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GREEN ROOFS — A GROWING TREND
Citation:
OCONNOR, T. GREEN ROOFS — A GROWING TREND. EM: AIR AND WASTE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION'S MAGAZINE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGERS. Air & Waste Management Association, Pittsburgh, PA, (February):31, (2007).
Impact/Purpose:
Information.
Description:
One of the most interesting stormwater control systems under evaluation by EPA are “green roofs”. Green roofs are vegetative covers applied to building roofs to slow, or totally absorb, rainfall runoff during storms. While the concept of over-planted roofs is very ancient, the goals of modern green roof technology are to replace the benefits of vegetative cover on land which are lost when a building is erected. Research into this approach has been growing steadily since the 1980s, especially in Europe. In the United States, EPA is cooperating in several projects testing green roof technologies; in one of these, created in partnership with Penn State University, researchers are evaluating performance data that could be used to enhance municipal stormwater management planning. The cooperative agreement is being managed by the EPA, ORD, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Urban Watershed Management Branch in Edison, NJ, to demonstrate and promote green-roof research, education, and technology transfer in the Northeastern U.S. Initial results have been presented at several conferences. A final EPA report on the research results is anticipated in late 2006.
