Temporal downscaling of precipitation time-series projections to forecast green roofs future detention performance

Abstract

A strategy to simulate rainfall by the means of different Multiplicative random Cascades (MRC) was developed to evaluate their applicability to produce inputs for green roof infrastructures models taking into account climate change. The MRC reproduce a (multi)fractal distribution of precipitation through an iterative and multiplicative random process. The initial model was improved with a temperature dependency and an additional function to improve its capability to reproduce the temporal structure of rainfall. The structure of the models with depth and temperature dependency was found to be applicable in eight locations studied across Norway (N) and France (F). The resulting time-series from both reference period and projection based on RCP 8.5 were applied to two green roofs (GR) with different properties. The different models lead to a slight change in the performance of GR, but this was not significant compared to the range of outcomes due to ensemble uncertainty in climate modelling and the stochastic uncertainty due to nature of the process. The moderating effect of the green infrastructure was found to decrease in most of the Norwegian cities, especially Bergen (N), while increasing in Lyon (F).