ACO View into the Future – Innovative Ecological Solutions for Collecting and Using Wastewater as a Resource
Climate changes are no longer a future scenario, but largely our reality. The most directly stricken are cities, where people have to endure strong negative consequences of global warming. In order to alleviate the impact of climate changes, urban planning needs to take into account natural lowering of temperatures in city environments and cooling of urban space. The simplest and the most effective agent in combating climate changes are trees.
Initially developed in Scandinavia, the principle of Sponge City enables a healthy growth of large tree tops in urban environments, with simultaneous creation of underground repositories of rain water. With the help of the Sponge City concept, tree root system may grow beneath the paved surfaces such as sidewalks, parking lots and roads, without causing damage. The Sponge City Principle is a construction method, rather than a product. As an expert organisation in surface water management and partner of the Schwammstadt work group which has been developing the Sponge City concept, the ACO Company has designed a modular system as a part of the Sponge City project and a technical solution which is equally effective and easy to implement. The rain water collected from roof surfaces may be directly introduced into the subterranean sponge-like body of the city, but the polluted rainfall from the streets and parking lots must first be purified and only then introduced into the Sponge City system. the ACO modular system thus includes a special ACO drain with the design grille which involves a system for purification of the atmospheric water collected from the streets.
