Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Green Roofs Clean Stormwater in Florida - 3 Important Issues to Consider about Stormwater and Green Roofs.

ACF's 3 Reasons to Build a Green Roof
Sometimes we miss the forest for the trees.  I ran across this simple but true list of reasons Volumetric Green - Green Roofs and Living Walls - in the Urban Core is a correct approach for cleaning stormwater.


The purpose of a green roof is to provide the benefits of vegetation vertically.

Integrating plants into a roofing system, installed by a licensed roofer accomplishes what the above illustration suggests.

1.  Green Roofs manage stormwater at the source - how much closer to the source can you get?
2.  Green Roofs let plants do the work.  Plants and their root systems possess a combination of efficient processes that remove nitrogen and phosphorous and other nutrients or pollutants from stormwater.  Plants also sequester carbon and provide a steady supply of oxygen back into the atmosphere.  Instead of pumps and gears and filters and motors - keep it simple - use Green Roof Plants to clean stormwater.
3.  Green Roofs are simple and cost-effective.  Imagine a city full of green roofs and the degree to which that city's stormwater has been filtered and cleaned by those plants.  Now imaging the amount of revenue a city could save with reduction in stormwater utility costs and direct costs of clean water rather than polluted, algae filled runoff.

Now is the time for cities and municipalities to take the lead and follow those forward thinking governmental or regulatory entities like Port Orange, Florida - who realize adoption of volumetric green (Green Roofs and Living Walls) building incentives will lead to healthy and prosperous communities.

Atlantis Water Management Vision of a Green City


Happy Green Roofing!

Kevin

1 comment:

Sharon said...

It is nice to hear that we can eventually clean our stormwater using green roof mat plants. It seems that nature is helping us out in restoring environmental damages. This is another breakthrough in terms of stormwater solutions. I hope commercial and even residential stormwater owner would try this! Thanks again for sharing.