AREF Report 2009-2011 Project title: Greening roofs in Edmonton Recipient: Dr Leonie Nadeau PAg, School of Sustainable Building and Environmental Management, NAIT 1. Introduction/background A proposal submitted in April 2009 to the Alberta Real Estate Foundation (AREF) was approved in June 2009, with some modifications. We originally had proposed to research native plants species on green sections of three commercial roofs in the city of Edmonton, and to establish and monitor these roofs. We were now to use the fund ($45,600) for one roof only, the Williams Engineering building roof. The original plan as proposed was to construct a green roof in sections over time, and we wanted to establish a green roof only on a section of the Williams Engineering building. However, since the building needed a new roof, Williams Engineering management decided to redo the entire roof and make it a green roof with the funds provided by AREF. For this to happen though, many of the companies involved cut down their rates so that the entire 7000 sq.ft. green roof would cost approximately $201,000. The green roof, which is including a research area, was completed in June 2010 (see Appendix for photos). 1.1 Williams Engineering building (Fig. 1) The Williams engineering roof was redone in spring 2010 and included a section for researching the influence of depth of growth medium on the performance of selected plant species. An inverted roof model replaced the previous roof. A waterproof membrane was installed on the concrete slab then was covered by a root-repellent polyester film membrane. This was covered by a 15-cm drainage layer, itself covered by a filter and water retention fabric. The growth medium was added on top of this fabric. The medium chosen was provided by Bio Roof and was a mixture of city compost and peat moss, a soil mix which follows the recommended standards for Green Roof for Healthy City. Research area We are establishing 12 plots of 45 x 180 cm with four containers with a growth medium depth of 7.5 cm (averaged to 8 cm), four containers with a depth of 10 cm, and four containers with a depth of 15 cm (limited by the roof loading capacity). Seedling material was planted as plugs provided free of cost by the Native Plant Producers of Alberta. These plots are along a skyline shown on Figure 2.
A proposal submitted in April 2009 to the Alberta Real Estate Foundation (AREF) was approved in June 2009, with some modifications. We originally had proposed to research native plants species on green sections of three commercial roofs in the city of Edmonton, and to establish and monitor these roofs. We were now to use the fund ($45,600) for one roof only, the Williams Engineering building roof.
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
AREF Report 2009-2011
Project title: Greening roofs in Edmonton
Recipient: Dr Leonie Nadeau PAg, School of Sustainable Building and Environmental
Management, NAIT
1. Introduction/background
A proposal submitted in April 2009 to the Alberta Real Estate Foundation (AREF) was
approved in June 2009, with some modifications. We originally had proposed to research native
plants species on green sections of three commercial roofs in the city of Edmonton, and to
establish and monitor these roofs. We were now to use the fund ($45,600) for one roof only, the
Williams Engineering building roof.
The original plan as proposed was to construct a green roof in sections over time, and we
wanted to establish a green roof only on a section of the Williams Engineering building.
However, since the building needed a new roof, Williams Engineering management decided to
redo the entire roof and make it a green roof with the funds provided by AREF. For this to
happen though, many of the companies involved cut down their rates so that the entire 7000
sq.ft. green roof would cost approximately $201,000. The green roof, which is including a
research area, was completed in June 2010 (see Appendix for photos).
1.1 Williams Engineering building (Fig. 1)
The Williams engineering roof was redone in spring 2010 and included a section for
researching the influence of depth of growth medium on the performance of selected plant
species. An inverted roof model replaced the previous roof. A waterproof membrane was
installed on the concrete slab then was covered by a root-repellent polyester film membrane.
This was covered by a 15-cm drainage layer, itself covered by a filter and water retention
fabric. The growth medium was added on top of this fabric. The medium chosen was provided
by Bio Roof and was a mixture of city compost and peat moss, a soil mix which follows the
recommended standards for Green Roof for Healthy City.
Research area
We are establishing 12 plots of 45 x 180 cm with four containers with a growth medium depth
of 7.5 cm (averaged to 8 cm), four containers with a depth of 10 cm, and four containers with a
depth of 15 cm (limited by the roof loading capacity). Seedling material was planted as plugs
provided free of cost by the Native Plant Producers of Alberta. These plots are along a skyline
shown on Figure 2.
Fig.1. Williams Engineering building aerial view, Williams Engineering Canada 10010 - 100 St
NW Edmonton.
Plugs came in 96-count seed trays, so each plug was approximately 2 cm in diameter, and 4 cm
in depth. Plugs were produced as a mixture of seventeen species : Plains mulhy (Muhlenbergia
cuspidata), blue grama grass (Bouteloua gracilis), Rocky mountain Fescue (Festuca
saximontana), June grass (Koeleria macrantha), and sandberg bluegrass (Poa secunda) are the
same grass species as tested on the Esak Consulting roof, with the addition of tufted hair grass
(Deschampsia caespitosa). Three of the five forbs are the same (wild sage (Artemisia sp.),
golden aster (Chrysopsis villosa), and blue flax (Linum lewisii)) while low goldenrod (Solidago
missouriensis) and tall cinquefoil (Potentilla arguta) are missing. Additional forb species are