Can Green Roofs Help Mitigate the Urban Heat Island Effect? Jessica Gold Camille Tucker Brittany Edghill Can Green Roofs Help Mitigate the Urban Heat Island.

Can Green Roofs Help Mitigate the Urban Heat Island

Effect?Jessica Gold

Camille Tucker Brittany Edghill

Can Green Roofs Help Mitigate the Urban Heat Island

Effect?Jessica Gold

Camille Tucker Brittany Edghill

Every year inner city residents suffer from the harmful effects of the

The Urban Heat Island

Effect

The Urban Heat Island

Effect

The Urban Heat Island Effect

• Urban regions to become warmer than the rural surroundings

• Forms an “island” of higher temperature in the urban landscape

• On a sunny day surfaces which are exposed, such as the pavement, and rooftops can have increased temperatures of 50° to 90°F higher than the air temperature

• Atmospheric Heat Island effect starts out weak during the early morning and throughout the day but become stronger after sunset because of the slow release of heat from the urban infrastructure.

Effects• It has been estimated that the heat

island effect is responsible for 5 to 10 percent of peak electricity demand for cooling buildings.

• Increasing energy demands leads to greater emissions of pollutants, greenhouse gases and gas emissions. This increase of pollution leads to health problems such as asthma and other respiratory problems.

• Runoff into streams and river which leads to increased temperatures in the aquatic system

In the daytime, the heat from the sun is absorbed into city buildings/dark surfaces & at

night an “island” of heat forms over the city causing a increase in temperature.

SolutionsCool Roofs

Cool PavementsGreen Roofs

Solutions

By adding vegetation, trees, flowers and other natural CO2 sinks, the urban heat

island effect can be dramatically decreased.

Our Hypothesis

We believe that green roofs would be the best solution for mitigating the urban heat island effect.

Our Hypothesis

What is a Green Roof?

A green roof is a vegetated roof cover, with growing media and plants taking the place of bare membrane, gravel ballast, shingles or tiles.

Many places have already installed

Green Roofs, such as:

The Bank of America Tower

The Bank of America Tower

Chicago’s City Hall

Chicago’s City Hall

USPS Postal Building

USPS Postal Building

Wal-martWal-mart

Our Experiment• Collect Controlled data.

Surface Temperature

Air Temperature

Emissivity

Weather Conditions

Light Reflection (LUX)

Our Experiment

Control DataControl Data

DateTim

e Surface Temperature Point 1 (P1)Surface Temperature Point 2

(P2) EmissivityAir Temperature

(F)Wind Speed Light (Lux)

Weather Conditions

4/15/201010:4

9 86 101 84 1477 Sunny

4/16/201011:0

5 63.5 62 57.5 231 Cloudy

4/19/201011:0

0 128 125 77 1500 Sunny

4/20/201011:1

5 119 114 82 1555 Sunny

4/28/201011:0

0 65.5 68.5 61.1 220 Cloudy

5/3/201011:0

3 70.5 70.5 73.3 230 Cloudy

5/4/201011:4

0 114.5 115 87.5 1570 Sunny

5/5/201011:0

0 149 151.5 91SW at 5

mph 1639 Sunny

5/14/201011:2

5 104.5 104.5 153.3 85 Cloudy

5/17/2010 74.5

5/18/201010:3

5 51 51.8 62 15 Cloudy

5/19/2010 64.9

5/20/201010:4

5 165 164.2 181.5 79 164

5/21/201011:3

3 162 161.5 163.4 95.1 E at 6mph 333 Sunny

5/24/201010:5

4 85.5 97.5 91.1 76.6 83 Cloudy

5/25/201010:4

5 136 136.5 143.7 83.8SSE at 7mph 302 Sunny

Surface Temperature & Air Temperature

0

50

100

150

200

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15

Days

Te

mp

era

ture

(F

)

Surface TemperaturePoint 1 (P1)

Air Temperature (F)

What are we trying to prove?

• Collect Control Data

• Collect green roof data

• Compare the two.

• Did temperatures, emissivity, and light reflection increase or decrease?

ConclusionConclusionIn conclusion, although we won’t be

able to see the final construction of a green roof on Brooklyn Technical high

school, we believe our control data will be significant for future students. It will help them to prove our hypothesis that

green roofs can in fact mitigate the urban heat island effect and lower

various temperatures.