Department Urban Water Management
Eawag-Empa Blue-Green Campus Lab
The Blue-Green campus aims to develop as an experimental blue-green infrastructure (BG)= lab where novel climate adaptation and mitigation solutions for improving stormwater management and quality, promoting water reuse, enhancing biodiversity, and protecting public and environmental health in urban environments can be investigated. Join us in building resilient urban futures. We invite collaboration from all researchers, practitioners and policymakers dedicated to advancing climate resilience and sustainability in urban environments. Together, we can harness the potential of BGI to create healthier, more resilient cities for all.
The Blue-Green campus vision is to support research to:
- Increase urban climate resilience: we aim to enhance urban resilience and liveability through BGI leveraging its capacity to mitigate climate changes and improve urban stormwater management;
- Improve urban stormwater quality: by investigating BGI's role in enhancing stormwater quality through natural filtration and treatment processes, we aim to investigate new solutions to safeguard water resources and promote ecosystem health;
- Promote urban water reuse: exploring innovative approaches to water reuse within BGI systems, we seek to reduce water demand, enhance resource efficiency, and mitigate the impacts of water scarcity in urban areas;
- Enhance urban biodiversity: our research focuses on understanding how BGI can support urban biodiversity, creating habitat corridors and green spaces that promote ecological resilience and enhance urban ecosystems and
- Protect public health: investigating the connections between BGI, public health, and well-being, we aim to identify strategies for reducing urban heat island effects, improving air quality, and enhancing overall urban liveability.
Projects
Project 1: BGIs to improve stormwater quality and reduce the impacts on receiving water bodies / Fabienne Maire und Lena Mutzner
Recent studies have highlighted the contribution of urban stormwater runoff to increased toxicity in surface waters. Therefore, solutions to mitigate this problem are needed. BGIs are designed to provide multiple ecological benefits, managing both stormwater volumes and pollutant levels. According to current research, BGI can significantly contribute to the removal of traditional contaminants associated with stormwater runoff, such as particulate contaminants, nutrients and metals. However, little is known about the fate of organic contaminants in BGI, specifically dissolved organic substances. To better understand the functionality and treatment performance of BGI for dissolved organic contaminants, the following research question will be investigated in this project:
What is the efficacy of BGI in removing organic micropollutants from stormwater and reducing toxicity within these systems?
Additional information at Tracestorm project
Project 2: The role of stormwater to mitigate urban heat events / Lucas Gobatti und João P. Leitão
Urbanisation exacerbates environmental warming and diminishes green spaces, resulting in the Urban Heat Island phenomenon. To counteract this, incorporating vegetation into urban areas has been widely proposed as a strategy to mitigate rising temperatures.
The recent landscape design developments at the Eawag and EMPA campus incorporates stormwater-sensitive principles, channelling runoff towards green spaces, and utilising micro-topography to enhance detention for optimal infiltration. This innovative initiative provides an opportunity to bridge a critical research gap concerning the differences in vegetation cooling performance between areas embracing water-sensitive design principles and those that do not. This prompts to a fundamental research question being investigated in this project: What is the correlation between soil moisture content and the evaporative cooling performance of trees within water-sensitive landscaping?
Additional information at Heat-down project
Project 3: Evaluating the potential of evaporative cooling of wetted surfaces /Jixuan Chen und João P. Leitão
While green spaces are recognised for their pivotal role in mitigating urban heat, the utilization of evaporative cooling via wetting impervious urban surfaces, such as concrete and asphalt, represents a promising yet underexplored strategy for climate adaptation. Despite its widespread application, the scientific investigation into wetting grey surfaces lags behind its green counterpart. Quantifying the potential of evaporative cooling from wetted surfaces is essential for precise engineering and implementation of urban cooling solutions.
Despite the presence of some greenery on our campus, the challenge of intense summer heat persists. The establishment of the Blue-Green campus presents an unprecedented opportunity to delve into adaptive measures with a heightened awareness of thermal comfort for all occupants. Leveraging ongoing modelling efforts aimed at assessing the cooling benefits of wetted surfaces, this project seeks to utilize the open space surrounding the NEST building for experimental data collection. The objective is not only to support model validation but also to advance the scientific understanding of urban cooling mechanisms, informing the development of effective localized and city-wide strategies.
Additional information at Heat-down project
Project 4: Water reuse opportunities for enhancing BGI performance / Rosanne Wielemaker und Eberhard Morgenroth
Urban water reuse reduces (drinking) water demand and mitigates the impacts of water scarcity in urban areas. Used water (or wastewater), can be treated and reused inside households or industries, or reused as a water source for BGIs. Greywater (water from showers, sinks and laundry) offers a reliable water source for water reuse in comparison to stormwater (which is seasonally dependent). In this Blue Green infrastructure lab, we explore how to maximise opportunities for water reuse in and around the NEST building on the Blue-Green Campus. We investigate how to reconcile water dynamics in quantity, quality, time and space between supply and demand.
In addition, nutrients recovered from urine in the NEST building can be reused to fertilize vegetation areas on the Blue-Green campus. How can we maximize opportunities for nutrient reuse onsite? How does nutrient reuse and management impact other beneficial functions of BGIs (e.g. local (storm)water quality).
Additional information at Water-hub at NEST project
