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THE EVERGREEN ROOF PROJECT: STANDARDS, METHODS AND SOFTWARE FOR EVALUATING LIVING ROOF SYSTEMS
Impact/Purpose:
The emerging living roof industry asserts numerous benefits for the adoption of living roofs. Data has been collected by researchers and industry on some systems and components. However, a comprehensive systems approach for evaluation and procurement of living roofs has not been established. Currently, technical, educational and policy barriers thwart increased adoption of living roof systems in residential and commercial settings.
Description:
The Evergreen Roof Project set out four objectives for Phase I of our project and has made sufficient progress on all of those objectives to qualify this phase as a success. Through an extensive literature review and discussions with researchers, designers, installers, policy makers, and vendors we have identified gaps in stormwater quantity and quality data, economic data, habitat corridor data, lifecycle data, urban heat island data, and policy coverage as they relate to living roofs in our region. We have also identified critical gaps in basic information related to urban heat island effect impacts, climate change impacts, and habitat fragmentation impacts necessary to compare to standards for sustainability.
We have successfully developed monitoring designs and protocols for stormwater runoff (quantity and quality) on two residential roofs in Seattle. We have developed a materials matrix listing components, component properties, and vendors. We identified the future research necessary to quantify habitat benefits that are possible from the creation of living roofs in the urban environment. We coordinated our activities with numerous partners and established two formal partnerships. We have accumulated an extensive database of English-language literature related to living roofs. We have started and are populating an inventory of living roofs in Western Washington State.
Our research has shown that stormwater retention and detention appear to be the largest and most easily quantifiable benefits of living roofs. This is particularly due to the ample amount of existing primary research, our climate, and the importance of endangered salmon to our ecoregion. Habitat creation by living roofs provides restoration and green space for faunal and human use, and is an emerging area of public policy, particularly in the United Kingdom, but requires more basic research to demonstrate its significance locally.
Standardized testing methodologies and data presentation tools for all areas of living roof systems are a priority item, as identified during Phase I. The team is developing user interface (UI) guidelines that will incorporate how to display data reliability, resolution, and certainty to end-users. Development of the research methodology and test processes for testing real-world systems combined with data accessibility will be necessary to further market adoption of living roof systems.
Our data collection and literature review have led us to conclude that living roof systems appear to offer solutions for some environmental problems associated with the built environment. Most particularly, living roofs offer demonstrable benefits to stormwater retention and detention. For benefits associated with the urban heat island effect and habitat, large-scale application of living roof systems will be needed to transform the urban environment.