Green Roofs _Environmnetal Assessment

Environmental Impact Assessment

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!!11/26/2014 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Project Report !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Submitted By:

Komal Dixit

Zhuojiong Chen Seyedeh Zahra Mirzendehdel !

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!!ACKNOWLEDGEMENT !!!!!

This is to certify that this project is a team effort. And we are pleased to produce an Environmental As-sessment for a project. While building this document each team member worked on certain areas and are mentioned as below: !KOMAL DIXIT: Public Policy, Hazardous Materials , Water & Sewer Infrastructure, Solid Waste & Sani-tation !ZHUOJIONG CHEN: Land Use , Air Quality, Neighborhood Character, Construction Impacts !SEYEDEH ZAHRA MIRZENDEHDE: Socioeconomics, Open Space , Public Health, Noise !Each team member have tried their best to understand the concepts taught in class and analyze it with the project. Also have tried to do justice to their efforts. We would also thank our Professor to give us such a opportunity to work together and implement our work . !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! �3


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INSTALLATION OF GREEN ROOFS!!! !!!!!

! !!NYU Polytechnic Sustainable Picture !!!!!!! �4


!Abstract !!

The proposed action is of building Green roofs on NYU Poly, 6 Metro tech Building. NYU Poly is locat-ed in the heart of Brooklyn. The total gross building square footage at NYU-Poly’s Brooklyn campus is 689,000 square feet. NYU-Poly is also proud to be involved with the New York City Accelerator for a Clean and Renewable Economy (NYC ACRE), an incubator focused on supporting clean technology ori-ented companies to model environmental sustainability and smart growth. Thus with its sustainable plan, Green roofs are no wonder behind in line. !A green roof system typically consists of several layers including a waterproof membrane, drainage layer, growing medium, and vegetation. Green roofs are categorized by intensive and extensive. In the proposed action, the roofs to be installed will be an extensive type of green roofs. An extensive green roof system requires little maintenance and no permanent irrigation system. These systems are ideal for efficient storm water management with low maintenance needs. Extensive green roofs are very cost efficient.

Building green roof on NYU Poly, 6 Metro tech Building provides multiple environmental benefits as following:

• Green roofs can reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. • Green roofs absorb heat and act as insulators for buildings, reducing energy needed to provide cooling

and heating. • Green roofs can reduce heat transfer through the building roof and can improve indoor comfort. • Green roofs can reduce and slow storm water and also filter pollutants from rainfall. • Green roofs can increase service life for roof membrane, because they decrease the exposure of water-

proofing membranes to large temperature fluctuations, which can cause micro-tearing, and ultravio-let radiation.

• Green roofs are capable of reducing electromagnetic radiation penetration by 99.4% (Herman 2003). • An extensive green roof can reduce sound from outside by 40 decibels, while an intensive one can re-

duce sound by 46-50 decibels (Peck et al. 1999). • The proposed green roof is planning to produce organic vegetables and supply to the cafeteria in

school. !According to the assessment procedure, several environmental factors are discussed. They include land use and public policy, socioeconomics, open space, hazardous material, water and sewer infrastructure, solid waste and sanitation, air quality, noise, public health, neighborhood character, construction impacts. Environmental assessment is carried according to the CEQR manual & Federal, State and City level rules. In further we have included the mitigation strategies for any environmental impact for the proposed project. Though the project has no significant impact and according to the EPA rating system it falls in No Objection. !!!!!!!! �5


!Table of Content

!!!1. Abstract

2. Purpose & Need

3. Plan & Design

4. Land Use & Public Policy

5. Socioeconomics

6. Open Space

7. Hazardous Materials

8. Water & Sewer Infrastructure

9. Solid Waste & Sanitation

10. Air Quality

11. Noise

12. Public Health

13. Neighborhood Character

14. Construction Impacts

15. Risks & Alternatives/ Mitigation

16. Appendix

17. References

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!Purpose and Need

!NYU POLY prepared a complete climate action plan to comply with the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) and the PlaNYC Mayoral University Challenge. The docu-ment provides all the related data to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and then focuses on proposing the “climate action plan” required to meet the ACUPCC and University Challenge goals. The ACUPCC1 and PlaNYC Mayoral University Challenge demands GHG listing to report the different metrics during a number of years by applying various tools for analysis the data. NYU POLY registered to the ACUPCC program which targets the global climate challenges and to be part of network of higher education institu-tions that have aimed to reduce net greenhouse gas emission from their campus operations. ACUPCC seeks to advocate research and educational attempts regarding to climate change. This program imparts a framework for colleges and educational institutes to use it as a baseline for preparing their climate action plan reports. NYU-Poly has used the 2008–2009 fiscal year baseline to report its GHG emissions. The university challenge initiated at 2007 and targeted to decrease GHG emissions by 30% in a 10 years’ time period. NYU POLY has its own challenges regarding climate change and reaching climate neutrality.

The student enrollment is increasing and Poly is enlisting new faculties. The life span and quality of the buildings are requiring an improvement projects. As a leader in science and technology institute, Poly has to expand and upgrade its laboratories, which would lead to increase in energy consumption. These chal-lenges would work as a barrier for NYU POLY for attaining the climate neutrality but they also could rep-resent an opportunity to make smart decisions that would maximize Poly’s energy performance. Energy consumption in buildings is responsible for 75% of New York City’s greenhouse gas emissions, and it is estimated that 80% of these buildings would exist for the next 40 years.

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!The greenhouse gas emissions footprint is in NYU POLY priority list while the campus is facing its build-ing performance challenges. NYU POLY is committed to increase its building performances in an envi-ronmentally sustainable frame by renovation and applying energy efficiency improvement methods. NYU POLY has a strategic location at the heart of Brooklyn and that makes it susceptible to challenges for long term campus sustainability. NYU POLY received a grant offered by the New York State Energy and Re-search Development Authority (NYSERDA) and planned to promoting a combination of entrepreneurs, international companies, and innovative local businesses that are introducing solutions for climate change and energy consumptions while assisting the clean renewable energy and generating jobs in New York City. NYC ACRE (New York City Accelerator for a Clean and Renewable Economy) brings resources and strategic assistance for companies and businesses with concentrating on alternative energy and clean technology which would lead to a sustainable urban environment.

NYU POLY is committed to gain at least the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Silver standard or equivalent. The new building of the Science and Engineering will be based on LEED Silver standards. In addition, POLY is only purchasing an energy-efficient appliance which demands for an “ENERGY STAR” certified products. Also NYU POLY completed the ASHRAE Level II Energy Audits for all cam-pus buildings. The energy audits established and measured the specific energy improvements in all of the campus buildings which would conclude in a significant energy improvements and savings and GHG emission reduction. Some of the improvement in campus buildings are listed such as: specific renova-tions, lighting retrofit, applying LED lights, renovation of bathrooms, classrooms, laboratories, ventilation and exhaust system for laboratories, high efficiency equipment, heating and cooling systems, lighting- Occupancy sensor controls and daylighting controls, use of daytime lighting, energy efficiency lamps and lights, application of cool roof” for Dibner Library to reduce the energy consumption with high reflective surfaces and insulation to decrease heat gain. Application of cool roofs for Othmer building, upgrading the HVAC systems and building envelope retrofits. The list of applicable actions would continue and a constant monitoring and maintenance would be necessary to reach the goal of increasing energy efficien-cy and decreasing GHG emission.

