TY - UNPB ID - pittir8387 UR - http://d-scholarship-dev.library.pitt.edu/8387/ A1 - Ni, Jiayin TI - GREEN ROOF STUDY: STORMWATER QUANTITY, QUALITY AND THERMAL PERFORMANCE Y1 - 2009/09/25/ N2 - This thesis presents the use of green roofs compared to conventional (control) roofs using modern construction methods. The green roof is aesthetically and environmentally superior to the control roof, which improves the city landscape and reduces the burden to environment. Two green roofs involved in the study are located at Shadyside of Pittsburgh and Homestead, PA, respectively. Additionally, a control roof is established and monitored next to each of the green roofs. The green roof study primarily focused on stormwater runoff (quantity and quality) and thermal performance. The results demonstrated that green roofs, on the contrary to the conventional roofs, retain significantly more water, attenuate temperature fluctuations for a roof membrane, and attenuate environmental contaminants to the discharged runoff. Two different technologies of green roofs were analyzed. Soil medium thickness and soil moisture content are controlling variables.Several benefits of the green roof in comparison to the control roof were observed. Data acquired during the 95 storms at the two study locations revealed that green roofs delayed the time for runoff from the roof to begin as well as when the peak flow occurred and greatly reduced the hourly flow rate and total runoff volume in comparison to the control roofs. The delay time for runoff onset from a green roof ranged from minutes to hours, and depends on the soil moisture content prior to the storm. Temperature profiles suggest that a green roof provides better insulation and decreased temperature variations for all parts of the roof, particularly the waterproofing membrane, during warm weather. The soil medium over the green roof is able to neutralize the acidic rainfall and retain pollutant solids, preventing the unfiltered rainfall from directly discharging to the sewage system. AV - public KW - combined sewer overflow technology; CSO; green infrastructure; rainfall runoff; thermal performance; vegetated roof; water retention; green roof; runoff pollution mitigation ER -