Smart Irrigation Control Systems for Productive Green Roofs

绿色屋顶作为应对全球气候变暖的一项重要措施，正在成为世界各地建筑的标准要求。在城市地区种植植物可以捕获碳，促进生物多样性，减少城市热岛效应，吸收雨水，提高建筑物的能源效率。种植粮食作物的绿色屋顶被称为生产性绿色屋顶，并对灌溉管理提出了特殊要求。不同的植物以不同的速度生长，在其生命周期中有不同的灌溉需求。研究的挑战是开发和测试智能算法，这些算法可以根据植物需求、土壤类型和条件以及天气模式，自适应地调整灌溉水平，以适应随着时间的推移和屋顶区域不断变化的需求。预测算法将实现主动的资源规划和雨水管理。这个项目是瑞尔森大学和加拿大锌科公司的合作，锌科公司是一家绿色屋顶系统供应商。它将开发智能灌溉控制系统，在单独控制的灌溉区内自适应地调整灌溉水平。该算法将是模块化且可扩展的，还将开发基于云的监控和控制界面。它将适用于非生产性绿色屋顶的有效维护，以及有助于环境绿色建筑认证的最终生物多样性绿色屋顶。该系统将使建筑物管理人员能够监测、调整和预测绿色屋顶的资源需求，从而提高资源效率和雨水管理。

Green roofs are becoming a standard requirement on buildings around the world as an important measure to counteract global warming. The inclusion of plant life in urban areas captures carbon, promotes biodiversity, reduces the urban heat island effect, absorbs storm water and improves the energy efficiency of buildings. Green roofs that grow food crops are known as productive green roofs, and introduce special requirements for irrigation management. Different plants grow at different rates and have different irrigation needs over their life cycle. The research challenge is to develop and test smart algorithms that can adaptively adjust irrigation levels to changing requirements over time and across the roof area depending on the plant needs, soil type and condition and weather patterns. Predictive algorithms will enable pro-active resource planning and storm water management. This project is a collaboration between Ryerson University and ZinCo Canada, a green roof systems supplier. It will develop smart irrigation control systems to adaptively adjust irrigation levels locally within separately controlled irrigation zones. The algorithm will be modular and scalable, and a cloud-based monitoring and control interface will also be developed. It will be applicable to efficient maintenance of non-productive green roofs as well as to the ultimate biodiversity green roofs that contribute to environmental Green Building certifications. This system will allow building managers to monitor, adjust and predict the resource requirements of the green roof, leading to improved resource efficiency and storm water management.