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Terraforming the new economy

By Geoff Wilson - posted Wednesday, 2 May 2007


Australian cities can be “terraformed” so that they become part of a climate-change response, rather then being a cause of it.

Terraforming is "Earth-shaping" of a planet, moon, or other body. It is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying atmosphere, temperature, or ecology to resemble those of Earth in order to make it habitable by humans.

In this context the term describes the transformation of a city’s built environment by sowing its wasted space - its roofs and walls - with growing plants, so that it more closely resembles a rural countryside in terms of environmental advantages. Terraforming is a convenient term for a most convenient truth.

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Terraforming is not entirely new. The practice of “sod roofing”, using slabs of growing turf to build a roof for one’s house, has been going on in Europe for thousands of years. What is new is the dramatic upsurge in interest in developing it to suit the urban landscape of the 21st century and in the sophistication of the techniques now being used.

North America and Europe now have 15 green roof infrastructure national associations. They consist of urban planners, built-environment educators, engineers, architects, horticulturalists, developers, specialist builders and municipal government.

Their international organisation is the World Green Roof Infrastructure Network (WGRIN), which next meets early in May, 2007 in Minneapolis, United States, to launch a worldwide campaign that aims to lead a global trend to terraform much of the world’s built environment.

Terraforming is demonstrably good for the economy. Australian built-environment professionals can team with Australian primary producers for new business opportunities. Both can specialise in the nascent urban greenery market.

Australia has formed a member organisation of WGRIN - Green Roofs for Healthy Australian Cities. WGRIN plans to include many Asian, African and South American countries in its work - notably China and India. This has significance for our credibility as a player in the new terraforming world economy that is emerging as a response to climate change.

Green roofs and walls of terraforming can be retrofitted or designed in new construction. Design varies according to roof load and slope, solar aspect and budget. Two types of green roofs are favoured - extensive (low profile) and intensive (high profile). A combination of both is also possible.

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Australia made a serious start in green roof development with the construction of the new Parliament House in Canberra in the 1980s. Its three hectares of lawns on a concrete structure should have triggered much more interest among urban designers than they in fact did.

Quarter of a century elapsed before Australia began serious green roof development. In February 2007 a group met to develop guidelines and regulations for green roof and green wall structures. These have four important criteria:

  1. buildings for green roof and wall terraforming must be made water-tight, with no root penetration;
  2. appropriate species of hardy plants must be chosen and established on well-designed substrates;
  3. each green roof and green wall plan must have a sound integration of professional expertise in both water-proofing and horticulture - plant selection, substrate choice, plant establishment and plant maintenance; and
  4. each building approval for green roofs and walls must have a long-term maintenance plan for both the waterproofing and the greenery.

The major benefits of green roofs and green walls regarding climate change are:

  • lower city temperatures and energy savings of at least 7-8 per cent; and
  • storm-water management. Reduced runoff of rainfall at peak times enables drainage infrastructure to cope with extreme events without massive and costly upgrades.

Urban heat island effects can sometimes be 5-10C above nearby rural temperatures. The City of Toronto estimates that having 8 per cent of its buildings green-roofed would lower its heat island effect by up to 2C.

In Australia lower rooftop temperatures from vegetated roofs and walls mean that air entering air conditioners will be up to 5C colder than air from a traditional roof, saving large amounts of energy now used for cooling.

Other benefits of green roof and wall terraforming include air and water cleaning, longer roof life and lower maintenance costs, noise and electromagnetic insulation, visual beauty, habitat for songbirds, fire resistance, food production, new sources of income from the building and a more valuable building. The plants, being permanent, also contribute by locking up carbon dioxide.

Many Australian plants from coastlines and inland areas are well suited to planting on green roofs and green walls because they are tolerant of heat, cold, drought and wind. These native plants represent a new regional business opportunity as green roof retrofits and new designs expand. A global export market is expected to develop as terraforming catches on worldwide.

The prospect of an entirely new horticulture-based industry in Australia deserves consideration by all levels of government as an economic offset to the inevitable costs of countering climate change - as well as a way to cool and beautify the urban landscape.

This will generate new careers and new business for urban planners, architects, landscape architects, horticultural and landscape contractors, builders, roofers, developers, and building owners, as well built-environment regulators, researchers and academics.

Green roofs and walls are thus a wide-ranging convenient truth worth grasping in a federal election year.

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First published in Australian R&D Review on April 7, 2007. It is republished in collaboration with ScienceAlert, the only news website dedicated to Australasian science.
 
Further Information: www.urbanag.info, www.greenroofs.org.au, www.nettworx.info. Also: www.greenroofs.org (Canada) and www.greenroofs.com (United States).



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About the Author

Geoff Wilson is president of Green Roofs for Healthy Australian Cities, www.urbanag.info. He has been an agribusiness journalist since 1957.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Geoff Wilson

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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