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Good practice Imported

LifeMedGreenRoof — Instrumented Mediterranean Green Roof Stormwater Retention, Msida, Malta

Malta · Msida · See the Malta profile · See the Msida profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 76% 33/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

An instrumented 32.61 m2 demonstration green roof in Msida measured 40-100% per-event stormwater retention (mean 90%) over a full hydrological year, with only 8 of 74 rain days producing run-off. Small scale, one dry year, and self-monitored.

32.61 m2
Monitored plot area
276.4 mm
Total precipitation, valid measurement window (Jul 2016-Jun 2017)
37.39 mm
Run-off, valid measurement window (Jul 2016-Jun 2017)
90 %
Per-event retention, mean (Jul 2016-Jun 2017)
8 of 74 days
Rain days producing run-off (Jul 2016-Jun 2017)
41 %
Italy comparison roof annual retention (Jul 2016-Jun 2017)

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
University of Malta, Faculty for the Built Environment
Period
2013-2017 (monitored hydrological year July 2016 - June 2017)
Region (NUTS)
MT00
Keywords
green roofs, urban stormwater retention, flood mitigation, Mediterranean climate adaptation, building standards

Context

LifeMedGreenRoof (LIFE12 ENV/MT/000732) built and instrumented a demonstration green roof at the University of Malta in Msida, with a comparison roof at Fondazione Minoprio in northern Italy, in a country with almost no existing green roof stock.

Objectives

The project set out to measure real, instrumented stormwater retention rather than modelled estimates, and to develop Mediterranean-adapted growing media, a local plant palette and a draft national green roof standard.

Activities

A 32.61 m2 plot infilled with 200 mm of 'Malta 1' substrate was monitored for a full hydrological year from July 2016 to June 2017, draining through a tipping-bucket counter backed by a precision balance for sub-litre flows.

Results

Of 276.4 mm of precipitation in the valid measurement window, 37.39 mm ran off; per-event retention ranged from 40% to 100% with a mean of 90%, and only 8 of 74 rain days produced any run-off at all, compared with the Italian comparison roof's 41% annual retention over the same twelve months.

Conclusions

The authors themselves note the winter of 2016-2017 was atypically dry and that estimating city-wide flood mitigation was outside the study's remit, so this is a transparent single-plot research result, not a proven city programme, with its transfer mechanism being the substrate formulation, plant palette and draft national standard.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years)
Staffing & skills
University of Malta Faculty for the Built Environment (coordinating beneficiary), Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority, Fondazione Minoprio and Minoprio Analisi e Certificazioni (Italian partners)

Conditions for success

  • genuinely measured (not modelled) instrumentation with published raw monthly series
  • transparent reporting of caveats and limitations by the implementing team

Common failure modes

  • single 32.61 m2 plot monitored for only one, atypically dry year
  • self-monitored by the implementer with no arms-length evaluation or peer-reviewed publication located

Commonly funded by

LIFE Programme National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Replication kit

Reusable artefacts from this practice — as published by their sources.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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