UBC students want to build and learn the effectiveness of bus stops & # 39; tree canopy & # 39;

Students at the University of British Columbia hope to build a bus stop with environmental benefits.

Tabinda Shah, a city last year forestry student, said she and several other students were working to build a "tree canopy bus shade", which would not only protect people from rain when they waited for their trip, but also helped the environment.

"The aim of this project is to bring infrastructure that is ecologically aware of the crowded urban areas by maximizing opportunities for green infrastructure in small spaces," he said in an e-mail.

The roof or shelter will be made of processed wood that can hold elements and hold a hard and fresh layer of plants, and can develop not only in the rain but also in the dry months. Excess water from the roof will flow to the ground to refill the water table.

The students conduct a crowdfunding project and want to build at least three bus stops to measure their effectiveness. Shah said each shelter is worth around $ 50,000, and the team hopes to have a prototype shelter built around next year.

The prototype will be built on campus

Daniel Roehr, associate professor at UBC, said while the team had no arrangement with City of Vancouver or a transit agent, they did have permission to build three structures on the University of British Columbia campus.

The Shah said Vancouver was a very passable city on foot, but almost no one wanted to walk in it during the winter due to the lack of pedestrian shelter from the rain.

"Being a city forestry student, I want to bring diverse solutions to the table that will not only increase walkability in the city, but also create habitat space, more sustainable rainwater management and biophilic cities," he said.

Roehr said Vancouver has a number of green roofs but most of them need to be irrigated, so one of the main goals of this canopy bus stop is that they will be self-sufficient.

Interdisciplinary approach

Roehr and Shah worked with a team of other students from various disciplines at the shelter.

"We have a flow device to measure rainwater runoff from this roof and how effective it is," Roehr said. "We want to monitor it. And if it's effective, we can use it throughout the city – we can use it at all bus stops."

Shah said this would be the first type of bus stop to measure how much rain water flows. He added that such bus stops are important because they are one more step towards overcoming climate change.

The prototype and research will help justify whether greater investment in such ideas will be in vain, he said.

"We expect prototypes to be built along Wesbrook Mall at the University of British Columbia, but in an ideal world, we want this across the entire Vancouver road network," Shah said.