Twenty two substrates were developed and tested for two different green roof plant production methodologies. Growth rate analysis of Sedum sp. revealed distinct differences in performance of the mat substrates across a two year time frame with substrate water holding capacity (v/v) being a primary promoter of rapid mat coverage. Tray substrate analysis revealed numerous component options provided similar production speeds, with diverse and beneficial physical properties being described. Zebra and Quagga mussel shells proved to be a sustainable and beneficial component option for both mat and tray substrates. Further substrate component identification resulted in Biochar being investigated for its potential use in green roof media mixtures. The additions of incremental amounts of biochar into control substrates reduced bulk density by up to 20%, while simultaneously increasing volumetric water holding capacity to 54%, 12% greater than that of the control. Sedum plant growth in biochar revealed the lowest shoot dry weights resulting from no biochar additions. Substrate and plant water relationships were explored further with four substrates being planted with four diverse herbaceous and succulent plant communities. Substrate composition and plant community was observed to significantly affect dry down rates. / OMAFRA

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Richard A. Little, for the Master of Science degree in PLANT, SOIL AND AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS, presented on 2018, at Southern Illinois University. TITLE: COMPARATIVE FERTILITY EVALUATION FOR PEPPERS AND MELONS ON AN EXTENSIVE GREEN ROOF. MAJOR PROFESSORS: Karen Stoelzle Midden Co- Chair, Dr. S. Alan Walters Co-Chair, Dr. Brian P. Klubek. With the continued expansion of urban centers around the world comes a growing population of urban dwellers who need a reliable supply of produce that is healthy, safe, and locally grown. Urban green roof agriculture provides an alternative growing space to supply healthy and affordable produce to local markets and helps to address food security. However, there have been few studies done on the fertility requirements for fruits and vegetables grown in an extensive green roof environment. The growing media of most extensive green roof systems are composed mainly of light weight clay aggregate and contain a low amount of organic matter. Appropriate fertility treatments are required to optimize the potential for green roof agriculture. This research study evaluated 6 treatments for ‘Sweet Hungarian’ Peppers (Capsicum annuum, L.) and 4 treatments for ‘Savor’ Charentais Melons (Cucumis melo var. Cantalupensis, L.) grown in a three-inch extensive green roof medium located on the Southern Illinois University campus. A randomized complete design was used for both fruit crops. Each treatment for both the melons and peppers were replicated three times. Each pepper and melon plot contained 4 plants. The treatments applied to ‘Sweet Hungarian’ Peppers were: (1) Limited (reduced) fertility (Organic Miracle GrowTM at bi-monthly intervals-200 mls of solution/12 ft2 Plot); 2) Bonemeal at 6 Tbsp/12 ft2 Plot (applied at planting and flowering); 3) Bloodmeal at 6 Tbsp/12 ft2 Plot (applied at planting and flowering); 4) Bonemeal at planting then sidedressed with bloodmeal at flowering (6 Tbsp/12 ft2 Plot); 5) OsmocoteTM applied once at planting and once at flowering (3.8 oz/12 ft2); and 6) Standard granular fertilizer (13-13-13) with a broadcast application of (1.9 oz/12 ft2) complimented with a sidedress of (13% N by volume calcium nitrate at 1.9 oz/12 ft2) at flowering. The Charentais Melon treatments were: (1) Limited (reduced) fertility (Organic Miracle GrowTM at bi-monthly intervals-200 mls of solution/15 ft2 Plot); 2) Standard granular fertilizer (13-13-13) with a broadcast application of (2.4 oz/15 ft2) complimented with a sidedress of (13% N by volume calcium nitrate at 2.4 oz/15 ft2) at flowering; 3) OsmocoteTM applied once at planting and once at flowering (4.75 oz/15 ft2) 4) vermicompost at 25% of medium by total volume of 120L plot complimented by a sidedress of bloodmeal (7.5 Tbsp/15 ft2) at flowering. Watering was applied daily through drip line irrigation as needed. Plant vigor and active chlorophyll content, monthly from June to August, were recorded with a chlorophyll radiospectrometer. At harvest, the weight and yield were recorded for each plot number. In addition, nutrient composition of the green roof medium was analyzed for each treatment at the beginning of each year of replication. The objective of this research was to identify differences between a set of fertility treatments for the optimization of green roof food production and to reduce fertilizer use. The data from the three year study was analyzed using JMP statistical software. Year by treatment interactions were detected (P ≤ 0.05) for Pepper weight and yield parameters. OsmocoteTM and conventional 13-13-13 treatments outperformed the organic treatments. OsmocoteTM had higher yields than any other treatment for all three years. For the melons, environmental factors made the data inconclusive. However, the results suggest that OsmocoteTM and Vermicompost may have shown some positive interactions among the test parameters such as weight and yield.

