During the participation of the University of Balamand (UOB) in the Lebanese pavilion at the Qatar International Expo through the alumni committee in cooperation with the Lebanese embassy, Dr. Makram El Bachawati, SWaTH Project Coordinator and Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at UOB explained to the audience the importance of green roofs and their sustainable aspects. Dr. El Bachawati highlighted the ability of green roofs to act as a natural filter for some volatile and dissolved pollutants by presenting a joint doctoral thesis with the University of Lleida in Spain, funded by the SWaTH project.
This thesis has multiple objectives, one of which is to irrigate several green roof mockups with grey wastewater and assess the quality of the draining water using cutting-edge characterization techniques. In addition to the theoretical presentation, Dr. El Bachawati demonstrated to visitors from various nationalities and backgrounds the advantages of this sustainable system, its different layers, and its direct impacts.
Expo 2023 Doha was a great opportunity to showcase some of the sustainable activities/projects within the faculty of engineering at UOB, including green roofs, sustainable wastewater treatment for hospitals, and the list goes on.
