Long-term experiments for the evaluation of the potential for storm water control of modular blue roofs in Mediterranean climate

ABSTRACT

The paper discusses results of the long-term monitoring of a full-scale pilot installation of a modular tray-based blue roof (BR) system for the control of the runoff from the roof terrace of a building in the campus of the University of Catania (Italy). The BR was installed in one catchment of the rooftop while another symmetrical catchment was left unmodified and monitored to allow comparison. Results of the analysis have shown average 54% retention efficiency and 72% detention efficiency of the BR. Comparatively, the BR always overperformed the conventional roof, with mean 34% runoff reduction and mean 60% flow peak attenuation. The paper discusses also limitations of the results obtained and potential for improvement of the system efficiency, including comparison with some of the results from the literature.

KEYWORDS:

• Blue Roof
• source control systems
• SUDS
• detention
• retention

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work has been [partially] funded by the University of Catania within the projects ‘Piano della Ricerca Dipartimentale 2016–2018ʹ, ‘Piano della Ricerca Dipartimentale 2020–2022ʹ, and the project ‘Chance 2017’ Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture.