Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Winter 2009 - (Page 31) WATER & GEORGIA GREEN ROOFS AND WALLS ARE TAKING ROOT IN GEORGIA AND NOT A MINUTE TOO SOON AS AMERICA’S TH FASTEST GROWING STATE FOCUSES ON GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTIONS AND INCENTIVES SUCH AS STORMWATER CREDITS TO ALLEVIATE PRESSING WATER CHALLENGES By Wayne King Sr. he buzz phrase “going green” is more than just talk in the State of Georgia as public officials, environmental stakeholders and developers look to sustainable building practices for the future of Georgians. In the last six years, green roofs have been popping up all over Metro Atlanta and are rapidly approaching the 100 mark and this is influencing other design. As for the city of Atlanta, it too is moving quickly to apply green standards to commercial development with a green building ordinance expected to have gone into effect early this year. When adopted, the new city ordinance will require Images courtesy of Wayne King.Sr.,ERTH Products LLC T all new high-rise buildings larger than 20,000square-feet to be held to new green standards by 2012 (but does not specifically refer to green roofs). All of this positive growth in the Georgia green building arena could not have come at a better time as population growth, coupled with the worst drought experienced in recorded history has played havoc with the state’s natural resources – most important of which is water. Georgia, the 5th fastest-growing state in the nation, has over 9.5 million people dependent on sources of clean air and water. Faced with the drought and an 18-year-long tristate water war between Alabama and Florida, it should come to no surprise that water tops Georgia’s list of concerns. Indeed, both water quality and quantity have been impacted by the rise in urban development and a significant increase in impervious surfaces. In fact, the increasing percentage of impervious surfaces in Georgia’s urban environment is a significant threat to properly functioning surface and groundwater systems. Pavement, roofs, and poorly functioning soil systems create extreme peak-runoff rates, drought-like summer stream flows and increased transport of pollutants into the surface water system. As self-sustaining ecosystems are converted to built-landscapes and the hydrologic cycle is permanently reshaped, LIVING ARCHITECTURE MONITOR WINTER 31
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