Event

Green roofs for stormwater retention and flowrate attenuation

Friday, February 3, 2017 15:30to17:00
Macdonald Engineering Building Room 267, 817 rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montreal, QC, H3A 0C3, CA
Price: 
FREE

A free seminar by Denis M. O’Carroll, ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Water Research Laboratory, Connected Waters Initiative, UNSW Sydney.

Talk Abstract: Green roofs have been used for centuries to insulate buildings and beautify urban environments. European countries, especially Germany, have adopted green roofs use in modern buildings, helping raise awareness of their many potential benefits. Green roofs have been shown to: effectively reduce and filter stormwater thereby decreasing the burden on urban sewer systems; provide insulation and lower roof surface temperature leading to a decrease in building energy load; extend the life of a roof by decreasing the temperature fluctuations which cause roof damage; and to improve air quality by decreasing CO2 levels. Green roofs are becoming popular in North America as they are effective tools for managing stormwater runoff in urban areas. However, the implementation of green roofs in North American urban environments remains underused, in part due to a lack of climate appropriate green roof design guidelines.  A greater understanding of how green roofs perform with respect to fundamental stormwater management processes, such as stormwater retention and peak flow attenuation, is required. This study investigated the impact that differing climates have on the retention performance of three green roofs in three distinct Canadian climates (i.e., London, Calgary, and Halifax). Data were collected over 2.5 growing seasons.  The impact of climate on stormwater retention will be discussed in addition to the extent to which green roofs attenuate stormwater peak flow. 

This talk is based on a paper by the same title authored by: Denis M. O’Carroll, Andrew W. Sims, Clare E. Robinson, Charles C. Smart, James A. Voogt, Geoffrey J. Haye, Jeremey T. Lundholm and Brandon Powers.

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