Nature based solutions/green infrastructures will play an important role in tackling urban challenges in a multifunctional
way. In this sense, green roofs/walls are one of the most promising alternatives as they can green the grey
infrastructure and value it. Yet, green roofs/walls have been generally confined to specific cities or countries. An
extensive use of green roofs/walls worldwide will happen when their economic merit is generally known and accepted.
Today, green roofs/walls real value is not clear since most studies on their economic merit show high variability and
contrasting results mostly because 1) it is a challenge to weigh environmental and social benefits with costs and 2)
distinct users/investors have different preferences.
The purpose of GENESIS is to develop a comprehensive and systematic model for balancing environmental, economic
and social benefits of green roofs/walls with the underlying extra costs, in a life cycle perspective.
The main strategy of the project is to enhance cost-benefit analysis of green roofs/walls by developing three major
improvements: i) include all environmental, economic and social benefits of green roofs/walls in the analysis and
convert them into monetary units to allow weighting different types of benefits and establishing a comparative basis of
alternative scenarios; ii) comprise an uncertainty model to cope with inaccurate forecasting of benefits/costs modelling
and climate change; iii) incorporate users/investors preferences through a multi-criteria model. This (all-inclusive)
model is a step forward in life cycle costs of green roofs/walls and crucial for a wide spreading of green roofs/walls
in buildings/cities.
Given the trans-disciplinary nature of green infrastructure, GENESIS project will call upon a multidisciplinary research
team, with complementary expertise in estimating green roofs/walls environmental, economic and social benefits and
performing accurate cost-benefit analysis. The contribution of practitioners and companies involved in the design,
creation and maintenance of green roofs/walls is planned. Additionally, multiple investors/owners from private and
public sectors will participate in the project by providing data for benchmark case studies with strong replication
and up-scaling capacity: two municipalities covering distinct realities (in Portugal and Australia), residential buildings,
public schools, tourist accommodations and transport infrastructures. This multidisciplinary approach will support the
proposed cost-benefit model for replication in different regions of the world and type of infrastructure.