Co-UDlabs and #GreenRoofDay!
Today, June 6, is #GreenRoofDay! An up-and-coming infrastructural solution for a more sustainable and efficient urban design model, green roofs are bound to play a pivotal role in the emergence of new understandings of urban drainage and its centrality to urban sustainability.
In the framework of its Transnational Access programme, Co-UDlabs is granting free access to 17 unique UDS facilities to allow external user-groups to test new sustainable UDS approaches and methods, including various SuDS, such as green roofs. The Laboratoire Deep at INSA Lyon, one of the Co-UDlabs partners, offers access to GROOF, an experimental facility equipped with six green-roof platforms (3m x 3m each) and located on the rooftop of a building at the INSA Lyon campus. The platforms can be fitted with up to six different green roofs, for mid-term (few months) to long-term (several years) experiments aiming at evaluating the green roofs’ hydrological performance in terms of retention, detention, and evapotranspiration, as well as providing data for modelling purposes.
![](https://co-udlabs.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GROOF-002-View-of-the-six-platforms-2-1024x576.jpg)
![](https://co-udlabs.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GROOF-004-Flowmeter-installed-under-each-platform-1024x576.jpg)
![](https://co-udlabs.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GROOF-012-Detail-of-a-platform-pillar-2-1024x577.jpg)
![](https://co-udlabs.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GROOF-014-Weighing-left-and-tipping-bucket-right-raingauges-1024x576.jpg)
![](https://co-udlabs.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GRED4B1-1024x576.jpg)
![](https://co-udlabs.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GROOF-019-Data-acquisition-system-1024x577.jpg)
Additionally, the BLOCK facility of the University of A Coruña (UDC) replicates an urban intersection in a 100m2 scaled model (1:4) for studying rainfall run-off transformation and pollutant mobilisation. This unique structure features four blocks of adjustable roofs. In the framework of Co-UDlabs’ Joint Research Activities, two green roofs and one gravel roof are being installed in the facility.
![](https://co-udlabs.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/barrio_4-1024x576.jpg)
![](https://co-udlabs.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/barrio_6-1-1024x576.jpg)
![](https://co-udlabs.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Hidraulica_17-1024x576.jpg)
![](https://co-udlabs.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Instrumentos_4-1-1024x576.jpg)
![](https://co-udlabs.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/tuberias_5-1-1024x683.jpg)
![](https://co-udlabs.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/tuberias_9-1-1024x683.jpg)
If you are interested to access these or other SuDS facilities offered by Co-UDlabs, we are opening a global call for Transnational Access in October 2023. You can start sharing now your project ideas or pitches in Co-UDlabs’ Ideas Marketplace! It may be a great place to start designing an innovative SuDS approach for the future. You can easily subscribe to updates on our project via a simple contact form, as well as follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn!
More resources:
- follow the #WGRD2022 and hashtags on Twitter
- an interesting story on Green Roofs for more details on this technology and method.