Remote monitoring of evapotranspiration from green roof systems

Abstract

Green roofs are rapidly becoming ubiquitous tools for stormwater management in the urban setting for their ability to divert water from centralized treatment plants and support natural water cycles. In doing so, the performance of a green roof system is dependent on the process of evapotranspiration, which is a function of microclimatic conditions. The work herein presents a remote monitoring architecture for measurement of evapotranspiration performance from a variety of different green roof topologies in an urban setting. The data acquisition system employs an i2c bus to coordinate an array of loads cells, controlled by a central microcomputer which is WIFI connected and cloud interactive. Resulting datasets will contribute to the refinement of agricultural evapotranspiration models towards green roof applications, as well as the characterization of design and microclimate related performance impacts. Preliminary results indicate reliable functionality and data quality from the remote monitoring system. This outcome supports the value of active instrumentation and performance monitoring to the advancement of green roof technology. Going forward, post-processing methods will be expanded, and the system will be applied to additional green roof topologies for the 2021 growing season.