Aside from all the possible actions and renovation which NYU POLY would take into accounts still here are other environmentally sustainable solution that could be implemented. The significant benefits of these methods would be reducing the energy consumption of buildings and consequently GHG emission reduction. One of these method would be implementation of Green Roofs which is the main goal of this project.

Some of the application of Green roofs are:

• Storm water management

• Air quality

• Energy consumption of buildings

• Urban heat island management

• Biodiversity and habitat

• Aesthetics and recreation

• Educational purposes

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!!!Nearly 1/3 of building energy consumption goes for ventilation, heating and cooling systems, indoor lighting and plug loads. Additionally, there is heat conduction via walls and roofs and also solar heat through windows in hot months of the year, would bring more heat into the building and causing more pressure on cooling systems.

Most of conventional roofs are heating up fast during summer days and cool off fast at nights but green roofs would not heat up that much during summer days and stay warm and keep the heat at nights. Ac-cording studies had been done, green roofs are approximately 30-40 F cooler at summer days but near 20 F warmer at nights. (Student Union, Univ. Central Florida)

The role of green roofs is to act as an obstacle and keep the heat at nights and also prevent entering addi-tional heat during day time. When buildings are heating up slower and less during summer time, it put less pressure in the cooling and ventilation system so less demand and less energy usage. Same scenario goes for saving heat in buildings at nights specifically at colder months of the year which would result in less heat consumption at day times. Basically, green roofs functions as an isolation to prevent heat loss of the building and also impacts the surrounding area by mitigating solar heat waves and decrease the sur-rounding environment’s temperature. Based on study done by University of Colombia in New York City (Solecki, Rosenzweig, et al., 2006) it is expected to green roofs decrease the average surface temperature by 0.8 C (1.4 F) if 50% of the city’s flat rooftops are covered by green roofs.

In conclusion, the energy performance of green roofs differs with various factors such as:

• The growing media, depth and moisture, plant coverage

• Characteristics of buildings, loads and the local weather conditions

• Significant effects of green roofs on heating and cooling systems in buildings

• Analysis of green roofs energy consumption demands for a baseline for comparison

• Green roofs role in mitigation of urban heat island is important but still needs further studies.

By mentioning all these factors above, still green roofs are good options to add to the NYU POLY sus-tainability action plan to assist the energy performance of the campus buildings and subsequently green-house gas emission reduction.

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PLAN

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Figure 3: Proposed Action Location

The New York City Department of Design and Construction, as the construction arm of the New York City government, is responsible for many of those roofs, and manages an annual budget of approximately 500 million dollars for building construction and renovation. All American manufacturers of roofing components for green roofs use recognized industry standards based on either American Society of Test-ing and Materials (ASTM) Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB), or International Organization for Standardization (ISO).NYU poly toward its sustainability plan introduces installing green roof at one of its building.There are cool roofs installed at other NYU Poly’s building. According to the research it is seen that per unit area, green roofs save over twice the energy as cool roofs, but since their cost is more than an order of magnitude higher, their paybacks are extremely long. The gross area is 2500 sq. ft. of Jacob’s Roof Top.

Long-term success with green roofs is dependent on proper system design and installation. The challenge lies in determining the right balance among the considerations – structure and soil depth; use and accessi-bility; vegetation assemblies (soil medium and plant material); modular units or mat system.

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!!As discussed, there will be extensive roofs on the building. Extensive green roofs consist of low vegeta-tion planted uniformly over the roof. They are the least expensive type of green roof, and are designed primarily to provide environmental and/or visual benefits. They are lightweight, low maintenance and usually inaccessible to the public. Extensive roofs are designed for maximum thermal and hydrological performance and minimum weight load, while being aesthetically pleasing. The plant material is typically comprised of drought-resistant low-growing species that are capable of withstanding hot, dry and windy conditions and have the capacity to store water within their foliage. As a result these types of roofs do not require mechanical irrigation systems and need only minimal maintenance.

The growing medium is a mineral-based mixture, ranging in depth from 2 inches to 6 inches, with a fully saturated weight load of 7.5 to 14 pounds per inch soil depth per square foot, resulting in 16 to 35 pounds per square foot.

!!!!!!!!!!!!Figure 4: Basic components of extensive green roofs.

The roofs installed are Continuous extensive systems. In specific because of its easy installation, they are visually seamless, are in warranty frame and have good water retention. The extensive layered system is designed to detain and retain rain and irrigation water, while preventing root rot by allowing airflow under and up through the multilayer system. This high level of air permittivity throughout the individual layers also aids in de-energizing air flow under the system thus reducing the chance of system uplift. This will help in not consuming water much. Precautions will be undertake for any kind of leak. The most suitable species for this roof is from the genus Sedum.

To be cost effective during design and implementation is often necessary and is done thoughtfully and without compromising the system performance for the life of the roof. Cost factors are generally project scope and building dependent. While designing one has to be cautious regarding dead loads. Dead Loads consists of static loading from structure and equipment. It includes snow loads, wind loads & concentrat-ed loads. Dead Load for layers is as follows:

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– Standard Roof: 10 psf – Drain Material: 3 psf – Saturated Media: 30.4 psf – Plants: 2 psf

– Total: 45.4 psf

Buildings use a tremendous amount of energy to cool interior environments, resulting in the release of large quantities of GHGs to the atmosphere. The thermal mass, shade cover, and evapotranspiration pro-vided by green roofs have a strong regulating effect on the temperature of underlying building roofs and interiors.On a hot, sunny day the surface immediately above a conventional rooftop can exceed ambient air temperatures by 90°F (50°C) or more,72 with much of that heat transmitted into the building below. By contrast, even on a hot and sunny day, the temperature of the roof surface below a green roof can actu-ally be cooler than the ambient air around it, greatly reducing the effects of the sun’s energy on the interi-or temperature of the building. As a result, green roofs reduce energy use and costs for indoor climate control and resulting GHG emissions by insulating and cooling individual buildings.

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!!!!!!!!The above graph indicates the temperature trend of different roofs. It clearly shows the temperature lowed for green roofs compared to conventional. The impact of green roofs on building energy consumption can be thought of as having three facets – total energy use, peak electric loads, and total energy cost. From the standpoint of total energy use green roofs perform best in colder climates in buildings which require night time heating. For buildings subject to high electricity cost, especially high peak electricity pricing, or demand pricing, the ability of the green roof to mitigate daytime peaks is especially valuable – both LAI (by reducing solar load) and soil depth (by increasing the insulation and thermal mass of the roof) contribute positively to the mitigation of peak electricity use.

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!The above chart indicates the energy savings and temperatures for installation of green roofs. There is a growing interest in the relative building energy and environmental merits of green (vegetated) roofing in comparison to highly reflective “cool” roofs. Claims of the potential energy savings of green roofs range from virtually no impact (DeNardo 2003) to 15% annual electricity savings (Wong et al. 2003).

It is seen that green roofs tend to maintain a localized air temperature below that of ambient air, allowing cooler air to enter the air-conditioning system and reducing costs and energy used for cooling.

