Green Roof Media Evaluation Final Report
Green Roof Media Evaluation Final Report
Introduction:
The Installations of Green roofs in North America are fairly recent in comparison to Europe which they have been using and installing for several hundreds of years. Green roofs have many beneficial factors, other than beautifying an urban landscape they have many hidden ecological and economical benefits. Growing a green roof has many environmental benefits include, absorbing rain water and preventing runoff, providing a habitat for wildlife, increasing agricultural space and decreasing urban air temperatures by soaking up the suns radiation to fight heat island effect (Alexander, 2004). There are many reasons why a green roof should be installed and in the end of the day it will pay for itself within a few years in result of the reduction of heating and cooling costs. This report will go into detail on the types of media that are used on green roofs. The research and data will provide information that will help us determine which type of media is better suited in certain types of different environments.
Materials and Methods:
The evaluation process of the results from the data that was collected is interesting, seeing how the media has done in the empty tubs vs planted cells regarding the PH and EC levels. There are three types of media that were tested for this green roof research/experiment project; Gaia, Haydite, and ZinCo (Growing Media). For this experiment there are 3 tubs of, each tub has 1 kind of media as listed above, they will be tested for EC and PH levels. Also 9 cell trays that have three media types (Gaia, Haydite, ZinCo Growing Media) that contain plants will be tested as well for the same thing (EC & PH), the tubs contain the same media without plants, the results will be compared.
Gaia soil is a mixture of recycled expanded polystyrene, composted organic matter, and clay. The polystyrene holds water, minerals, and nutrients for the plants intake. Gaia soil is very light
Introduction:
The Installations of Green roofs in North America are fairly recent in comparison to Europe which they have been using and installing for several hundreds of years. Green roofs have many beneficial factors, other than beautifying an urban landscape they have many hidden ecological and economical benefits. Growing a green roof has many environmental benefits include, absorbing rain water and preventing runoff, providing a habitat for wildlife, increasing agricultural space and decreasing urban air temperatures by soaking up the suns radiation to fight heat island effect (Alexander, 2004). There are many reasons why a green roof should be installed and in the end of the day it will pay for itself within a few years in result of the reduction of heating and cooling costs. This report will go into detail on the types of media that are used on green roofs. The research and data will provide information that will help us determine which type of media is better suited in certain types of different environments.
Materials and Methods:
The evaluation process of the results from the data that was collected is interesting, seeing how the media has done in the empty tubs vs planted cells regarding the PH and EC levels. There are three types of media that were tested for this green roof research/experiment project; Gaia, Haydite, and ZinCo (Growing Media). For this experiment there are 3 tubs of, each tub has 1 kind of media as listed above, they will be tested for EC and PH levels. Also 9 cell trays that have three media types (Gaia, Haydite, ZinCo Growing Media) that contain plants will be tested as well for the same thing (EC & PH), the tubs contain the same media without plants, the results will be compared.
Gaia soil is a mixture of recycled expanded polystyrene, composted organic matter, and clay. The polystyrene holds water, minerals, and nutrients for the plants intake. Gaia soil is very light
References: (Group members & I) = Jessica Bond, Tyler Bradley, Stephan Choi, Ethan Shrubb, Zaki Budeiri Moreno, Jeremy Jouppien http://www.torontobotanicalgarden.ca/mastergardener/Wildflowers.shtml Alexander, Ron. 2004. Vol. 45, No. 9. Biocycle. J. G. Press www.greenroofs.com Sources Niagara college blackboard http://www.hpbhaydmite.com/haydite/properties.html http://www.zinco.ca/components.ht