Blue-green infrastructure is seen as an effective, nature-based method of addressing environmental problems resulting from climate change and rapid urbanization, as it provides many ecosystem services and positively impacts human well-being.
Creating blue-green infrastructure (BGI) in cities offers many environmental benefits. Among the most important benefits of BGI are: retention of rainwater, slowing its circulation and reducing rapid water runoff (flooding), improving water quality, cleaning the air of pollutants, reducing the urban heat island effect and lowering CO2 concentrations, improving biodiversity and providing habitat for organisms, in addition to providing attractive green space.
Given the increasing popularity of BGI, it is worth noting, the cost of producing BGI. BGI systems often consist of specially formulated soil mixtures and composites, and their production and transportation are highly energy-intensive. This leads to increased CO2 emissions and a larger environmental footprint, which is contrary to sustainability.
The project will study BGI's innovative product with regard to its retention capacity and to improving water quality.
The goal of the project is to explore the use of recycled and waste (e.g., construction) materials and local soils and plants in BGI substrates. Thus, the potential will be created to reduce: the amount of municipal waste, the total cost of BGI construction, compared to BGI constructions available on the market, in order to move toward a closed-loop economy. Opportunities for using alternative water sources, such as gray water for BGI irrigation, will also be identified.
A 2-year pilot study of the retention capacity and quality of water draining from BGI pallets will be conducted (experiments). The properties of commercially used substrates and those made from recycled materials in terms of weight, water retention and leachate quality will be compared. The potential of local soils and various native plant species for BGI formation will be explored.
Natural habitats with diverse vegetation and soils will also be studied to determine landscape water retention and eco-remediation.