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone / This thesis seeks to develop an alternative sustainable design for the CareLink of Jackson medical facility. Through a thorough analysis of the structure, community, environment, and user interaction within and around the building, a complete understanding of the facility's needs, successes and failures were composed. Based on this analysis, an alternative design was then proposed of which incorporates improvements to the building's green space, solar utilization, and social integration. This final design analysis and recommendation can be used to inform similar redevelopment of established structures in the benefits of sustainable integration within architecture.

TITLE: INFLUENCE OF IRRIGATION FREQUENCY ON CULINARY HERB GROWTH AND PRODUCTIVITY IN AN EXTENSIVE GREEN ROOF ENVIRONMENTMAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Alan S. Walters Southern Illinois University maintains an extensive green roof that has a growth media depth of 5-15 cm of a kiln-expanded aggregate containing perlite and ~3.5% organic matter. A study was designed to monitor the growth and productivity of culinary herbs in this environment. The first objective was to measure the vigor, growth and overwintering ability of different perennial culinary herbs under various irrigation regimes applying 1 L water/plant once a week, twice a week or once a week every 2 weeks. In this experiment, four culinary herbs were evaluated: Allium tuberosum ‘Garlic chives’, Lanandula angustifola ‘Munstead Dwarf’, Thymus vulgaris ‘Winter Thyme’, Melissa officianalis ‘Lemon Balm’. Additionally, the second objective was to evaluate the vigor, growth, and productivity of basil which is an important annual culinary herb using identical irrigation regimes. The second objective was to determine the effect of these irrigation levels on overwintering potential of the perennial culinary herbs evaluated. The perennial herb study indicated that water applications to plants either once or twice weekly provided greater dry perennial herb biomass than applying water once every 2 weeks. Regardless of the perennial herb evaluated, some weekly watering is required to provide the greatest amount of plant growth and vigor. Additionally, more frequent water applications also improved winter survival. Less frequent water applications will not only reduce plant growth and productivity but lead to perennial herb plant loss from one season to the next. Lavender was highly affected by the lack of water compared to the other perennial herbs evaluated. For most perennial herbs evaluated, the lower water applications provided less winter survival rates but not to the same extent as lavender. A 43% decrease in lavender overwintering survival rates was observed when plants received 1 L water once every two weeks, compared to the weekly irrigation applications. Basil plant growth differed among the irrigation timings evaluated in an extensive green roof environment. Generally, the twice a week application provided greater basil plant growth characters, followed by the once-a-week application, with the one water application every two weeks providing the least. Like the perennial herb experimental results, basil requires weekly water applications to maximize productivity in drought and heat stressful extensive green roof environments. This study indicates that basil is the most suitable annual for an extensive green roof environment. Our results indicated that infrequent watering of perennial herbs in an extensive green roof environment will most likely result in lower plant growth, vigor, and productivity, as well as reduce the overwintering potential of specific herbs. Thus, water management is critical to maximize productivity for herbs grown in extensive green roof environments. Although rooftops can be used to create spaces to produce edible crops, water management should be considered as an important factor to maximize their productivity.

