Purple-Roof Purple-Roof

Want to learn more about vegetated roof detention and retention research?
We met with Dr. Anna Zakrisson from the green roof laboratory of Green Roof Diagnostics in Culpeper, Virginia. Short version.

Full interview:
https://youtu.be/qot1KpJIjPc

Green Roof Diagnostics:
https://www.greenroofdiagnostics.com

Dr. Anna Zakrisson, was interviewed for Purple-Roof by Folkert Tempelman from Studio Piso7.

These are the latest advancements in green infrastructure stormwater management.

Zakrisson is part of a team of green roof researchers investigating and improving green roofs. Their main focus so far has been stormwater management. Detention green roofs can reduce or replace grey infrastructure stormwater management solutions such as tanks and cisterns.

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Green & Grey Stormwater Management Options
https://www.purple-roof.com/post/what-stormwater-management-options-are-there

How to Manage Stormwater with Green Infrastructure
https://www.purple-roof.com/post/green-infrastructure-stormwater-management

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Feel free to embed these videos on your website. They are for educational purposes.

We met with water resilience expert Nanco Dolman in Amsterdam.

Nanco Dolman is a leading professional in Water Resilient Cities at Royal HaskoningDHV and has long experience in both disaster water management, for example storm Sandy, as well as in preventative measures.

Nanco shares with us a very interesting perspective and some visions of how our future cities could look like and function with regard to water management.

The main message is to see water as a resource and work *with it* and not against it.
Follow Nanco on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancodolman/?locale=nl_NL

Read about green infrastructure stormwater management:
https://www.purple-roof.com/post/green-infrastructure-stormwater-management

Visit Purple-Roof HOME:
www.purple-roof.com
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Nanco was interviewed by Folkert Tempelman from Studio Piso7
https://piso7.studio/
Idea & Concept: Anna Zakrisson
https://annazakrisson.com/
Jingle: Joa Helgesson
http://joahelgesson.net/

We interviewed Dr. Helen Toxopeus, a researcher at Sustainable Finance Lab, Utrecht University on the importance of green roofs / vegetated roofs as nature-based solutions.

Toxopeus is involved in the EU-wide project Naturvation, a project with the aim to assess what nature-based solutions can be achieved in cities, and what tools are required to realize urban sustainability goals.

https://naturvation.eu/home

Also, we wanted to understand more about the financial aspects of installing green roofs: what financial incentives are there available in the EU region?

Folkert Tempelman from Studio Piso7 conducted the interview on behalf of Purple-Roof.

Purple-Roof website:
https://www.purple-roof.com/

What Is A Combined Sewer? written and narrated by Dr. Anna Zakrisson
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Does your city smell of poo from time to time? It is quite likely that you have felt a whiff of such unpleasant odors after heavy rain events. But, have you ever stopped and asked yourself why this happens?

You might not like the answer…
The reason is: overflowing combined sewers.

Find out how green roofs can help to mitigate this serious problem!
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Read the full article on the Purple-Roof blog:
https://www.purple-roof.com/post/what-is-a-combined-sewer

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Don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions at
info@purple-roof.com

What is green roof retention?
Written by Brad Garner and narrated by Dr. Anna Zakrisson.

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Retention is the process of holding water on the green roof, i.e., preventing water from draining off the green roof. Retention has been the focus of the hydrologic design of green roofs over the past few decades. Many people familiar with green roofs but less familiar with other types of stormwater management might not realize that most engineers consider retention the “free gift with purchase” rather than their central stormwater goal.

So, what is this odd thing, retention?

The secret of green roof water retention is green
Retention works like this: rain falls onto a relatively dry green roof, and the green roof absorbs the water, usually in pore spaces. Later, the sun comes out, and the plants use the rainwater to evapotranspire. This means that the water leaves the roof as vapor. Eventually, it rains again, and the process is repeated.

A surprising amount is going on there. Let’s unpack it!

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Read the full article on the Purple-Roof blog:
https://www.purple-roof.com/post/green-roof-water-retention

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Don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions at
info@purple-roof.com

Green Roof Plants - How do They Survive
Written and narrated by Dr. Anna Zakrisson for Purple-Roof.
www.purple-roof.com/

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Pests and green roof plants
During which parts of your life did you get the most infections? If you’d allow me to make a qualified guess, I’d probably say that it has been during times of high stress, mentally and/or physically. If we sleep little, eat poorly, and stress a lot, we tend to get sick.

In a way, this is also the case for plants, through their stress looks different. Plant stress can be things like too little (or too much) water, high UV radiation, too much shade, too little (or too much) nutrients, or nutrients in the wrong ratios.

Usually, one moderate stressor won’t crash a system, but if several of them come together, well, then you end up with sick plants.

Often, we apply pesticides and hope for the best. However, if the stressors aren’t being dealt with, we are just postponing the situation.

As an example, we were once asked to remove grubs that were eating up the green roofs in Montgomery County MD. Instead of applying pesticides, we recommended that we needed to remove plant stress. You remove plant stress, and the plants themselves can deal with the grubs. Pesticides fix the system short-term but mess it up even more long-term.

Pesticides are not only expensive but end up in downstream water bodies, which may destroy local ecosystems and risk violating local environmental regulations.

Furthermore, the symbiotic relationships between the plants and microbes such as mycorrhizae might be killed by broad-spectrum pesticides. Destruction of this type of symbiosis means lower water and nutrient availability for the plants, which in turn means more stress.
It is like applying a band-aid on a gaping wound.

We are much better off taking a close look at what is stressing the plants in the first place: let’s focus on sustainability.

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Read the article on the Purple-Roof blog!
www.purple-roof.com/post/green-roof…do-they-survive

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Don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or feedback!
info@purple-roof.com