planted city

Going Places: Coombs, BC

Last week I posted a few photos from a camp spot on Taylor River en route to Tofino, BC for three days of sea kayaking in Clayoquot Sound (photos to come). Post-kayaking we headed north to Campbell River to go hiking and visit some people we know, but along the way I saw a sign that reminded me of an experience I had as a kid. I insisted that we briefly veer off-route and follow the sign to the small community of Coombs where they have an old country market with goats living on its roof.

It has since dawned on me that the building was probably my first introduction to a green roof, long before sustainability and green buildings had ever entered my mind. Anyway, it was cool to return there the other day and see two goats resolutely munching away on the roof top grasses. It’s worth a stop for a visit if you are ever up in the area. The giant ice cream cones they have for sale there aren’t bad either! Ahh, summer!

Update: Sommer (Walk With Me a While) wrote me a note to say that there’s a building with goats living on the roof in North Carolina, USA. She passed it a few years ago while heading to hike the Appalachian Trail. Definitely good info to know if you’re living or traveling in North Carolina! Thanks, Sommer! ;)

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).

…

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.

…

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) 

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 e360:

A panel formed to study solutions to increased flooding in Singapore has urged the government to require green roofs on new and retrofitted buildings. The 12-member panel, which was created after torrential rains caused flash flooding across eastern and central Singapore last year, said improved weather modeling and infrastructure improvements are needed to handle a surge in stormwater runoff caused by urbanization in Singapore. In the meantime, however, the panel urged simpler steps to reduce and delay flooding, including better storage tanks, porous pavements, and rain gardens. Such rooftop gardens, which are often added to reduce heat or for aesthetic reasons, can also absorb six to 34 liters of water per square meter and limit the spread of water flow, local contractors said. 

Check out the rest of the article here.

(Photo credit: Buildipedia)

Infographic: Green Home Improvements That Pay You Back

(Source: One Block Off The Grid)

Vancouver’s 6 Acre Living Roof | Growing Cities Series

From Vimeo:

The roof of the Vancouver BC Convention Centre is covered with over 2.5 hectares (6 acres) of native grassland. Usually closed to the public, we were able to get a tour and interview with the landscape architect of the project, Bruce Hemstock.

This is part 1 of the “Growing Cities” documentary series shot while traveling in the USA and Canada - June 2009. 2 person crew. Canon 5DmkII and Zoom H4n. Music is “Andvari” by Sigur Rós

Download the full 22 minute interview as an mp3 at children-of-dome.com/​growing_cities/​bruce_hemstock_interview.mp3

Look, see: #MovingPlanet #photos #Vancouver #bikelanes #greenroof #conventioncentre #BurrardInlet #weekend #sustainability

From CNN:

On the roof of a 21-story office building in Hong Kong’s eastern district sits a grassy patch of hope that agriculture can thrive even in one of the world’s most congested spaces.

The rooftop is managed by local entrepreneur Osbert Lam, who spends his afternoons amid the rows of planter boxes teaming with long beans, tomatoes and herbs that occupy his urban farm.

Juxtaposed with the Hong Kong skyline, his rooftop stands out like a dab of verdant paint on a canvas of concrete, and is just one of the growing numbers of farms sprouting atop the city’s skyscrapers.

“There are a lot of empty, leftover rooftops that could easily be transformed into fields,” said Lam, who started the Eco-Mama rooftop farm just six months ago.

For just $15 per month, Lam rents out toolbox-sized planter boxes to businessmen, elderly couples and families alike, and even runs horticulture classes. He uses imported soil from Germany to fill his planters and lets the humid, subtropical climate do the rest.

“I found that the veggies loved the environment on my rooftop,” Lam, a 50 year-old father of two, said. “Here, there is good sun from the South, good air from the East and we’re above the crowded streets.”

And that’s precisely the premise behind urban farming: integrating farming practices into the urban ecological and economic systems. This is done through direct interaction with the urban environment and incorporating resources, such as using organic waste for compost or utilizing portions of urban structures for farming projects.

Lam’s farm — a humble 2,000 square feet — is one of an estimated 300 urban farming projects that now occupy Hong Kong’s high-rises, joining the broader, global movement of food sustainability projects in densely populated urban settings.

Check out the rest of the article here.

(Photo credit: CNN)