Living walls

Abstract

This research is about the problems related to the maintenance of living wall systems. The literature review and interviews with living wall manufacturers have shown that the irrigation system is the source of many problems. The irrigation system is an essential part of a living wall system. This ensures that the plants get water and are provided with sufficient nutrients. Nowadays there are advanced irrigation systems where you can set exactly how much water is supplied and what the total water use is. However, it has been found that this does not mean that the water actually reaches every plant. Which can lead to plants getting too much or too little water. In both cases this has a negative effect on the health of the plant and can lead to maintenance of the living wall. The problem lies in the method of assessing whether the water content and water distribution of the living wall is in order. At the moment there are no reliable assessment methods for this and these inspections are based on observations. For this purpose, an answer is given to the main question "What is the best strategy for monitoring the water distribution of the irrigation system on a living wall system that ultimately leads to more effective maintenance?". To answer this question, various monitoring methods have been tested. For the monitoring methods, an NDVI camera is used to measure plant quality. Furthermore, moisture sensors and a thermal camera are used to measure the water distribution and water content. In addition to this, the run-off water is measured. The results show that the reliability of the results strongly depends on various factors such as the presence of plants and climatic factors. This report describes the correct way to carry out these methods in order to obtain reliable results. A key factor here is that the monitoring methods must be applied together so that they compensate for each other's limitation.