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Evaluating the Effects of Green Roofs as Tools for Stormwater Management in an Urban Metropolis

Stormwater management is an essential aspect of urban hydrology. Urbanized areas have large amounts of impervious surface cover (ISC) and well developed sewer and drainage networks which rapidly channel water and pollutants off of streets and into local streams. This research evaluates the use of vegetated roofs as mechanisms to reduce ISC and stormwater runoff in downtown Atlanta. A 3-D model of the study site was created so that runoff rates could be measured for various rooftop scenarios under different size storm events. The results revealed a reduction in peak runoff and an increase in both the lag time and duration of response time. The results were most significant for the smallest storm event with 2/3 of the rooftops vegetated. As these experiments use a scale model for a section of downtown Atlanta, results are likely to be applicable to similar urban environments and may provide guidance for stormwater engineers.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:GEORGIA/oai:digitalarchive.gsu.edu:geosciences_theses-1020
Date01 December 2009
CreatorsPolinsky, Robyn R.
PublisherDigital Archive @ GSU
Source SetsGeorgia State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceGeosciences Theses

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