Nutrient Loading Reduction Capability in Aged Green Roofs
Author:
Gabriella Santos Meltzer ’27Co-Authors:
Faculty Mentor(s):
Kevin Gilmore, Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringFunding Source:
Bucknell Center for Sustainability and the EnvironmentAbstract
As climate change accelerates, intense rain events have been persistent, damaging communities in unprecedented ways. Green roofs are a type of sustainable infrastructure that has been implemented on top of modern buildings to mitigate the effects of climate change. However, the presence of nutrients important to plant life, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, in stormwater runoff can deeply damage nearby waterways through eutrophication. This research focuses on the capabilities of the four green roof test plots atop Academic East to reduce stormwater volume, how the green roof may affect nutrient loading in stormwater runoff, and how changing plant cover may affect these parameters. To do this, the green roof testing lab found in Academic East was restored and redesigned for side-by-side analysis of the test plots. Although the project could not be fully completed in one summer, it was found that the restored green roof, with no additional changes, considerably reduced stormwater volume, peak flow rate, and ammonium mass loading for one large storm event. For this same storm event, nitrate and phosphate mass loading in the runoff appeared to increase. In the future, more research focusing on the effects of changing plant cover plans needs to be done.