decades, there has been widespread implementation of Green Infrastructures (GIs) worldwide [1,2]
Built at relative low costs on rooftops, extensive Green roofs (GRs) remove a large fraction of impervious surfaces from the urban hydrological cycle, thereby providing the mentioned benefits [4,5,6,7,8,9]
The stormwater response of a green roof is highly impacted by the green roof structure itself and, to a larger extent, by the climate conditions, making generalization of the GR hydrological performance a very difficult task [10]
Summary
There has been widespread implementation of Green Infrastructures (GIs) worldwide [1,2]. GIs retain, treat and reduce stormwater, contributing to runoff management, flood mitigation, landslide prevention, air quality management, and further mitigate the warming effects related to climate change and urban heat islands. The use of GIs is limited by the available soil surface area. Green roofs (GRs), within the much wider context of GI, could represent a flexible solution to this problem [3]. Built at relative low costs on rooftops, extensive GRs remove a large fraction of impervious surfaces from the urban hydrological cycle, thereby providing the mentioned benefits [4,5,6,7,8,9]. Green roofs appear to reduce total yearly runoff volume by 40% to 90%, with an important seasonal fluctuation.
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