What is the place of nature in a smart city?
Question asked to Emmanuel François, Smart Buildings Alliance for Smart Cities
"We must put nature back in the city first to fight global warming. When we know that temperatures are expected to rise by almost 2 degrees in European cities by 2050, it is impossible not to anticipate. Urban farms or deep gardens, i.e. gardens whose plants draw directly from the water table with their roots, create breathing space with the subsoil and thus bring fresh air and moisture back into the cities. They also contribute to the attraction of a territory.
Then, in the digital age, we can imagine federating roofs to set up greenhouses whose production would be marketed in a short circuit through a platform bringing together operators and consumers. This would make it possible to re-establish an economy of proximity that could be declined at different levels and also to create social links.
Still at the neighbourhood level, it is necessary to think about having a balance between green roofs and roofs with photovoltaic panels, but also to install water reserves that would be used, on the one hand, to supply the green roofs and, on the other hand, to prevent the risk of flooding in the event of storms or heavy rainfall, which will become increasingly frequent with global warming.
In any case, this theme can only be considered in a holistic vision integrating food, climate, energy, environmental and societal dimensions".
Interviewed by Mélanie Trélat for Neomag magazine
Read the complete "Green Building edition" of Neomag following the link : https://www.calameo.com/read/0054587691cd3a090bde0
