The Influence of Green Roofs on Runoff Water Quality: A Case Study from Estonia

Alar Teemusk and Ülo Mander ()

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2011, vol. 25, issue 14, 3699-3713

Abstract: This paper describes the runoff water quality of Light Weight Aggregates (LWA)-based extensive green roofs and sod roofs in Estonia. Samples were taken from August 2004 to April 2009 from 10 different green roofs to determine what level of water quality may be found. The results presented here show that green roofs influenced water quality to a considerable degree. The runoff water of LWA-based green roofs generally had higher values of pH, BOD 7 , TP and PO 4 -P than that from sod roofs. However, COD, TN, SO 4 and Ca-Mg salt were higher in the sod roofs than in the green roofs. The results for NH 4 -N and NO 3 -N were similar for both roof types. According to the results, the character of the runoff and the contents in the substrate layer at the moment the samples were taken affected runoff quality more than the age and location of the green roof. The use of NPK-nutrients in the substrate or in the soil caused much higher values of COD and concentrations of TP, PO 4 -P, TN, NH 4 -N and NO 3 -N in runoff water than on non-fertilized green roofs. The results of samples taken from the Tartu LWA-based green roof each spring in the period 2005–2009, at a time when the snow had almost melted, showed that concentrations of compounds in runoff water generally decreased gradually. The pH value and Ca-Mg salt concentration were, however, stable, and this was caused by the LWA material. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

Keywords: Extensive green roof; LWA; Nutrients; Runoff water quality; Sod roof (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11269-011-9877-z (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:waterr:v:25:y:2011:i:14:p:3699-3713

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11269

DOI: 10.1007/s11269-011-9877-z

Access Statistics for this article

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) is currently edited by G. Tsakiris

More articles in Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) from Springer, European Water Resources Association (EWRA)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().