1. LAND USE & PUBLIC POLICY !!1.a. Land Use: !In this section, the analysis finds that the proposed project would not have a significant adverse impact on air quality in study area. The proposed action is of building Green roofs on NYU Poly, 6 Metro tech Building. NYU Poly is located in the heart of Brooklyn. !!

! !Location for Green Roofs

Under CEQR, a land use analysis characterizes the uses and development trends in the area that may be affected by a proposed project, and determines whether a proposed project is either compatible with those conditions or whether it may affect them. Similarly, the analysis considers the project's compliance with, and effect on applicable public policies.

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!Officially adopted and promulgated public policies describe the intended use applicable to an area or par-ticular site(s) in the City. Some of these policies have regulatory status, while others describe general goals. A project that would be located within areas governed by public policies controlling land use, or has the potential to substantially affect land use regulation or policy controlling land use requires an analysis of public policy. !The New York City Department of Design and Construction, as the construction arm of the New York City government, is responsible for many of those roofs, and manages an annual budget of approximately 500 million dollars for building construction and renovation. Additionally, DDC is responsible for guiding City projects toward better, greener buildings within limited construction budgets. !NYU-Poly is also proud to be involved with the New York City Accelerator for a Clean and Renewable Economy (NYC ACRE), an incubator focused on supporting clean technology oriented companies to model environmental sustainability and smart growth. Poly is the recipient of a four-year grant offered by the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) and aimed at fostering an ecosystem of entrepreneurs, international companies, and innovative local businesses that are providing solutions to climate and energy issues while supporting the clean tech/renewable energy sector and creat-ing jobs in New York City. !The proposed action is a small-scale project. For small-scale, site-specific actions, a study area should generally include the project site and an area within 200 feet of the site’s boundaries. Our project locates in the NYU-POLY campus which is a sensitive situation. The study area should be expended to the whole campus. However, the location of this proposed project is the rooftop of Jacobs building. This rooftop does not permit for all students and employee. There is no any application on this rooftop. Therefore, this project would not affect land use. !!1. b Public Policy: !Public Policy is not a separate issue as mentioned in CEQR, it is included in Land Use & Zoning. The New York City Department of City Planning (DCP) often works with the lead agency during the CEQR process to provide information, recommendations and approvals relating to land use, zoning, and public policy. Public Policies includes are Urban Renewal Plans, 197a Plans, Industrial Business Zones, the Cri-teria for the Location of City Facilities ("Fair Share" criteria), Solid Waste Management Plan, Business Improvement Districts, and the New York City Landmarks Law. These policies have status , but are sub-ject to change according to the need of the project. !For this project of Building Green Roofs, NYU Poly do not have to consider any of these policies men-tioned above. Any planting proposed for the Green Roof must be approved by DOE/SCA. The first step is often to confirm whether green roofs are an accepted BMP according to the applicable storm water manu-al.The project is towards sustainability, CEQR talks a lot about it. Green roofs are often seen as an oppor-tunity for receiving sustainability label such as LEED; NYU whose main objective is to make the campus as sustainable as possible. This is one of their step towards that certification. Vegetated green roofs poten-tially help to earn up to 19 LEED points: 1-3 points towards water efficiency through storm water man-agement; 1 to 15 points for energy and atmosphere through reduced energy demand and reduced HVAC system size; 1 point for urban heat island reduction; and 1 point for the innovation and design process. !!!!!! �14


The City’s sustainability policies are guided by PlaNYC and are used to define sustainability for the pur-poses of CEQR. New York City set forth a comprehensive sustainability plan in 2007 called PlaNYC 2030. It aims to reduce the City’s greenhouse gas footprint, committing to reducing citywide carbon emis-sions by 30% below 2005 levels by the year 2030 with a series of initiatives, such as reduced City energy consumption and use of cleaner energy. PlaNYC encourages the installation of green roofs as a measure to control storm water runoff and avoid Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO). !The project under Department of Design & Construction follows Local Law 86 of 2005. It encourages cool or green roofs, to achieve a LEED rating of Certified or Silver. As the green roofs is one of the com-ponent of the Green building, certain laws related to them are also considered. There is a tax amendment law implied to Building owners called Green roof credit. They can apply for a year property tax abate-ment up to $100,000. The credit resulting to $4.5 per sq. foot of the roof area. Such laws are like incen-tives to city builders to encourage for green buildings. The applicant have to fill an alteration application that is signed by a Professional engineer (PE). Also it must be clearly mention that the roof top space does not obstruct fire-fighting access in accordance with Section 504 of NY Fire Code. New York State Law in larger cities (only NYC meets the size requirement) receives a one year tax credit of up to $100,000 (or $4.50 per sq/ft) for green roof installs that encompass at least 50% of available roof space. Law is effec-tive from January 1,2009 - March 15, 2013. !The Bloomberg administration wants to invest $1.5 billion over the next 20 years on new environmental techniques in storm water management. The plan calls for building infrastructures like green roofs, porous pavement for parking lots, rain barrels, wetlands, and depressions for capturing and retaining storm water before it reaches the sewer system. !Various grants have also been able to help defray the costs of green roof installations. A$5000,000 grant was awarded to aid in the design & construction of 35000 sq. ft green roof on Silver cup Studios in Queens, NY. !Along with the city, state rules and initiatives, there are other organizations who support green buildings/ roofs. One such organization is Earth Pledge, a non profit. They established a Green Roof Policy Task Force to bring together city, state and federal agencies to explore the public policy issues of developing green roofs in the City. Earth Pledge has launched Greening Gotham, whose mission is to transform NYC’s rooftops into a living network of meadows and gardens, by providing examples and a toolbox of implementation information. !State Green Building Construction Act will require that all new government buildings adhere to green building standards set by the New York Office of General Services. These rules will apply to all future construction and any major renovation projects. !NYU Poly’s initiative of building green roofs will eventually help in improving their status economically. The roof design is according to the specification which will take into consideration the dead weight for the building. This would avoid any damage to the building. The project has undertaken all the necessary requirements into consideration before to proceedThus the project has no adverse impact to environment, EPA is supportive and tree are no rules & regulations to follow. Direct financial incentives, reduced storm water taxes, density relief and regulatory measures, are some of the many green roof-policies which can be used to encourage Green Roofs and promote the fast expansion of the Green Roof market. !!!!!! �15


!2. SOCIOECONOMIC CONDITIONS

According to CEQR, the socioeconomic character of an area or region comprises its population, housing and economic activity. Any socioeconomic changes would happen if a proposed project directly or indi-rectly cause some changes to these components. If socioeconomic changes would not cause any signifi-cant impacts under CEQR, still they can stop the project if any changes in land use patterns, low income populations, the availability of goods and services may happen. Also if economic investments lead to changes in the socioeconomic conditions of the area although the changes would not be severe. At times these changes could be positive in one aspect and negative in another character. The CEQR, focuses on the proposed project may create any significant impact on these socioeconomic characteristics of the area and estimate a future changes in the area without the proposed project.

The assessment process for socioeconomic conditions of residential area should happen separately from the business area, however the proposed project may impacts both area in a very similar matter. The pro-posed project may cause to displace the residential developments or businesses and noticeable number of employees directly or indirectly.

