planted city

Green Infrastructure: The 10 Largest Green Roofs in the World (Infographic)

From McGraw-Hill Construction:

Green roofs are gaining acceptance in dozens of countries, joining other forms of green infrastructure that are being used to mitigate environmental problems of urban centers.

For example, vegetated roofs “are very good at managing stormwater. Most extensively planted green roofs will hold the first inch of rainfall and slow any additional rainfall, thus reducing peak flows and lowering the stress on combined sewer overflows,” says Steven Peck, founder and president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC).

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Many cities throughout the U.S. and Europe have green-roof mandates or incentives in place. Stuttgart, Germany, requires green roofs on all new flat-roofed industrial buildings. In 2007, Pittsburgh enacted an law establishing stormwater volume reduction standards for properties greater than 10,000 sq ft, including on-site retention of the first inch of rainfall through any combination of infiltration, evapotranspiration and rainwater harvesting. Portland, Ore., requires new city-owned buildings and existing buildings in need of a roof replacement to install a green roof on at least 70% of the roof area.

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Green roofs trace their origins back several centuries, to sod roofs on homes and barns in Scandinavia—or even further, if we consider the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. But modern green roofs, involving manufactured layers of growing medium and vegetation, developed in Germany in the 1960s. And Germany is believed to be the country where green roofs are most popular, with about 10% of the roofs “greened,” encouraged by a system of government grants to property owners.

Check out the rest of the article and a slideshow of the 10 largest greenroofs in the world here.

Related:

• ‘Green Roofs & Solar Panels: The Future of Renewable Energy?’ (Clean Technica)

(Infographic source: McGraw-Hill Construction) 

Getting Around in Cities | Sticks, Carrots and Tambourines: Actively Learning from Copenhagen’s Transport Successes

From SFU Continuing Studies:

Andreas Røhl describes his experience as the City of Copenhagen’s Bicycle Programme manager. Andreas manages Copenhagen’s Bicycle Programme and recently joined Urban Systems Ltd. for a temporary term in their Metro Vancouver office. He is participating in a range of active transportation projects throughout Western Canada, including the development of an Active Transportation Master Plan for the City of Vancouver. 

With the City of Copenhagen, Andreas focused on bicycle policies and strategies to improve conditions for cycling, and recently led the completion of the Copenhagen’s Cycling Strategy as well as the City’s Design Guidelines to Great Cycle Roads. In addition to his in-depth knowledge of cycling infrastructure, Andreas has extensive experience with cost-benefit analysis, cycling education, and promotional campaigns.

(Image credit: Cycling Embassy of Denmark)

Gotta keep ‘em separated! 

Rodrigo Rosa, special advisor on sustainability to the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, in the CNN article, ‘On the front line of climate change: Five cities battling floods, heat and storms’. 

(Photo credit: C40 Cities) 

Related:

• Interactive infographic: ‘Why Cities? Ending Climate Change Begins in the City’ (C40 Cities)
• ‘How Data is Making Rio de Janeiro a Smarter City’ (The Next Web)

From Atlantic Cities:

Once, cities were built to channel storm water away from building foundations and roadways. But as urban areas have grown, rooftops, streets and other impervious surfaces have disrupted cities’ natural hydrology. Today, everyone from water authorities to home gardeners are looking to absorb rain where it falls, eschewing traditional treatment plants and underground sewerage tunnels that effectively neutralize runoff, but don’t do much else.

The first of these projects matured in Portland, Oregon, and Prince George’s County, Maryland. Now, dozens of cities including Washington, Philadelphia, and Louisville have embarked on their own overhauls. 

They are attracted, in part, by the lower cost of planting trees and gardens and retrofitting streets, parking lots and roofs. But it’s also a matter of pay-off. Taxpayers never see the underground fixes. But green infrastructure is something people can use and enjoy, says Joan Furlong, program manager at the Rock Creek Conservancy, a D.C. nonprofit group working with city officials to recruit residents and business owners to the RiverSmart Program.

“It’s become a really hot topic in the last five years or so. Before that green fixes weren’t really accepted by the regulatory agencies,” Gardner-Andrews says, particularly the EPA, which first publicly endorsed green infrastructure just five years ago.

The agency now endorses planting greenery to absorb rainfall as an important tool for adapting to rising sea levels and more extreme storms.

Wildlife also benefits. For instance, if you live in Maryland, planting White Turtleheads in your rain garden can provide much needed habitat for the state butterfly, the Baltimore Checkerspot, which will only lay its eggs on Turtlehead leaves, says Carole Barth, an environmental planner with the Department of Environmental Resources in Prince George’s County, Md.

But doing a rain garden requires careful site planning, experts say. If planted too close to buildings, they can exacerbate rather than alleviate basement flooding. And it’s important to find a patch of land where water percolates well through the soil, which is not necessarily the case everywhere. Researchers have found years of mowing and other activities sometimes leaves the ground so compacted that its about as permeable as concrete.

Check out the rest of the article here. Check out Wikipedia, the Sightline Institute, ASLA and CMHC for more on rain gardens including how to design your own.

(Photo credit: Huston Street Racing; graphic credit: Seine-Rat River Conservation District)

From New Scientist:

The world’s first “vertical street” will soon be built in Melbourne, Australia.

Every sixth floor of the 35-storey building will have gardens capable of growing trees up to 10 metres tall and the entire building will be boasting the very latest in green technology.

While roof gardens and landscaped balconies have been constructed in the past, project architect Robert Caulfield of CK Designworks, Melbourne, says this is the first time that five high-rise communal gardens have been attempted in the same building.

To achieve this feat, purpose-built planter boxes allowing tree roots to grow in the confined 120-square-metre gardens, and structural supports that hold the weight of the soil and trees will be used. Heat-reflective glass and solar-powered lighting will also be incorporated.

Since the site is a mere 360 square metres, the building’s external walls - more than 8000 square metres - will be used to catch rainwater. “This is unusual,” says Caulfield. Normally strong winds “just blow the rain off the building”.

But, in this development, triangular balconies and a jagged façade are used to reduce the sideways movement of the wind, minimising the water escaping from the side. The catchment will feed into the building’s water supply to be used for garden watering and toilet flushing.

Check out the rest of the article here.

In 2010, the U.S. is set to outspend Canada nearly 18:1 per capita on renewables, and more than 8:1 per capita overall on clean energy programs and projects, according to Pembina’s analysis of Canadian and American budget documents. This backgrounder provides a detailed breakdown of the various committments the U.S. and Canada have made to spending on renewable energy, efficiency, and low-carbon transportation.