GREEN ROOF

A green roof can be an oasis in the city landscape.

As land continues to be replaced with impervious surfaces due to population growth and urbanisation, the necessity to recover green space is becoming increasingly critical to maintain environmental quality. Installing green roofs is one option that can reduce the negative impact of development while providing numerous environmental, economic, and social benefits. They can improve stormwater management by reducing runoff and improving water quality, conserve energy, mitigate the urban heat island, increase longevity of roofing membranes, reduce noise and air pollution, sequester carbon, increase urban biodiversity by providing habitat for wildlife, provide space for urban agriculture, provide a more aesthetically pleasing and healthy environment to work and live.

A green roof is a roof surface, flat or pitched, that is planted partially or completely with vegetation and a growing medium over a waterproof membrane. They may be ‘extensive’ and have a thin growing medium (up to 200mm deep) with ‘ground cover’ vegetation, or ‘intensive’ and have soil over 200mm deep supporting vegetation up to the size of trees.