The green roof project takes place in Jacob building roof top which is an institutional building so it would not create any type of impact on residential area and population and nor any type of displacement would occur during this project. Furthermore, this project would not involve any displacement or changes on any of the local businesses and would not require a large number of employees due to the small scale of the proposed green roof.

Benefits and Costs:

The cost of green roofs differ based on the components such as the medium, the roof membrane, drainage system, fencing or railing and covering if it needed, and the diversity of plants and their quality. One study at 2001 described that initial costs are starting from $10 per square foot (0.09 m2) for extensive roof and $25 per square foot for intensive roofs. Other studies estimate $15 to $20 per square foot. The cost of green roofs in the US may decrease as market demand is growing and contractors are getting more expe-rienced. An initial cost of green roofs are higher than the regular conventional roofs. Green roofs have a longer life expectancy than the other roofing materials and the total yearly cost of green roofs are closer to environmentally friendly roofs. Beside the construction cost, there is a maintenance cost as well to main-tain the plants on the green roofs. The level of maintenance is related to the type of the green roofs and basically the type of plants it being planted. The first year after installation of green roofs and plants would be more costly until plants are all grown up and mature. For both extensive and intensive green roof, maintenance costs from $0.75 to $1.50 per square foot. The cost of maintenance for extensive roofs declines after plants can cover the rooftop, but for intensive roofs the cost stays at the constant level.

A report on application of green roofs in New York City set a framework for a cost benefit analysis of green roofs. That framework showcases private and public benefits and costs. A green roof provides net benefits when is accompanied with public benefits such as decreasing temperature and storm water. A study from University of Michigan evaluated the costs of conventional roofs and green roofs with all of the benefits for public health. The installation cost for green roof would be $464,000 in comparison with $335,000 for a conventional roof in 2006 dollars. Although this difference in cost seems high but during its lifetime, green roof would save up around $200,000. Almost two-thirds of this saving would come from decrease in energy consumption.

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The NASA studies also showed that the average peak surface temperature on New York City rooftops is 34 F warmer than the rooftops with green roofs during day and 14 F cooler at night. Also indoor summer temperature for buildings with green roofs were 4 F cooler than other buildings. The NASA study also proved that only 61% of rainwater in New York City sewage system was captured and the green roofs absorbed 80% of rainfall in comparison with 20 % by conventional roofs. A regular extensive green roof can absorb one gallon of water per square foot of rooftop. The table below was based on studies done on City of New York ( PlaNYC) in 2008 and Colombia University collaborating with NASA in 2010. The study was based on the yearly benefits of green roofs at the Con Ed and Fieldstone locations. It describes the storm water absorption over the 40 year life cycle of a green roof in much lower price.

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!According to US General Service Administration, GSA study over a 50 years period:

• The installation and maintenance of the green roofs have a great impact on net present value (“ a measure of the potential profitability of an investment”) estimably $18 per square foot of roof

• However storm water savings and energy consumption reduction would make up for the cost of maintenance by producing benefits of around $19 per square foot of roof.

• Green roofs providing the long lasting benefits for the community and positive impacts on net present value by saving around $38 per square foot of rooftop.

!3. OPEN SPACE

An analysis of open space in CEQR described to determine if the proposed project would have a direct impact due to the eradication or modification of open space and or an indirect impacts resulting of over-taxing the available open space. An open space explained as publicly or privately owned land or property that is available for public for different purposes such as play, sports, leisure or it is protected and re-served as a natural environment. An open space analysis concentrates on officially classified existing or planned public open space. In this case, the New York City department of City Planning (DCP) and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) are responsible for any consultation, technical review and providing mitigation methods regarding open space. An open space could be public or private and it could contain active and or passive areas.

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Private open space defines as an open space which is not available for public on a regular basis or it is accessible for a certain users or members. Private open space is listed in the qualitative assessment of pos-sible open space impacts. Private open space includes different sections where one of those sections is: Yards or rooftop on recreational facilities which is used by the facility members, in particular public and private educational institutions which only members of an institute have an access to the open space. Only after compilation of proposed project impact assessment on public open space, the private open space is considered. If project have an impact on public open space, then the potential of private open space on reducing those impacts may be examined.

Proposed projects may or may not have a direct or indirect impact on public and private open space. Di-rect impacts happen usually when project would cause to alteration of open space and an open space would not have a potential to serve people and public. Any change in type and amount of public open space or restricted access to it, excess amount of noise, odors and shadow, emission of air pollutants, would be consider as a direct impact on open space which has to be addressed in open space analysis. In-direct impacts may appear due to overtaxes and overuses the capacity of the open space by the population which leads to significantly declining of the open space. According to CEQR, an open space assessment must be provided if a proposed project would cause 50 residents or 125 workers or more in an under-served area.

In this project, rooftop at Jacobs building is considered as a private open space of an educational institute. Any access to the Jacob building rooftop for students and regular employees is prohibited. With consider-ing the height of building, safety precaution must be taken into an account. Furthermore, the workers safety on the installation day and employee’s safety which could consist of some of NYU students, must be addressed.

Regarding the impact assessment for potential direct or indirect impacts of this project, the scale of the project must be considered. This project would not provide an opportunity for 125 or more workers and the area of the green roof would be limited to the specific section of the Jacob building rooftop. Thus, due to the size of this project, the impact assessment on open space would not be necessary.

4. HAZARDOUS MATERIALS

The goal for CEQR is to determine whether the proposed project may increase the exposure of people or the environment to hazardous materials, and, if so, whether this increased exposure would result in poten-tial significant public health or environmental impacts. According to CEQR, a hazardous material is any substance that poses a threat to human health or the environment. Substances includes heavy materials, volatile organic compounds, semi volatile organic compounds, methane, poly chlorinated biphenyls, pes-ticides, Dioxins. These are defined by regulations promulgated under the Federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

PCBs formerly used in electrical equipment and as a plasticizer. Construction of Green Roofs do not in-clude any of the mentioned materials. While building the roofs, care has been taken to avoid the pesti-cides & fertilizers. This automatically eradicates the concern of hazardous waste or materials exposed to human. The vegetation will be strictly ORGANIC.

As mentioned in CEQR, one has to be careful with the soil contamination. It is very important factor to consider with this project. There will be soil bought for the roofs. It is not directly related to soil contami-nation on ground, but precautions will be taken in order to get new soils. A soil-gas survey tests the unsat-urated zone (soil area above the water table) for the presence of VOCs or methane. This test is for ground soil. We will be checking and get the tested soil with no contamination. Soil components are tested ac-cording to ASTM sieve analysis and standard chemical and biological criteria, as would be typical for any manufactured soil.Plant material is specified according to ANSI Z60, as would be typical for all plant ma-terial.

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CEQR is concerned with the exposure of hazardous material and affecting human health. The project is installed whole with the concept of sustainability. The main goal is to reduce the energy consumption and not pollute the air. Access to roof top to public is strictly prohibited. As the building is the University Building, concerning student safety, nobody except the guard is permitted to the roof top. Also paint is mentioned as one of the hazardous material. Lead-based paint (LBP) was generally not allowed to be ap-plied inside residential buildings after 1960 in New York City. There will be very little paint applied only for the landscape. But this concentration of paint will just beautify the roof top. There is no exposure of paint to human.

