Presentation given by Jo Deketelaere, Greenbeat, at Open & Agile Smart Cities' annual Connected Smart Cities & Communities Conference 2020 on 23 January in Brussels, Belgium

1. RainBrain
The Smart Blue-Green
Roof
A SynchroniCity project piloting in
Antwerp and Eindhoven

2. Adaptation to climate change, urbanization and loss of
biodiversity are just some of the challenges challenging the
future of cities.

3. Blue-green infrastructure:
A network of landscape elements to manage water (blue) and to bring back
vegetation (green) is an important climate adaptation tool for cities:
Stormwater management, Urban Heat Island Effect, Cleaner air, Biodiversity, …

4. Hard weather conditions and
periods of droughts give green
roofs a hard time.
How can we keep green
roofs healthy?
Can we optimize water
storage capacity and reduce
flood risk?
The start of RainBrain:

5. RainBrain uses
sensors, actuators ,
weather data and
analytics to monitor
plant health, current
and future water
availability
RainBrain test sites in Antwerp
upper 2 and test facility in Oslo
(lower)

6. 1. Predictive maintenance
Sensors monitor green roof
health and water
availability
2. Use water when needed
The model predicts water
needs and RainBrain
irrigates automatically.
Healthier roofs, save water
3. Anticipate on storms
Empty water buffers pro-
actively reduces run-off
during storms and
mitigates urban floods
RainBrain: healthier roofs
and reduced flood risk

7. Simulation results: runoff from a single roof in
Antwerp
Peakrunofftowardsthesewersystem
[l/m²in30minutes]
Return period [years]
Runoff to the sewer
system due to a storm that
hits once every 50 years
Green roof – without control
15 l/m2 in 30’
Green roof – with intelligent
control
7 l/m2 in 30’
Bare roof (without green)
28 l/m2 in 30’

8. SynchroniCity common ground
allows for a network of smart
roofs
• A network of green roofs and smart reservoirs mitigates floods
and manages droughts.
• Synchronicity: “develop once, deploy many times”
• RainBrain was piloted in Antwerp and Eindhoven and can be
quickly deployed in other cities using the same MIM approach
• RainBrain uses open weather data from the cities open data
platform and shares own measurements about vegetation and
water availability
• SynchroniCity creates the common ground or the MIMs to
manage and share IoT –data (ecosystem management APIs)
and data models (common language)

9. www.rainbrain.no
Vincent Wolfs
Sumaqua
Belgium
+32 474 22 003
vincent.wolfs@sumaqua.be
Jo Deketelaere
Greenbeat
Norway
+47 94 17 70 56
jo@greenbeat.no
Arnulf Refsnes
Agilis
Norway
+47 98 21 94 94
arnulf.refsnes@agilis.no