Green Roof Infiltration

Integrating a green roof into a historic building rehabilitation project may appear to be an easy solution to reducing the urban heat island effect improving storm water management and improving the energy efficiency and sustainability of the building.

Green roof infiltration. Green roofs are covered with growing media and vegetation that enable rainfall infiltration and evapotranspiration of stored water. Green roof infiltration practices porous pavement retention pond vegetated swale surveys site visits spreadsheet tool andrews and lampe 2005 clary and piza 2017 the national cooperative research program nchrp whole life cost models. The minimum thickness of the green roof growing medium must be calculated as follows where the impervious roof area to green roof area ratio is less. The infiltration rate of saturated in situ soils less than 0 3 inch per.

The amount will be dependent on the depth and type of substrate in the green roof system. However the ability of green roofs to retain water varies across sites due to climate and vegetation type as well as the structure and properties of the layers and roof. From green roofs and rainfall harvest and reuse for both indoor and outdoor use. Many jurisdictions now require building owners to collect stormwater in infiltration basins that clean and slowly release the water back into the ground to help reduce the burden on the sewer systems green roofs help do this naturally without the need for special infiltration basins or equipment.

A typical green roof consists of several layers including a vegetation layer a medium layer a filtering drainage layer and a roof deck layer. Keep in mind that this assessment only applies to the green roof footprint which is typically less than 90 of the building footprint not the whole parcel being developed. Technical infeasibility may result from the following. In germany between 40 100 of rainfall can be retained dependent.

Extensive green roofs will capture and retain about 55 of the annual rainfall thereby reducing stormwater runoff to the storm drainage system in pennsylvania. To demonstrate technical infeasibility it must be shown that a project site cannot reliably retain 100 percent of the swqdv onsite. Impervious roof areas that direct runoff onto the green roof cannot exceed 50 of the green roof area which is equivalent to a maximum hydraulic impervious runoff loading ratio of 0 5 1. A green roof system atop a building helps manage stormwater and reduce energy costs for cooling.

A green roof will typically intercept the first 5mm and more of rainfall providing interception storage. In the summer a green roof can typically retain between 70 80 of the run off. They are particularly cost effective in dense urban areas where land values are high and on large industrial or.