CEQR has activities causing to increase in hazardous waste mentioned. Construction activities in existing buildings that disturb the building slab and sub-surface soils, demolition of buildings and structures that include hazardous materials, introduction of new activities or processes that use hazardous materials. are few mentioned. This project is not directly related to demolition of building structure, but does some ac-tivity on slab. The design for the green roof is carried according to the specification. It has taken into consideration dead weight and calculations are made.

The potential for significant adverse impacts from hazardous materials depends on the type of materials present, their levels, their location on the site, and whether exposure to the hazardous materials would be associated with the proposed project, either during or following construction. As we can see there is no human exposure, no specific usage of hazardous material, or any type of contaminated material. As a re-sult there is little or no likelihood of contamination, and therefore, there would be no significant adverse impacts resulting from hazardous materials, and no further investigation is warranted.

5. WATER AND SEWER INFRASTRUCTURE

CEQR addresses how projects may affect the City’s water and sewer infrastructure. Assess whether projects undergoing review may adversely affect the City’s water distribution or sewer system and, if so, assess the effects of such projects to determine whether their impact is significant. Potential mitigation strategies and alternatives are also presented for use when significant adverse impacts are identified. The City has a mandate to provide sufficient service to the community and meet increasingly stringent State and Federal requirements for improved water quality standards. Water and Sewer Infrastructure includes Water Supply, Waste Water Treatment and Storm water Management.

Only projects that increase density or change drainage conditions on a large site require an infrastructure analysis. A preliminary infrastructure analysis is needed if the project, would result in an exceptionally large demand for water.

The primary function of the Green Roof is to keep water from entering the school building. The Green Roof includes a roofing membrane that separates the potentially wet outside from the dry inside. Howev-er, the Green Roof , providing a planted roof environment of sedum or other hardy, low-growing ground cover that will not require irrigation. The water used by plants will be very minimal and it will not have an impact on water supply system. There will be rotational water dripping on plants. The depth of the roof will be 4 inches which will keep the plants moist and require minimum water content.

Roger’s Hall building will be impacted with the water consumption. The water used will be used from its system. For initial time frame, there will be additional load of water, but that will be negligible as com-pared. Once the roof is bloomed, there will be no additional water requirements, but precipitation will be sufficient.

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!Storm water & Sewer Infrastructure

50 percent of the City's land area is served by a combined sewer system in which the system collects both "dry-weather" wastewater (primarily sanitary sewage as well as wastewater from indus- tries) and storm water. The plants are designed to handle only twice their average design dry-weather flow. Green roofs are great for slowing down the speed of the runoff during events and can help clean the water in the process, before slowly releasing it to the system. The rain water that is absorbed and held by the planting substrate of the Green Roof will never enter the city’s sewer system, but rather will irrigate the plants, and evaporate into the atmosphere providing a cooling effect. An added benefit is that the quality of rain water that does drain through the Green Roof into the sewer system is greatly enhanced due to the filtering effect of the planting substrate. In particular with the green roof installation, there will be no impact on the sewer system of the city. Also there will be no changes made with regards to the sewer system of the building. Green Roofs at its best is way to decrease flow of water. While building the roofs, care will be taken to avoid the leakage . Additional drainage layer will be made available. The drainage layer is a network of boards, pipes and drains intended to remove additional water that might find its way to the waterproofing layer. It will allow enough moisture to remain and sustain plant life. Additional functions may be to act as an additional layer to the root barrier or membrane and augment the compressive strength and thermal capacity of the insulation layer.

There are various types of drainage layers and drainage components includes granular media (crushed stone, pea gravel or river rock washed and free of small particles), rigid drain board (often used for modu-lar systems), porous mats of polystyrene, plastic or organic material, roof drains,gutters, eaves and troughs, moisture retention mats & drain pipes. There will be granular media used along with the plastic to make it water proof to avoid further damages to the ceiling. The drain layer will be designed according to the specifications. The critical specification for a drain layer is the maximum volumetric flow rate, which is determined from rainfall data. Since the drain layer supports the planting medium and vegeta-tion, the compression strength would be specified.

The amount of impermeable surfaces in an urban environment is directly linked to volume and quality of storm water run-off. Because urban environments tend to have a low percentage of permeable surfaces, a larger volume of storm water is sent through various management components (e.g. pipes, ditches and tunnels) that eventually lead to rivers, streams and lakes. This increase of runoff volume as well as the increased frequency of runoff cause pollution and erosion in our rivers and streams.

Green roofs helps to slow and minimize storm water run-off as well as filter particulates, pollutants and

control temperature. The runoff diversion for green roofs is both a function of the design and the rain pat-tern of the local climate. Efficiency of water run-off diversion is typically related to the depth of the sys-tem and media composition. The graph below is one of the example analysis showing that the runoff is reduced and Green roofs help in storm water management.

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!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!figure 9: Graph indicating the storm water management.

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!As recommended, the lead agency will contact DEP’s Bureau of Environmental Planning and Analysis (BEPA) as early as possible in the environmental review process. BEPA will serve as DEP’s contact for information, questions, and assistance with the technical methodologies and conclusions. !!7. SOLID WASTE & SANITATION

!According to CEQR, a solid waste assessment determines whether a proposed project would cause a sub-stantial increase in solid waste production that would overburden available waste management capacity or otherwise be inconsistent with the SWMP or with state policy related to the City’s integrated solid waste management system.The City’s solid waste system includes waste minimization at the point of genera-tion, collection, treatment, recycling, composting, transfer, processing, energy recovery, and disposal. DSNY is the agency responsible for collecting and processing or disposing of MSW. DSNY is the agency responsible for collecting and processing or disposing of MSW. This waste includes all the recyclable waste too. There is a law generated for recycling called New York City Recycling Law, Local Law 19 of 1989, codi-fied at Section 16-301 et seq. of the Ad- ministrative Code of the City of New York. This law and the rules require households and generators of private carter-collected waste to source separate designated materials in specified manners. The law and rules also require recycling by City agencies and other insti-tutions.

The project will not generate any kind of waste as a deliverable. There will be construction waste at the starting phase of the project, which will be taken care by the contractor. This load will not be a burden to the city’s waste disposal unit. In particular, with the construction of roofs; the drainage layer and substrate material will be washed and cleaned for reuse. All the other under layer products used in build-up system along with modular trays(except drainage system) will be sent to the waste management system.There will be remains of plants occasionally which will be cleaned by a monitored person. He/She will be ap-pointed by NYU Poly. This waste will be very minute and will be categorized in Recycles.

Thus the project will not cause any significant waste and there will be less or negligible impact on the waste management system. The project in fact is designed where we have no waste after installation which will impact the system.Thoughtful use of recycled green roof components ensures that they do not have any trace of toxins and heavy metals, nor any material with fine grained residue, as both create chal-lenges for plant survival.

