Blue Green Dream
- Winner of R&D Programme of the Year award at Business Green Technology Awards 2015
- 13 demo sites set up across Europe at a variety of scales – ranging from green roofs equipped with sensors, including Imperial College (Eastside) Green Roof, to sites in Berlin (10,000m2) and Paris.
Intensifying climate extremes (floods, droughts and heat waves), combined with increasing urbanisation, call for rethinking existing ways of planning, designing, constructing, operating and maintaining urban water systems (blue assets) and urban vegetated areas (green assets), not as separate systems as is the case today, but in combination. The expected multiple benefits of multi-functional Blue Green Solutions include: increased amenity and urban health, enhanced resilience to drought and flood risk, reduced air pollution, noise and energy requirements, mitigation of extreme heat and urban heat island effects and enhancement of biodiversity and quality of life.
This project brought together academic, NGO and industry partners from across Europe and focussed on the development of innovative paradigms, models, tools and methodologies by sharing expertise between academic research and consultancy partners from 4 countries (France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom). Taking an integrated approach, jointly developed project deliverables were tested and demonstrated in selected sites established in Berlin, London, Paris and Rotterdam, to demonstrate the benefits of Blue Green infrastructure for both retrofit and new developments.
The outputs of the project include various new modelling and methodological tools including:
- Multi-Hydro model
- Adaptation Support Tool (AST)
- Urban Water Optioneering Tool (UWOT)
- BGD Toolbox, BG Solution Evaluation Matrix, BGD E-Learning, BGD Green Façade BIM module, and
- BGD Integrated Modelling System (IMS)
Dr Ana Mijic, Professor Cedo Maksimovic and Dr Maarten van Reeuwijk