Throughout history, utopian ideals have existed promoting nature as a necessary affect for better aesthetic and psychological being. Yet, as human populations climb so do stresses upon the natural environment - therefore, bringing "the city in harmony with nature" becomes more challenging. Fortunately, hope exists through the use of greenroof technology. Greenroofs are a green space created by continuous layers of drainage, protection, growing medium, and plants either onto or integral to a roofing system. This paper explores extensive greenroofs, characterized by low-maintenance and shallow growing medium. Greenroof benefits (ecological, economical, aesthetic, psychological) are classified as: Market and Human. Further exploration of human-driven benefits result in the definitions of active and passive sensation (the division of sensation): Active sensation is the immediate, present, unimagined engagement of a specific sense. Passive sensation is the imagined perception (sensing) of an object or element. As defined, Active Sensations are real and, therefore, have limits/defects/boundaries; yet, Passive Sensations are imagined, and therefore, limitless. As alluded by William James, "The philosophy which is so important in each of us is not a technical matter; it is our more or less dumb sense of what life honestly and deeply means. It is only partly got from books; it is our individual way of just seeing and feeling the total push and pressure of the cosmos." The remainder of the document explores human-driven greenroof design; emphasizing design as a form of inquiry. / Master of Landscape Architecture

My diploma thesis deals with a design of a public building, in this case a hotel. It is the design of the project documentation, the result of which is the realization of an object that meets the standards of the Czech Republic as well as the demands and needs of the investor. The building is designed as a two-storey, above-ground new building with twenty-two short-stay accommodation units providing a place for forty-two guests in total. Technically it is one of the traditional Czech methods, clay brick. In this case, the bricks are from manufacturer HELUZ, they are abraded with built-in thermal insulation in its cavities. The foundations are formed by foundation strips. The roof is flat with a slope of 2%. The building is located in Pezinok, Slovakia.

One of our greatest threats to surface-water quality is polluted stormwater runoff. In this research, investigated is the use of a green roof irrigated with recycled stormwater runoff to remove pollutants from stormwater runoff and reduce the volume of stormwater runoff leaving developed areas. The green roof properties of interest are the filtration and biological processes as well as the roof's ability to hold water and increase evapotranspiration, reducing the volume of stormwater runoff from the source. Because of the above mentioned reasons the experiment consists of a water quality analysis and a water budget done on several experimental chambers modeled after the green roof on the student union building at the University of Central Florida. The green roof chambers are used to study different types of growing media, different irrigation rates, and the addition of plants and how stormwater runoff quality and quantity is affected. There are also control chambers built to model the conventional roof on the student union building. The purpose of the control is to determine the effectiveness of the different media's filtration/adsorption processes and ability to hold water, in addition to identifying the benefits of adding a green roof to both water quality and the water budget. This research showed that a specifically designed green roof stormwater treatment system with a cistern is an effective way to reduce both the volume of and mass of pollutants of stormwater runoff. The year long water budget showed that this system can reduce the volume of stormwater runoff by almost 90%. The green roof model developed within this work showed similar results for the same conditions. Design curves produced by the model have also been presented for several different geographic regions in Florida. The green roof stormwater treatment system presented within this work was effective at reducing the mass of pollutants. However, the concentration of several of the examined pollutants in the effluent of the cistern was higher or equivalent to that of a control roof. Nitrate and ammonia were two that had a lower concentration than the control roof. The use of a pollution control growing media was also examined. The results of this study show that the Black & GoldTM growing media is effective at removing both ortho-phosphorus and total phosphorus. Isotherm analysis was also preformed to quantify the adsorption potential. Despite the promise of the Black & GoldTM growing media to remove phosphorus the plants did not grow as well as in the expanded clay growing media. It is suggested that the pollution control media be used as a layer under the growing media in order to get the benefits of both media.

