4/20/26 Entry #10- Green roofs

I found an article that discusses the use of Green Roofs in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and wanted to share. The Dutch use these green roofs as parks for the local communities. They say this is practicing adaptive reuse. Adaptive reuse is when an existing building is specifically redeveloped to help support the needs/purposes of contemporary living. The green spaces that are created on top of buildings ease the burden of heat stress and flooding while creating a green space for locals. The roofs also create a weapon against the urban heat island effect, where the heat absorption of dark building materials causes air temperatures to rise due to the amount of heat re-emitted. The EPA found that green roofs can lower citywide temperature by up to 5 degrees while reducing the buildings' energy demand as well. 

Rotterdam is not the only place implementing these green roofs. Chicago, Illinois, has been promoted since the 1990s. Since then, there are over 500 green roofs in the city, totaling over 5 million square feet of roof coverage. This has likely impacted the metropolitan's urban heat island effect and energy usage. If more cities and countries were to implement this tactic of fighting climate change, I wonder what the effects would be and the economic benefits as well.

https://www.surfacemag.com/articles/green-roofs-cool-cities-rotterdam-park/#

https://www.midstory.org/a-garden-in-the-sky-chicagos-green-rooftop-revolution/



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