8. AIR QUALITY

This section considers the effects of the proposed project on air quality. The assessment of air quality concludes that the proposed project would not have a significant adverse impact on air quality in study area. !Ambient air quality, or the quality of the surrounding air, may be affected by air pollutants produced by motor vehicles, referred to as "mobile sources;" or by fixed facilities, usually referenced as "stationary sources" or by a combination of both. Under CEQR, the environment assessment would follow the Na-tional Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and New York State Ambient Air Quality Standards (NYAAQS). !New York City complies with the NAAQS for SO2, NO2, CO and lead, but is designated as a NAA for 8-hour ozone and PM2.5. New York County is also designated as a NAA for PM10. !! �22


!!!Overall, in environment assessment, the followings are air pollutants of concern. !• Carbon monoxide (CO) is produced from the incomplete combustion of gasoline and other fossil

fuels. In New York City, about 80 percent of CO emissions are from motor vehicles. • Hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides (NOx) are of concern because of their role as precursors in the

formation of ozone. The effects of nitrogen oxides emissions from mobile sources are therefore gen-erally examined on a regional basis.

• Lead emissions are principally associated with industrial sources and motor vehicles that use gaso-line containing lead additives. As newer vehicles replaced older ones, motor vehicle-related lead emissions have ceased to be a concern.

• Particulate matter (PM) is emitted into the atmosphere from a variety of sources: industrial facilities, power plants, construction activity, concrete batching plants, waste transfer stations, etc.

• Sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions are associated primarily with the combustion of oil and coal, both sulfur-containing fuels. Due to federal rules on the sulfur content in fuel for on-road vehicles, no significant quantities are emitted from vehicular sources.

• Non criteria Pollutants and odors !Comparing these criteria pollutants with the proposed project, the air pollutants of concern may be caused by motor vehicles, stationary sources and construction activity. Potential air quality impacts from construction activities may include dust emissions generated by the construction of a new facility; dust emissions related to sandblasting; emissions from construction equip-ment or emissions from construction-generated traffic or diversion of traffic because of construction ac-tivity. For green roofs, there aren’t many construction activities and heavy construction equipment. There-fore, there would not be significant impacts from construction activities. !From stationary sources, projects that would result in new uses (such as residences, schools, hospitals, parks, etc.) within 400 feet of manufacturing or processing facilities may result in potential significant adverse impacts. Cooling and heating the green roof, electronic will be used in this proposed project, and there would no stress for the electronic system.

In general, mobile source analyses consider projects that add new vehicles to the roads, change traffic patterns by diverting vehicles, include parking lots or garages, or add new uses near sources of pollutants, such as when a park is proposed adjacent to a highway. !The study area for mobile sources is directly related to the project's traffic study area. This usually in-cludes those intersections where traffic congestion is expected, since this is where air quality impacts are likely to occur. The location of proposed project is on the Area Concern of Brooklyn map mentioned in CEQR (Figure 10). However, only a small amount of materials need to delivery at the beginning of con-struction. What’s more, in order to avoid the peak hours, materials will be delivered in early morning, at night or on weekends.

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! Figure 10: Concern Area of Brooklyn Downtown !The proposed project produces all organic vegetables. It is a small project and short-term construction activities. There aren’t many construction activities and heavy construction equipment. The delivery of material would not influence the traffic. Considered all the construction activities this project has, there would not have significant air quality impacts. !9. NOISE

Unwanted sound is the simplest definition of noise. The high levels of noise can cause hearing loss but most of the noise levels related to environmental noise assessments are below the dangerous range. Al-though, noise levels that are not associated with hazardous range should not be missed as they could be responsible for stress related sicknesses, sleep disturbance, sense of well-being, headaches, inability to concentrate. These are some of the common issues in a highly populated and commercialized city such as New York City.

Regarding noise, CEQR aims to identify the proposed project possible impacts on sensitive noise recep-tors, with regards to impacts of the noise level inside of residential, commercial, and institutional facili-ties, and an open space and the impacts of ambient noise levels on the new sensitive possible uses stab-lished by the proposed project. If any significant impacts are classified by the project then CEQR de-mands those impacts to be mitigated and or prevented to the greatest extent possible.

The three most important sources of noise which effect the New York City environment are mobile, sta-tionary, and construction sources which they are explained in CEQR.

Mobile sources of noise are those noise sources that move in regards to a noise-sensitive receptor such as automobiles, buses, trucks, trains and airplanes. Each one has its own noise characteristics and related noise assessment process. Stationary sources of noise do not move regarding to a noise-sensitive receptor. The most common stationary noise sources according to CEQR include “machinery or mechanical equipment associated with industrial and manufacturing operations; or building heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems.” Moreover, the noise created by a group of people in a certain location such as concerts or stadiums or children in playground are also considered as a stationary source noise. The con-struction noise sources are a combination of both mobile (e.g., trucks) and stationary sources (e.g., power tools).

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In the green roof project there is no significant impact regarding noise in any phase of the project. In pro-posed project there is no need for heating, cooling and ventilation system or any type of construction which requires heavy machinery. The construction of green roof is limited to installing the bedding which already can be water proofed. An installation of the bedding, does not require so many workers and would not produce any disturbing noise. For the purpose of mitigating any possible noise during the installation and transferring the materials to the roof top at Jacob building, the contractor agreed upon to do the work over the weekend. Additionally, transportation of materials on the weekend would prevent any traffic in front of the Jacob building. The whole process of transferring materials, installing the bedding and check-ing the irrigation system can be done over the weekend to alleviate any disturbance and inconvenience for students and faculties.

!10. PUBLIC HEALTH

Public health is all the attempt of society to preserve and enhance the health and well-being of people via monitoring, assessment and observation, preventive methods for diseases, injuries, disorders and all the other health threats. The focus of CEQR regarding the public health is to classify any significant impact on public health caused by proposed project and then introduce measurements to alleviate the impacts.

There is a need for a scientific approach to understand the connection between the human health and the environment. Some studies had been done in different fields and show cased the relationship between poor air quality and hazardous materials, noise and contaminated soil and water resources and its negative impacts on human health. In New York City the responsible agency for a technical analysis of impacts on public health is the New York City Department of Health and Mental hygiene (DOHMH).

Any type of chemical and physical agents, biochemical stressors, and biological toxins that could be in-spected in air, soil, water, food or other environmental media are considered an environmental hazards. An epidemiologist would study the short term and long term exposure to environmental hazards and also prepare and pathway exposure, exposure assessment and health outcome to determine whether or not, the proposed project would have any significant impacts on public health and pinpoint the mitigation meth-ods.

Possibly exposed people would not consist of residential and recreational or transient populations due to institutional application of Jacob building. The number of workers may be working on installation of the green roof and later the numbers of maintenance employees are limited. Additionally there is no vulnera-ble populations such as children and elderlies are effected in this project.

In green roof project, all the effort had been done based on providing an organic green roof which is pes-ticide and herbicide free and there is no use of fertilizers. With regard to conducting an organic green roof and considering the scale of the proposed project which is limited, would not be any adverse impact on public health. Moreover this project would not have any impact on air, water and soil quality. There is a small chance of small insects and rodents which would be covered by a proper mitigation method to re-duce the chance of spreading any type of pests and creating health problems.

