JBC is please to announce a great new technical resource for green roofs compiled by Richard Sutton. Here's the forward we wrote for the book:
Foreword
Ralph Waldo Emerson
once wrote: “The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.” Let the
knowledge, concepts and theories contained in this book be the acorn that
inspires thousands of professionals to advance the technical performance of green
roofs. For far too long, green roofs have been misunderstood and over
simplified in terms of ecological performance. The challenges to creating
diverse and resilient systems in our anthropogenic urban environments are well
recognized. Due to weight, cost and loading restrictions, green roofs attempt
to compress biological and ecological function into the narrowest of profiles,
limiting natural processes and nutrient cycles. In response to these
constraints the industry has evolved to simplistic low diversity solutions
which provide less ecological services than what is possible in the urban
fabric of our cities where these benefits are in greatest need.
Today’s urban
footprint is composed of more than twenty percent roof cover. This vast urban
land cover provides an immense opportunity to solve many of our environmental
concerns, especially if we convert these spaces to integrated and highly functioning
living architecture. E. O. Wilson the noted American biologist and theorist stated:
“We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to
use it and come to understand what it means to humanity”. Furthermore, we
should endeavor to create biodiversity on every surface of our cities, as it
helps to fulfill the basic needs of humanity.
Despite the efforts
of many within the green roof industry, roofs for the most part remain
under-utilized, forgotten places with exceptional opportunities to be reclaimed
and repurposed as vibrant, functional centers of nature and human enjoyment. As
a green infrastructure tool, green roofs provide some of the highest quality eco-services
benefits available for solving a multitude of social and environmental ills,
despite the fact they are too quickly dismissed early in the design process because
of a lack of understanding of their potential. Greater knowledge about Green Roof Ecosystems will only
increase implementation of this vital and natural solution.
Recently a renewed
interest in landscape planning seeks to link ecological services and community
needs. And increasingly, public policy recognizes that creating livable and
healthy communities requires connected landscapes in order to provide for clean
air, clean water, public fitness, wildlife diversity and ecological benefits.
The natural capital in our cities and efforts to restore it need not be
considered at a single site or scale. Rather, natural ecology needs to be
assessed and restored across scales. Widespread implementation of green roof
technologies can set a foundation for mitigating and reversing environmental
deterioration of the Anthropocene, as well as, dramatically broadening our
response by providing new ways of thinking about ecological restoration. This
process will be greatly enhanced by an interdisciplinary team approach to
validate the robustness of the approaches underlying the restoration of
ecosystem processes.
Green Roofs for
Healthy Cities established the Journal of
Living Architecture in order to identify the state of the art in green roof
and green wall research, to identify the best in class, and share these
findings with as many professionals as possible. This book represents a seminal compilation of
research and technical knowledge about green roof ecology and how functional
attributes can be enhanced. Written by over twenty leading experts and
researchers in the field of green roofs, the narration covers in detail a
number of important topics rarely discussed. While documenting current
research, trends and theory, this book delves further to explore the next wave
of evolution in green technology, defining potential paths for technological
advancement and research.
This effort
represents an informed and progressive way of approaching our environmental
response to urban design. It makes a compelling case that the long-term
health and viability of our communities depend upon highly functioning green
roof ecologies that connect green spaces to create a resilient tapestry of
natural diversity spanning the urban landscape. Green Roof Ecosystems
will be an invaluable reference for individuals who have the desire to
implement ecologically conscious green roofs, such as planners, policy makers,
agencies, and professionals who have substantial interest in designing them. (i.e.;
landscape architects, ecologists, engineers, architects, biologists, and other
holders of environmental knowledge). Ecological intelligence expands the
context of life as it enlarges who we are as a person, and this book provides a
wealth of intelligence for those interested in the topic of green roofs.
Jeffrey L. Bruce, FASLA, LEED, ASIC, GRP
Kansas City, MO
