Increasing urban vegetation cover is seen as an important climate change adaptation strategy, both because of (1) the potential to sequester atmospheric CO2 and (2) the increased evaporative cooling and positive effect on the urban water cycle.
Greening of buildings, i.e., vegetated parts of buildings such as roofs and facades, represents an important part of urban green infrastructure. However, the potential of carbon sequestration is one of the ecosystem services of green buildings that has been poorly studied due to its complex exchange conditions as well as lack of data availability. GREENVELOPES seeks to fill this research gap through detailed measurements and process-based modeling to investigate the performance of green buildings in terms of their carbon and water exchange with the urban atmosphere. The research objectives will be addressed using micrometeorological flux measurements and leaf-level gas exchange measurements. Furthermore, an existing urban energy balance model will be extended by the process-based simulation of carbon and water exchange with the urban atmosphere (Meteo France).
Finally, using the examples of Toulouse (France) and Berlin (Germany), the model-based 'upscaling' of exchange processes from the building scale to the urban scale will allow quantifying and evaluating the potentials of green buildings in terms of carbon sequestration and evaporative cooling compared to other types of green infrastructure.
Cooperation: Bilateral project in collaboration with Cécile de Munck (National Centre for Meteorological Research - Meteo France).
Funding body: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Duration: 03/2023 – 02/2026
Joint project in cooperation with the City of Braunschweig (Department of Environmental Protection) and the working groups Environmental Systems Analysis & Landscape Ecology, Soil Science & Soil Physics of the Institute of Geoecology (TU Braunschweig) and the Institute for Sustainable Urbanism (TU Braunschweig).
The aim of the COABS project is to analyse climate risks in Braunschweig, develop measures to increase adaptive capacity and initiate their implementation. The end result is the development of building blocks for a city-wide adaptation strategy as well as adaptation measures in the fields of action "water quantity management & soil balance", "people & health" and "nature conservation & biodiversity".
Funding: Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, nukleare Sicherheit und Verbraucherschutz (BMUV)
Funding code: 67DAS246B
Funding programme: „Maßnahmen zur Anpassung an den Klimawandel“ https://www.bmuv.de/themen/klimaschutz-anpassung/klimaanpassung
Project management: ZUG https://www.z-u-g.org/aufgaben/foerderung-von-massnah-men-zur-anpassung-an-die-folgen-des-klimawandels/
Duration: 2022-2025
The project objective is to investigate the influence of emissions from Berlin's major airports on the spatial distribution of UFP and other pollutants (soot, NO2, PM10 and PM2.5) and their contribution to outdoor air concentrations by means of stationary and mobile field measurements and model calculations.
Funding body: German Federal Environmental Agency (UBA)
Duration: 2020-2024
Collaborative project within the scope of the BMBF tender "Urban Climate under Change" - Module B (Evaluation of Urban Climate Models) Subproject Climatology and Environmental Meteorology: Quantification of the turbulent surface-atmosphere Exchange of size-classified particle number concentrations, heat, water vapour and CO2.
In October 2019, the collaborative project started into the second phase, in which the focus is on the intensive evaluation and application of the newly developed urban climate model PALM-4U.
Funding body: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)
Duration: 2016-2019 & 2019-2022
We are researching green roofs at several locations within Germany (Berlin, Braunschweig, Obernburg/Main) regarding the exchange processes of energy and CO2 between the green roof and the atmosphere. On two large green roofs of 7,000 and 70,000 m² at the Berlin and Obernburg sites, respectively, we are currently using the Eddy covariance method to quantify the turbulent fluxes of heat, water vapour and CO2 in high temporal resolution and to better understand the exchange processes in the green roof ecosystem.
Funding body: internal funding
Duration: 2014-continuously