Evaluation of ecosystem performances for re-naturing urban environment – EVNATURB

EVNATURB project will make a link between recent methods and results from researches in urban monitoring and modelling and practical problems in environmental sciences with applications related to urban planning and management. It will adopt a multi-scale approach to capture the spatio-temporal variability of the studied physical processes. Considering hydrology as a starting point, it will extend to related domains such as thermal and biodiversity. Experimental and modelling activities related to the estimation of evapotranspiration flux will be particularly relevant to improve our knowledge on the thermo-hydric behaviour, and the role of vegetation.

The EVNATURB platform, planned to be developed during the project, is intended for every stakeholder involved in urban development projects (planners, architects, engineering and environmental certification companies…) and will help them to implement BGS and evaluate which ones are the most appropriate for a particular project depending on its environmental objectives and constraints, and particularly for obtaining environmental certification.

Stakeholders targeted by the project comprise BGS manufacturers, urban planners, engineers, ecologists, architects and local authorities. Approaches and tools developed during the project will be able to provide guidance in evaluating which measures are the most appropriate. The EVNATURB platform (that may lead to file a patent) could be useful for obtaining environmental certifications, and particularly the targets related to biodiversity, thermic and water regulations. The EVNATURB project will propose some new services (monitoring, modelling) to continuously assess these specific environmental performances during the project as expected by the “Système de Management d’une Opération” (SMO) reference, which is a governance tool that enables the project owner to set his objectives for the operation, and organize to achieve them. These services could be used by any stakeholder of an urban development (from the project owner to the general contractor).

These research results and their operational applications will be presented in the various master courses proposed at Ecole des Ponts ParisTech and more generally at the Descartes Research Cluster. In the long term, the objective is to build a specific master supported by the HM&Co laboratory. It will be devoted to complex urban systems and propose some methods to observe and model the different flux (material and energy) through scales. It will provide some tools and methods promoting a sustainable and relevant urban development regarding environmental stakes (including extreme events and climate change).

Castellanos, L.A., Versini, P.-A., Bonin, O., and Tchiguirinskaia I., 2020. A Text-Mining Approach to Compare Impacts and Benefits of Nature-Based Solutions in Europe. Sustainability, 12, 7799

Versini, P.A., Gires, A., Tchiguirinskaia, I., Schertzer, D., 2020. Fractal analysis of green roof spatial implementation in European cities. Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, 49, 126629

Versini, P.-A., Stanic, F., Gires, A., Schertzer, D., and Tchiguirinskaia, I., 2020. Measurements of the water balance components of a large green roof in the greater Paris area, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 1025–1035, doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-1025-2020

Castellanos Diaz, L.A., Bonin, O., Versini, P.-A. and Tchiguirinskaia, I., 2021. Analysis of spatial dimensions and explicit multifractal modelling for the deployment of green areas in an urban agglomeration. European Geosciences Union Conference, 19-30th April 2021, Vienna (Austria)

Castellanos Diaz, L.A., Bonin, O., Versini, P.-A. and Tchiguirinskaia, I., 2021. Fractal dimension comparison and spatial multifractal approach for green areas installation in an urban agglomeration. European Geosciences Union Conference, 19-30th April 2021, Vienna (Austria)

Versini, P.-A., Gires A., Tchiguirinskaia, I., and Schertzer D., 2020. Assessment of green roof incentive policies in European cities by a fractal analysis. European Geosciences Union Conference, 4-8th May 2020, Vienna (Austria)

Castellanos, L.A., Versini, P.-A., Tchiguirinskaia, I., Bonin O., Ramier, D., 2020. Large Aperture Scintillometer measurements above a large green roof to assess the evapotranspiration flux. European Geosciences Union Conference, 4-8th May 2020, Vienna (Austria)

Versini, P.-A., Castellanos, A., Stanic, F., Schertzer, D., Tchiguirinskaia, I., 2019. Toward quantitative indicators to assess the cooling effect of Blue Green Solutions by combining experimental and modelling approaches. European Geosciences Union Conference, 7-12th April 2019, Vienna (Austria)

Urban areas are facing a broad range of challenges due to unsustainable urbanization, degradation of natural capital, as well as an expected increase in intensity and frequency of extreme weather events due to climate change. This should directly exacerbate the environmental consequences (stormwater management) or indirectly (urban heat island and biodiversity degradation) related to the water cycle. Blue Green Solutions (BGS), such as green roofs or vegetated swales, are particularly efficient to reduce the potential impact of new and existing urban developments with respect to these issues. Although BGS benefits are perceived, promoters are still reluctant to implement them (or only on aesthetic considerations). Some methodologies and tools have therfore to be developed to better understand the thermo-hydric behaviour of such infrastructure in relation with biodiversity, and to assess their performances through scales (from the constituent material to the development project).

The 4-year EVNATURB project aims to develop a platform to assess some of the eco-system services (ie stormwater management, cooling effect, or biodiversity conservation) provided by Blue Green Solutions at the district scale, and to promote the re-naturation of cities. To address the wide and complex issues related to this topic, EVNATURB intends to put an emphasis on an interdisciplinary, multi-scale and multi-physics approach to:
- Couple hydrology, thermic, urbanism, biodiversity and the corresponding eco-systemic services;
- Characterize the spatio-temporal variability of the related processes over a wide range of scales by (i) the implementation of a complex, portable and high-resolution monitoring, and (ii) the use of adapted analysis and modelling tools;
- Develop a scientific network devoted to BGS monitoring and contribute to expand knowledge and fulfil the lack of feedback concerning the functioning of existing BGS;
- Characterise the implementation of BGS infrastructures by taking into local socio-environmental stakes and constraints, and define some quantitative indicators relevant for the development project (certification, labelling, compliance with local regulations, continuity with surrounding biodiversity, etc.).

EVNATURB project will make a link between recent methods and results from researches in urban monitoring and modelling and practical problems in environmental sciences with applications related to urban planning and management. It will adopt a multi-scale approach to capture the spatio-temporal variability of the studied physical processes. Considering hydrology as a starting point, it will extend to related domains such as thermal and biodiversity. Experimental and modelling activities related to the estimation of evapotranspiration flux will be particularly relevant to improve our knowledge on the thermo-hydric behaviour, and the role of vegetation.

The EVNATURB platform, planned to be developed during the project, is intended for every stakeholder involved in urban development projects (planners, architects, engineering and environmental certification companies…) and will help them to implement BGS and evaluate which ones are the most appropriate for a particular project depending on its environmental objectives and constraints, and particularly for obtaining environmental certification.