Nature and Technology

Technology is rapidly evolving and it is bringing the transportation industry along with it. From Smart Cities to autonomous vehicle service providers, transportation depends on technology to make their operating systems safer and more efficient. While services and innovation are expanding, their is one significant missing component that is being left at the curb (pun intended). Nature! There are few examples of Nature based Solutions (NbS) in the transportation industry and Living Canopies has developed the Cool Green Shelter to demonstrate how nature can be fused with technology to provide a green infrastructure plug-in that creates Green Oases for Transit Spaces.

Cool Green Shelter concept in Lake Nona (Orange County, FL)

The Cool Green Shelter provides a transformative concept to overcoming the utilitarian design of the current bus shelter model that simply provides a shaded space to wait for mobility options.  Cities are experiencing significant climate change and developed areas will continue to see an increase in the Urban Heat Island Effect as a result.  Nature is a very powerful tool in helping to offset the risks of extreme heat and one keystone element of the Cool Green Shelter is the Green Roof technology that increases the amount of vegetative cover in densely populated areas. Increasing vegetative cover is very beneficial in helping to cool local air temperatures via a process called evapotranspiration. In this process, plants take up moisture through their roots and later release that moisture through their foliage, cooling the local environment.  Think Nature’s own misting system!  The release of that moisture (transpiration) can provide a reduction in ambient air temperature by 3°-5°(F) on top of the natural shading benefit which can be as high as a 30°(F) reduction. 

Cool Green Shelter green roof

If nature is good, more is better and the Cool Green Shelter can provide that improvement. Deployed as a stand-alone component or a catalyst for a green infrastructure centerpiece that includes vegetative swales, increased tree canopy (shade), native plantings and pollinator habitat, the Cool Green Shelter is essential to the advancement of mobility and transportation.

Cool Green Shelter concept at Sunbridge (Osceola County, FL)

If you are interested in finding out more regarding the Cool Green Shelter and how it can enhance green infrastructure design, please contact us at info@livingcanopies.com for more information.