CityRoof Building Materials

CityRoof research project involves developing green roofs to provide ecosystem services in urban areas. The project will contribute to the sustainable development of the built environment through the integration of recycled materials into green roofs. The potential impact of green roofs on the urban heat island effect as well as on water runoff will be evaluated at the urban scale.

 

New man-made ecosystems have become dominant in the biosphere and its functioning. Understanding these ecosystems and their capacity to provide beneficial ecosystem services to society is a key challenge. Green roofs are becoming increasingly popular due to the shortage of land for developing green infrastructure in urban areas. Ecosystem services provided by green roofs include the maintenance of biodiversity and ecological corridors between natural areas, climate and water regulation, and societal benefits.

In this project, the interactions between human, built and natural environments are analysed in order to propose a new green roof ecosystem. We also study how these interactions influence the ecosystems created by green infrastructure developed in urban areas, particularly for Belgian cities. The specific objectives of the project are the following:

Assess the capacity of extensive green roofs to develop natural habitats similar to dry grasslands, to create biodiversity that contributes to the development of ecological networks at the territorial scale;

Analyze the interactions between flora and abiotic conditions on similar green roofs, and assess their influence on water and temperature regulation;

Analyze the potential for green roof development in cities and evaluate the overall contribution of this potential in terms of ecosystem services.

Evaluate the contribution of similar green roofs, using recycled building materials, to the sustainability of the built environment, temperature regulation, and water management in buildings.

GeMMe Building Materials participates in the assessment of water transfer and insulation dynamic of green roofs produced and designed with recycled materials. These materials will be part of drainage layer as well as substrate for grass. Experimental work will be performed in Laboratoire des Matériaux de Construction and modelling will be developed for optimization of heat and humidity transfer with the help of Prof. Shaddy Attia

The project is coordinated by Prof. Grégory Mahy of the Faculté Gembloux AgroBio-Tech of the University of Liège, Prof. Jacques Teller for LEMA as well as Prof. Luc Courard from GEMME Building Materials group.