Tanto no meio rural como urbano as novas tendências são de buscar uma melhoria de técnicas e de uso de materiais alternativos buscando-se uma maior sustentabilidade. A utilização de plantas nas paredes e telhados é um dos mais recentes campos da pesquisa ambiental e busca encontrar uma solução ecológica e sustentável para melhorar a qualidade de vida urbana e rural. Uma cobertura verde consiste de um substrato leve e de uma vegetação apropriada, plantada sobre uma base impermeável. Podem conter também camadas adicionais, tais como, um sistema de drenagem e irrigação e uma barreira anti-raízes. Os efeitos positivos da vegetação sobre o ambiente urbano já são bem conhecidos e neste caso da cobertura, diminuem as enxurradas, filtro biológico, redução da poluição do ar, amenizam o calor nas edificações durante o verão e o conservam durante o inverno. Há também benefícios para a fauna, com retorno de espécies que mantêm o equilíbrio biológico local. Essas coberturas podem ter muitas aplicações, como em indústrias, residências, escritórios e outras propriedades comerciais e rurais. Uma criteriosa seleção de plantas permite que a cobertura verde tenha sucesso em condições adversas. Por outro lado, são necessárias pesquisas no sentido de assegurar um meio de cultura que retenha água e ao mesmo tempo proporcione uma boa drenagem para que as raízes não apodreçam, permitindo uma maior gama de espécies de plantas na cobertura. Neste sentido, realizou-se um estudo dos substratos mais abundantes na região, buscando tecnologias apropriadas para a confecção dos telhados verdes e identificando as melhores técnicas de aplicação, de acordo com a necessidade de cada ambiente. Para a realização deste trabalho foram utilizados dez tipos de substratos que foram pré-selecionados de acordo com a disponibilidade no mercado, de mais fácil obtenção e de melhor custo beneficio ambiental. As análises estatísticas utilizam o delineamento experimental inteiramente ao acaso, em esquema fatorial com três repetições e utilizando o programa estatístico SAS para auxiliar na análise e confecção dos gráficos e discussões. Na avaliação do conjunto de características, a turfa marrom (TM) apresentou o menor valor de densidade seca, maior porosidade total, maiores valores de água facilmente disponível, água disponível e capacidade de retenção de água, e mesmo valor de espaço de aeração daquele sugerido como referência sendo um bom material para o uso em telhados verdes, formando compostos com outros materiais e buscando as melhores características e sustentabilidade do sistema. Dentre os substratos comerciais estudados, o substrato para espécies hortícolas (SH) apresentou os maiores valores de capacidade de retenção de água e água disponível para as plantas, possibilitando um maior intervalo entre irrigações ou chuvas, características importantes para o uso em telhados verdes. No entanto, tornam-se necessários mais estudos com a finalidade identificar mais materiais e substratos apropriados para o uso em telhados verdes, levando-se em conta as diferentes características de cada local, tipo de vegetação escolhida, capacidade de suporte da edificação, dentre outro fatores. / Rural and urban new trends seek an improvement in techniques and use of alternative materials for greater sustainability. The use of plants on walls and roofs is one of the newest fields of environmental research, looking for a green and sustainable solution to improve the quality of urban and rural life. A green cover consists of a substrate and appropriate vegetation planted on an impermeable base. It can also contain additional layers, such as a system of drainage and irrigation with an anti-root barrier. The positive effects of roof vegetation on urban environment are well known, as reducing the runoff,acting as a biological filter, reducing air pollution, minimizing heat inside the buildings during summer and maximizing during the winter. There are also benefits to fauna, with the return of various species, maintaining the local biological balance. The coverage can be adapted to industries, homes, offices and other commercial and rural properties. Careful selection of plants allows the green roof to succeed in adverse conditions. In addition, research is necessary to ensure a culture medium that retains water that the same time provides good drainage to prevent root rot, allowing a wider range of plant species in the cover. In this sense, a study was conducted involving the most abundant substrates of our region, seeking appropriate technologies for the manufacture of green roofs and identifying the best application techniques, according to the needs of each environment. For this work ten types of preselected substrates were used according to market availability, easier to obtain and with a better environmental cost/benefit ratio. Statistics of the experimental design was completely randomized in a factorial format with three replications and using the SAS statistical software to assist in the analysis and construction of graphs and discussions. In evaluating the feature of the cover set, brown peat (TM) presented the lowest value of dry density, higher porosity, higher values of easily available water, available water capacity and water retention, and even the amount of aeration space, suggested TM as being a good reference material for use in green roofs. Among the studied commercial substrates, the substrate for horticultural species (SH) showed the highest values of water holding capacity and water available to plants, allowing a longer interval between irrigations or rainfall, an important characteristic for its use on green roofs. However, more studies are needed in order to identify the most suitable materials and for use in green roof substrates, taking into account the different characteristics of each site, vegetation type, bearing capacity of the building, among other factors.