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!11. NEIGHBORING CHARACTER

This section considers the effects of the proposed project on neighborhood character. The assessment of neighborhood character concludes that the proposed project would not have a significant adverse impact on neighborhood character in study area. !Neighborhood character is an amalgam of various elements that give neighborhoods their distinct "per-sonality.” These components include land use, scale, and type of development, historic features, patterns and volumes of traffic, noise levels, and other physical or social characteristics that help define a commu-nity. Not all of these elements affect neighborhood character in all cases; a neighborhood usually draws its distinctive character from a few determining elements.

According to the City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR) Technical Manual, an assessment of neighborhood character is generally needed when the action would exceed preliminary thresholds in any one of the following areas of technical analysis: land use, urban design, visual resources, historic re-sources, socioeconomics, traffic, and/or noise.

The proposed project locates in the campus in downtown Brooklyn. The following figure 11 shows that this area is a commercial and institute neighborhood. The character of the area, which is in Brooklyn downtown, is a mix of auto/taxi/service traffic on the streets, as well as dense and essential transit ser-vices, primarily underground in the subway system. The greatest volume and most visible travel are by foot and subway. The people here include residents, students, and shoppers.

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Figure11: Neighborhood map

A significant impact identified in one of the technical areas that contribute to a neighborhood’s character is not automatically equivalent to a significant impact on neighborhood character. Rather, it serves as an indication that neighborhood character should be examined. The examination focuses on whether a defin-ing feature of the neighborhood's character may be significantly affected. !!! �26


!According to CEQR, gathering information through field visits, the proposed project would not have any potential to result in any significant adverse impacts in the following areas: land use, zoning, and public policy; socioeconomic conditions; open space; historic and cultural resources; urban design and visual resources; shadows; transportation; or noise.

Although the organic food produced by green roof will supply to the cafeteria, it won’t have significant beneficial impacts on neighborhood character, because the small green roof can only provide organic food for cafeteria in school.

!12. CONSTRUCTION IMPACTS

The CEQR Technical Manual calls for an assessment of construction-related impacts, with a focus on transportation, air quality, and noise, as well as consideration of other technical areas such as open space, historic and cultural resources, hazardous materials, and natural resources. As mentioned in Air Quality part, the construction activities would not affect the transportation.

Where the duration of construction is expected to be short-term, any impacts resulting from such short-term construction generally do not require detailed assessment. However, there are instances where a po-tential impact may be of short duration, but nonetheless significant, because it raises specific issues of concern. !Analysis of the effects of construction activities on transportation is often not required, as many projects do not generate enough construction traffic to warrant such analysis.

This construction activity is temporary. Although this proposed project locates in the commercial neigh-borhood, a few truck trips related. As mentioned in Air Quality part, the construction activities would not affect the transportation. However because of the special location, the mitigation, which is to avoid the peak hours of traffic, is provide. !Because there aren’t many construction activities and heavy construction equipment, there are not con-struction noise impacts. However, the location of the construction activities is school. Mitigations should be applied, such as noise barriers. The permitted hours of construction regulated by the New York City Noise Code and Department of Buildings (NYCDOB) apply in all areas of the City and are reflected in the collective bargaining agreements with major construction trade unions. It is anticipated that the bulk of construction activities would take place Monday through Friday, during the regularly allowed hours of construction which is between 7 AM to 6 PM (construction work to occur outside the permitted days/hours requires prior authorization). However that some overtime may be required to complete some time- sensitive tasks beyond the normal work day on weekdays and that some construction activities could also occur on Saturdays. In the event that overtime or Saturday work is required, construction permit variances typically allow construction between 9 AM and 5 PM. Therefore, according to class schedule of NYU-POLY, construction activities should process on one weekend.

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!RISKS/ ALTERNATIVES !

1. Structural load: !For existing buildings, structural integrity of the building will be verified prior to consideration of retro-fitting the building with a green roof. A multi-disciplinary team of structural engineers, civil engineers, architects and landscape architects be involved early in the process to ensure that the buildings structural characteristics and site conditions are appropriate for green roof installation. !There are various factors which have to be taken into consideration before installment. Understanding structural load (dead and live loads) during implementation is especially important. The determination of structural loading capacity is a combination of dead loads (all permanently placed parts of the roof above and below, including hardscape, plants, growing medium, features, etc) and live loads (inconsistent weight such as snow, people, temporary components and equipment). Carefully staging delivery and in-stallation of growing media is recommended to keep labor costs down and ensure the schedule stays on track. In order to avoid this one should carry out structural load bearing capacity analysis. Adding plants, growing medium, waterproofing and support layers, paving material and, most importantly, water load, can drastically increase the amount of weight being supported by a roof, which may include mechanical equipment, and snow loads in winter. When fully saturated and with mature plant cover, a thin extensive green roof can weigh about 13 pounds per square foot. A more typical extensive roof with 3 to 4 inches of growing medium weighs 17 to 18 pounds per square foot. !2. Leakage: !There is also a chance for damaging the building ceiling due to water leakage through the roof. It will have huge impact on the building, deteriorating the strength of the building. This has to be also taken into consideration. In order to avoid this a ‘walk through’ has to be conducted with the roofing consultant and the general contractor prior to installing the membrane. It is imperative that the deck surface is prepared properly before installing the membrane. After membrane installation and prior to installation of all additional green roof system layers, a membrane leak detection test should be conducted to ensure the waterproofing membrane doesn’t have any leaks. The membrane test can help pinpoint design and construction errors and helps maximize owners protection under the terms of the roof contract and roof warranties. This test ensures that the roof has no leaks and is free of hidden defects in both waterproofing and flashing systems. Electronic leak–detection systems can be used to help detect and monitor leaks before substantial damage occurs. These systems add to the initial cost of the installation but can be a lifesaver for finding and correcting problems that may occur. Types of flood tests usually used for leak detection are flood test (typically 2” of water is temporarily retained for 24-48 hours to determine effectiveness of the water proofing system) and flowing test (flowing water continuously over the surface of the waterproofing membrane for a minimum of 24 hours without closing the drains or erecting dams). Other strategies for detecting leaks include electric field vector mapping, infrared (IR) thermal imaging, nuclear testing, capacitance test and moisture sensors The most critical component of a green roof, or any roof, is its ability to prevent water from entering the building. The waterproofing membrane prohibits water from penetrating the building while also facilitat-ing run-off. It is comprised of a material able to withstand hydrostatic pressure (ponding water) for ex-tended periods of time. The National Roofing Contractors’ Association has developed guidelines for waterproofing when used in conjunction with green roof installations. !!! �28


!!!3. Irrigation: !There will be plants grown on the roofs, there will be additional load of water supply to the building water system. There will be water requirements weekly for the roof top. Though the system involves drip irriga-tion; it is an irrigation method that saves water and fertilizer by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either onto the soil surface or directly onto the root zone, through a network of valves, pipes, tubing, and emitters. It is done through narrow tubes that deliver water directly to the base of the plant. The impact on the water system will not be very high, but definitely there will be water demand. As the green roof is an intensive vegetative cover, there wouldn’t be high water demand, but it would be one of the high risk zone factor to consider. Maintenance of an extensive roof is limited to watering in the first year during the plant establishment period and occasional weeding of invasive species for 3-4 years following installation. The alternatives for this excess water would be to collect grey water from the cafeteria and use it for the plants. This would be an additional nutrient for the plants to grow. This will be not chemicals and will stick with the Organic goal. The collection of water would be included in the maintenance of roof top weekly. This will not increase added personnel as well.

