Novatech 2023

Nature-based solutions are developing at high speed to manage urban stormwater in a more sustainable way.

Novatech invites you to discover and share feedback and ideas for progress.

Elected officials, researchers, urban planners or technicians, here you'll find technical, scientific and organizational insights from around the world, and you'll be able to exchange ideas with your colleagues.

To go together faster and stronger!

THEME N°3 | Source control measures: management & monitoring

What data must be taken into account to ensure optimal management of nature-based solutions? How can they be used sustainably? What conditions need to be met?

Green roofs and stormwater trees: new "tools" for the "sponge city"?

Vegetated roofs and stormwater trees are emerging as new, relatively easy-to-implement ways of limiting rainwater runoff and heat islands. But what are their performances, what are the impacts of heat on the vegetation and the efficiency of the system, and what lessons can be learned from experiments?

Focus on 4 relevant papers: 

• Experimentation in Paris with a local "zero discharge" constraint from green roofs, based on a decision-support tool incorporating numerous rainfall scenarios and the hydric and geometric properties of the roof elements best suited to manage them.

By Pierre-Antoine VERSINI (France) | Session C1 – Tuesday 4 July at 2:00pm

• A comparative study of the hydrological performance of green roofs using ultralight materials, a conventional green roof with substrate and a conventional gray roof with stone ballast.

By Jennifer DRAKE (Canada) | Session C2 – Tuesday 4 July at 4:00pm

• A test carried out on 10 tree pits in dense urban streets in Lyon, which have been widened and transformed. In addition to measuring the performance of these rain trees, the costs, the methods of implementation used by technical services and the social perception of these structures were also assessed.

By Hervé CALTRAN (France) | Session C3 – Wednesday 5 July at 8:30am

• A study carried out in the United Kingdom to better predict evapotranspiration in vegetated stormwater management structures

By Simon DE-VILLE (UK) | Session C1 – Tuesday 4 July at 2:00pm

Solution design and monitoring: what progress has been made?

Because they are new, green and blue infrastructures are designed to provide localized services. How can they be approached in a more systemic way on a territorial scale? What tools are available to ensure better monitoring at lower cost? 

3 presentations not to be missed:

• A proposal for an integrated vision of the impacts of green and blue infrastructure on a new Swiss district, based on models combining effects on water supply, urban heat, flood risk and ecological connectivity.

By Peter BACH (Switzerland) | Session C6 – Thursday 6 July at 8:30am

• The development of field metrology using low-cost, open-source sensors to quantify the contribution of different sources to sediment fluxes during urbanization processes.

By Paulo Vitor RIBEIRO MARQUES DA SILVA (Australia) | Session C7 – Thursday 6 July at 11:00am

• Analysis of the performance of porous pavements in controlling flooding and runoff peaks in an oceanic climate.

By Eneko MADRAZO-URIBEETXEBARRIA (Spain)  | Session C2 – Tuesday 4 July at 4:00pm

Exploiting green and blue infrastructures

While asset management is well established for wastewater networks, the same is not yet true for green and blue infrastructures. What are the conditions for effective management? How can maintenance costs be assessed? What are the feedbacks? 

Focus on 2 essential communications:

• The studies carried out by a group from the joint IWA IAHR committee, which assesses whether knowledge is sufficient today to manage green and blue infrastructures and recommends key factors for success.

By Jeroen LANGEVELD (Netherlands) | Session C5 - Wednesday 5 July at 4:00pm

• A comparison of the maintenance costs of green and blue infrastructure in 19 Canadian cities, 4 French cities and 4 cities in the Melbourne region, highlighting best practices for efficient and economical management.

By Marie-Eve JEAN (Canada) | Session C5 - Wednesday 5 July at 4:00pm

Discover the other Novatech themes

• Issues of governance, regulations and organizational adaptation, taking social effects into account, brakes and levers for taking climate change into account...
• State of knowledge of sustainable urban drainage solutions: research results, monitoring allowing the knowledge and explanation of processes (evapotranspiration, filtration, degradation, role of vegetation)
• Approaches at the scale of the sewer systems and/or the watershed: system optimization, modeling and real time control, impacts on watercourses and management of alternative resources