Green roofs have, in the past 15 years or so, gained increasing acceptance as a means of replacing or offsetting the lost of green space due to urban development and urban sprawl. Green roof systems can provide numerous potential benefits, both public and private, including improved control of a building’s internal temperatures with reduced power use. The effectiveness of Green roofs at decreasing energy use in buildings in warm climates is well known. However, their thermal performance in cold climate conditions is not well known, but is of particular interest in regions such as in Eastern Ontario where Green roofs are rapidly gaining popularity. This thesis presents an initial step in understanding the thermal behaviour of currently used Green roof systems in cold climate conditions, and quantifying the thermal benefits, if any, to be gained from the installation of these systems in cold regions as compared against a typical conventional roofing system. A review of available literature is presented which discusses the various benefits of Green roofs. A novel hot box has been designed and constructed, and thermal testing of two Green roofs and a conventional flat roof using the new apparatus are presented and discussed. The data are used to estimate the potential energy savings that might be expected with the installation of a Green roof (such as those tested) on a flat roofed commercial building in the Kingston area. The data suggest that Green roofs may provide a marginal (10% to 24%) thermal benefit as compared with a conventional flat roof under cold climate conditions. This benefit could translate into a $0.09 savings per square metre of roof area in total heat energy costs on an annual basis. Recommendations for future work in this research area are provided. / Thesis (Master, Civil Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2007-09-23 21:14:30.381

Extensive urban development has led to the resurgence of green roofs. These vegetated roofs provide significant ecological and economic benefits including mitigation of the urban heat island effect, reduced storm-water runoff, lower energy costs, increased biodiversity, and improved aesthetics, as well as food production and security. Urban agriculture and food security are becoming increasingly important factors of the green roof renaissance. Due to weight load limitations of potential buildings, the ability to produce quality food in shallow media, less than 6.75 cm, could encourage green roof food production. The effectiveness of a commercially available green roof media and a vermicompost custom blended green roof media was evaluated in two experiments on the roof of the Agriculture building at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. In a randomized complete block design, twelve green roof modular trays (six 61 cm x 61 cm and six 46 cm x 56 cm) were filled to the depth of 5.72 cm with each media type. Each block consisted of four treatments with three replications in two locations on the roof. One location received full sun and the other only partial shade. Two commercially-grown annual herbs, sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) and Thai basil (Albahaca tailandesa) and parsley (Petroselinum crispum var. neapolitanum; Petroselinum crispum `Krausa'; and Petroselinum crispum crispum) were evaluated during the two experiments. The first experiment ran from mid-May to mid-July, 2011, and the second experiment ran from mid-August to late September, 2011. Media content, mineral analysis, and biomass were recorded for each treatment. Hand irrigation was utilized as needed. In the first experiment, media, and an interaction of sunlight and media produced significant (P< 0.05) results for parameters of shoot height, shoot width and shoot weight. Sunlight, specifically partial shade, produced significant (P< 0.05) for shoot to root ratio. The commercially available green roof media produced more significant results for the parameters measured than the vermicompost-blend. In the second experiment, an interaction was detected for basil shoot width; otherwise all other variables evaluated for basil were insignificant. Media, specifically the commercial green roof media, was significant (p< 0.05) for parsley shoot height, with an interaction of sunlight and media; shoot weight and dry shoot weight, and with an interaction of sunlight and media for shoot width. No significant results were observed with the other parameters measured. The experiments indicated that the production of annual herbs on a green roof environment is possible. Further, the experiments found that the commercially available green roof media performed better than the custom vermicompost blend. Modular tray type had limited effect on results, but the advantage of pre-planting the trays before placement onto a green roof environment is an incentive for its use.