Green Roofs

Aberfoyle Visitor Centre (© Bauder) alt

 

Green Roofs

Green roofs, or vegetated roofs, or living roofs are systems that are essentially roofs with vegetation placed upon them in a way to provide benefits. The installation of a green roof may be for various reasons and will almost always provide a suite of additional benefits including;

Benefits include;

  • General environmental, economic and social benefits
  • Climate change adaptation & mitigation
  • Flood mitigation
  • Water Quality improvements
  • Health and well being
  • Biodiversity
  • Air quality improvements
  • Urban heat island effect reduction
  • Building thermal efficiency
  • Reduced whole life cost
  • Noise reduction

Roofs can take many different forms. They are generally categorised as Intensive, Extensive or a combination of both (see images below).  Intensive roofs have a deeper growing medium and can support a range of plants, whilst extensive roofs have a thin layer of growing medium and can support more specialised plants. The categorisation also refers to the amount of maintenance needed, so in the examples below, the intensive roofs are basic turf roofs and are used as a football pitch and lawn area, so require regular mowing. Roofs can also include different habitat types, for example logs, rubble and gravel to provide additional support to wildlife.

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Intensive Roof in Edinburgh (© Bauder)                                 Intensive Roof at Pollockshields House (© Bauder)

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Biodiverse Roof at Abbey Hive, London (© Buglife)              Sedum Roof at Kinnaird Primary School, Falkirk (© Bauder)