Urban heat is one of today’s most pressing climate challenges. Lower rooftop surface temperatures not only improve comfort inside buildings but also help cool entire neighborhoods. In a recent collaboration with Airgilab by GRIC-UPC, Advanticsys provided IoT sensing infrastructure and its Concordia Industrial IoT (IIoT) cloud platform to power an innovative green roof experiment exploring how nature-based solutions can cool cities.
A natural solution backed by data
The Airgilab team set up a living laboratory, testing different roof configurations that mix Mediterranean plants and vegetables with hydroponic and lightweight substrates. Exposed to intense summer sunlight, these green roofs needed continuous monitoring to understand how each combination performs in terms of cooling and water retention.
A network of rugged sensors captured soil surface and roof temperatures along with substrate moisture levels, streaming all measurements in real time to the Concordia IIoT platform.
The flexibility behind Concordia
The experiment showcases the adaptability and scalability of Concordia. Originally built for diverse industrial and environmental use cases, the platform seamlessly integrated a complex, outdoor experimental site with mixed vegetation, varying irrigation needs, and changing weather conditions.
- Real-time visualization of multiple environmental signals from different sensor types.
- Custom dashboards tailored to scientific users as well as operators.
- Secure cloud storage and analytics for long-term research and data sharing.
This flexibility allowed the research team to focus on science and decision-making rather than infrastructure.
From research to real-world impact
High-quality, continuous data were essential for fine-tuning irrigation schedules and quantifying the cooling potential of each green roof design. Insights from this work can help architects, city planners, and building owners adopt greener, more climate-resilient roofing solutions. This collaboration illustrates our commitment to supporting sustainable urban innovations through flexible, data-driven IoT solutions.
“Concordia is built to adapt. From industrial energy management to urban ecology, the platform’s ability to integrate new sensors, visualize data in real time, and support complex analytics makes it ideal for diverse environmental and research applications.”
Enabling a greener future
By providing robust IoT sensing and an adaptable cloud platform, Advanticsys helps accelerate the adoption of nature-based, data-driven solutions. Whether in cities, industries, or remote environmental sites, Concordia ensures that new ideas can move from pilot experiments to scalable, real-world climate action.
