Darryl Newport

TURaS Project
Greening the urban environment

Darryl Newport

UEL’s Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) is a hub for research in the built environment, conservation and biodiversity. The institute collaborates widely with centres and institutes within UEL and externally with academic institutions, businesses and professional bodies.

One of the major research areas the SRI is currently focusing on is green infrastructure and researchers have been leading on projects to develop green roofs and sustainable water regimes within urban environments.“Our work on green roofs in London’s Barking and Dagenham area has yielded very interesting results in terms of regaining biodiversity within the urban extent; understanding issues around mitigating urban heat islands; and the possibilities for water attenuation,” says SRI Director, Darryl Newport.

SRI’s research expertise and experience in green infrastructure has led to the Institute successfully developing and securing a £6.6m EU funded project, led by University College Dublin, which centres on the greening of urban infrastructure. The Transitioning towards Urban Resilience and Sustainability (TURaS) programme brings together urban communities, researchers, local government and SMEs to develop sustainable solutions to the address the challenges of climate change, natural resource shortages and rapid urban growth. The project has a total of 27 partners throughout Europe.

“Collaboration is an essential part of TURas. On this project, partners include companies who will directly benefit from the research,” says Dr Stuart Connop, UEL’s principal researcher for the programme.

UEL is leading on the Greening Public and Private Urban Infrastructure part of the TURas programme. “Our work package looks at reinstating and optimising green space in urban areas and the benefits that can it can provide to communities. We’re working out how you can design landscaping that has real value for biodiversity, air quality and storm water storage,” says Connop.

“The issue of storm water and urban development is becoming extremely important. Typically cities are largely covered in impermeable surfaces, so when it rains the water goes straight into storm drains. In London, the Victorian storm drains cannot cope anymore, so there is pressure on developers to manage storm water on site. It’s increasingly being realised that if you can incorporate green aspects into a development; ponds, green roofs, water gardens you can manage a lot of the water that comes on to a site if not all the water through natural methods”.

“UEL is one of the leaders in green infrastructure and sustainability in London and we’ll continue to develop our research in this area,” confirms Connop.