Green Roofs Reading Passage
Green Roof Reading Passage
A. Rooftops covered with grass, vegetable gardens and lush foliage are now a common sight in many cities worldwide. More and more private companies and city authorities are investing in green roofs, drawn to their wide-ranging benefits. Among the benefits are saving on energy costs, mitigating the risk of floods, making habitats for urban wildlife, tackling air pollution and even growing food. These increasingly radical urban designs can help cities adapt to the monumental problems they face, such as resource access and a lack of green space due to development. However, the involvement of city authorities, businesses, and other institutions is crucial to ensuring their success, as is research investigating different options to suit the variety of rooftop spaces found in cities. The UK is relatively new to developing green roofs, and local governments and institutions play a major role in spreading the practice. London is home to much of the UK’s green roof market, mainly due to forward-thinking policies such as the London Plan, which has paved the way to more than doubling the area of green roofs in the capital.
B. Ongoing research showcases how green roofs in cities can integrate with ‘living walls’: environmentally friendly walls which are partially or completely covered with greenery, including a growing medium, such as soil or water. Research also indicates that green roofs can be integrated with drainage systems on the ground, such as street trees so that the water is managed better and the built environment is made more sustainable. There is also evidence to demonstrate the social value of green roofs. Doctors are increasingly prescribing time spent gardening outdoors for patients dealing with anxiety and depression. Research has found that access to even the most basic green spaces can provide a better quality of life for dementia sufferers and help people avoid obesity.
C. In North America, green roofs have become mainstream, with a wide array of expansive, accessible and food-producing roofs installed in buildings. Again, city leaders and authorities have helped push the movement forward – only recently, San Francisco, USA, created a policy requiring new buildings to have green roofs. Toronto, Canada, has policies dating from the 1990s that encourage the development of rooftop urban farms. These countries also benefit from having newer buildings than in many parts of the world, which makes it easier to install green roofs. Keeping enough water at roof height and distributing it across the rooftop is crucial to maintaining the plants on any green roof – especially on ‘edible roofs’ where fruit and vegetables are farmed. And it’s much easier to do this in newer buildings, which can typically hold greater weight than to retrofit old ones. A stronger roof also makes growing a greater variety of plants easier, since the soil can be deeper.
D. For green roofs to become the norm for new developments, support from public authorities and private investors is needed. Those responsible for maintaining buildings may have to acquire new skills, such as landscaping; in some cases, volunteers may be needed to help out. Other considerations include installing drainage paths, meeting health and safety requirements and perhaps allowing access for the public, and planning restrictions and disruption from regular activities in and around the buildings during installation. Economic arguments are still important in convincing investors and developers that installing green roofs is worthwhile. The term ‘natural capital’ has been developed to explain the economic value of nature; for example, measuring the money saved by installing natural solutions to protect against flood damage, adapting to climate change or helping people lead healthier and happier lives.
E. As the expertise about green roofs grows, official standards have been developed to ensure that they are designed, constructed and maintained properly and function well. Improvements in the science and technology underpinning green roof development have also led to new variations in the concept. For example, ‘blue roofs’ enable buildings to hold water over longer periods rather than quickly draining it – crucial in heavier rainfall. There are also combinations of green roofs with solar panels and ‘brown roofs’, which are wilder and maximise biodiversity. If the trend continues, it could create new jobs, a more vibrant and sustainable local food economy, and many other benefits. There are still barriers to overcome, but the evidence so far indicates that green roofs have the potential to transform cities and help them function sustainably long into the future. The success stories need to be studied and replicated elsewhere to make green, blue, brown and food-producing roofs the norm in cities worldwide.
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