The primary goal of this project is to provide undergraduate and graduate students in Professor Werth’s Hazardous Waste Management course (CEE440) in the Spring of 2009, and in his Sustainable Urban Engineering (CEE498SUE) course in the Fall of 2009, with the opportunity to quantify the environmental impacts of the green roof on the new Business Instructional Facility. The specific objectives of this project are for student to 1) apply principles learned in these courses to a real-world application, 2) become familiar with proper data collection and presentation methods, 3) learn how to maintain and operate various pieces of analytical equipment, 4) quantify the ability of the green roof to filter and transform pollutants deposited from the atmosphere, and 5) quantify the ability of the green roof to reduce runoff, and 6) quantify the ability of the green roof to reduce heating and cooling loads.

Project location, coordination with Facilities and Services, and overall approach In coordination with Facilities and Services, Professors Werth and Schmidt purchased and installed monitoring equipment on the green roof at the new Business Instructional Facility that allows measurement of total rainfall for individual storm events, drainage from both the green roof and an adjacent conventional roof, soil moisture in the green roof, and roof temperature. They also installed a water-sampling device that allows them to capture the first runoff from all storm events for subsequent analysis to determine particle loads, and concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) associated with the particles. While there are many other pollutants associated with particles, these two class of pollutants will serve as surrogate for other semi-volatile organic chemicals (e.g., pesticides, PCBs, solvents, etc.) deposited by wind-blown particles. Metals will not be studied at this time, but remain of future interest.