Green Roofs to Fight Urban Heat

Posted on November 16, 2005

SciGuy has been blogging lately here and here about using green roofs to help reduce the heat generated by massive urban areas like Houston, Texas. Houston, Texas had incredible flooding in 2001 from Hurricane Allison. The heavy rains may have been enhanced by the urban heat island affect. SciGuy points to this webpage on Inhabitants.com that explains the benefits a green roof plan could have for a city.

Providing amenity space for building users - replacing a yard or patio
Increasing roof life span
Reducing storm water run off
Providing noise insulation
Filtering pollutants and CO2 out of the air
Providing locally grown food (with roof-top vegetable gardens)
Increasing wildlife habitat in built up areas
Reducing heating (by adding mass and thermal resistance value) and cooling (by evaporative cooling) loads on a building
Reducing the urban heat island effect

Houston is certainly not the only city that could use a project like this. Not only would it reduce the urban heat island problems but it could help filter our pollution. A similar problem is being promoted in New York called Greening Gotham. The organization says Senator Hillary Clinton has signed on as a supporter.

EARTH