!4. Noise: !There will be no significant noise pollution created due to this project. Only at the constructional phase, noise would be possible. This will not even fall in the noise level. There will be noise during the installa-tion and fixing of the roof. Apart from that there is no noise in the project. Also in order to lessen the im-pact, the construction will occur during the weekends. When most of the school is not working. This will avoid any impact on students and faculty. !Instead a green roof can reduce the noise level within the building by 40-60 decibels. Such a reduction, coupled with other devices, can make buildings that are internally non-compliant with OSHA standards conform to sound quality levels. The thickness, plant type, growing medium and plant coverage can influ-ence the effectiveness of the green roof to reduce noise levels. !5. Weeds, Rodents, Insects: !With growing of plants, it is likely an habitat for insects and rodents. NYC is no wonder already stressed with the rodents issue. So this project will be an invitation to that trouble? ? Vegetated roofs as habitat have mostly operated under the “field of dreams” premise: “If you build it, then they (wild species) will come.” Habitat creation is not usually the priority when designing vegetated roofs, and very few systems are designed to maximize biodiversity. Because most vegetated roofs are de-signed to enhance general biodiversity, rather than to provide habitat for target species, rapid assays could conceivably provide adequate descriptions of biodiversity.The presence of wild species at sites is likely influenced by geographic location, plant installation methods, and maintenance practices. According to the data, there would not be very huge increase in insects as the premise is not susceptible to insects. There will be precautions taken if any by keeping propellent spray and used during maintenance. !!!!!!!! �29


6. Safety & Electrical Accidents: !There is very minute chance of occurrence of any accident. The building is an university building and with its rules, no one is allowed on the roof top. This cancels out the risk of any fatalities. Also the per-sonnel who would install the green roof, will be experts and safety measures will be taken into considera-tion. This is the least to occur. !In order to avoid the electrical damage or loss due to leaks or affinity with water, insulation is required by code in the building industry and conserves energy through reduced heat loss or gain. The effectiveness of insulation is measured in its R-value and is a measure for how well a certain material resists thermal in-fluence of heat or cold. In winter, insulation can prevent heat loss and help maintain a consistent soil tem-perature in the frequent freeze/thaw cycles as well as reducing the demand for air conditioning in the summer. Insulation can be installed under the structural slab, right below the membrane or above the membrane as indicated in the graphic. When insulation is installed in this location, the assembly is often referred to as a protected or inverted roofing membrane assembly (IRMA) !7. Constructional Waste: !The construction of green roofs have very less waste generation. It will be very limited to the installation period. !!Following is the matrix developed to categorized the risk associated with the installation of roofs.

Figure 8: Matrix !!!! �30

Structural Load Damage

Noise Pollu-Safety Electrical Accidents

Weeds, insects, rodents,etc.


In order to understand the potential impact of the project to environment, there are various methodologies available to determine its consequences. A risk matrix is created above indicating all the possible risk in the project. The matrix rates the impacts as HIGH , MEDIUM, LOW. This rating is made according to the judgement and severity of its impact. Also the occurrence of the event is taken into consideration. This type of analysis is termed into Qualitative Analysis, which help to determine the immediate risks and measures to be taken. This helps in evaluating the impact understand the risk of that project. Looking at the matrix it is very much clear that we don’t have much of high risks to consider. The project has no sig-nificant impact and very much environmentally friendly. !The project according to consideration falls in Type 2 category. Type II actions are those actions, or class-es of actions, which have been found categorically to not have significant adverse impacts on the envi-ronment, or actions that have been statutorily exempted from SEQR review. They do not require prepara-tion of an EAF, a negative or positive declaration, or an EIS. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! �31


!!APPENDIX A: !

CHECKLIST FOR CONSIDERATIONS BEFORE STARTING A GREEN ROOF !!1. Climate and geographical location/wind uplift during and after construction !2. Structural analysis including building movement !3. Snow loads and water retention loads !4. Exterior and interior temperature, humidity and use conditions !5. Green roof system type including overburden !6. Green roof waterproofing membrane !7. Leakage !8. Slope and drainage !9. Type and condition of growing medium !10. Type and amount of insulation, protection and drainage needed !11. Worker safety !12. Local code requirements !13. Compatibility with adjacent building and/or system components !14. Construction sequence !15. Construction traffic !16. Accessibility and building configuration !17. Odor generated by certain system application methods !18. LEED™ considerations (LEED for Commercial and Residential have different point value !19. Future maintenance of all green roof components (vegetation, furniture, HVAC, drains, etc.) !20. Potential future building additions !!!!!!!! �32


!!APPENDIX B: !

GREEN ROOF MAINTENANCE CHECK LIST !The first 2-3 years require most frequent attention until such time as the plants provide complete coverage and develop full root systems. Facility managers should consider engaging a landscape maintenance com-pany on annual contract to provide routine or specialized maintenance. A green roof maintenance manual and/or maintenance agreement should be carefully composed for any green roof project and it should be taken into consideration all the components and details for each indi-vidual project. A typical maintenance manual and/or maintenance agreement should, at a minimum, address and include the following: !# PRUNING How often will plant material be pruned and dead headed? Will clippings and dead leaves be composted? Where? !#WEED CONTROL The time to prepare for the oncoming of weeds is in the dormant season by applications of pre-emergence applications. How often will planters be manually weeded? !#CLEAN UP How often will drainage outlets, water features and filters be cleaned? How often will entrances, planter edges, paths, etc be cleaned? !#MAINTENANCE OF FURNITURE, PATHS, DECKING, PLANTERS and RAILINGS, ETC What products are recommended for upkeep of planter edges, furniture, decking, etc? What products are NOT recommended due to potential chemical effect on other components of the roof assembly? What are specific recommendations for what tools to use (and not use) for the upkeep and maintenance? Where are maintenance tools, ladder, hoses, security harnesses and other equipment stored? !#WATERING How will the roof plants be irrigated – hand watering and/or irrigation system? How frequently will the roof plants be irrigated – during the summer? Will there be hand watering during the winter? How frequently? How often will the controller system and operating system be checked? Are irrigation systems installed with a back-flow preventer valve that can be drained in case of a freeze? Are there any specific requirements for upkeep and clean-up of water features? What is the typical lifespan of plants used on the green roof? !#SEASONAL RECOMMENDATIONS: Are there recommendations for or against seasonal soil amendments and/or adding mulching material? How often will biomass be removed if needed? How often will control burning be conducted if needed? !#GENERAL INFORMATION: Create and keep updated a contact list for all parties involved in the design, implementation and mainte-nance of the green roof.

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!!!REFERENCES: !!

* "2007 LID Conference.” !* Technology, Inc. © Conservation, and 10/. Green Roof Handbook !* National Decentralized Water Resources Capacity Development, and Project (Ndwrcp) Research Project. !* Layout, • Sketch General Structural, • Determine Roof Loading, • Determine Required Lumber Dimen-sions, and • Transfer Load Down The S. • Landscaped Roofs: – Extensive – 20 Psf Live Load !* "Plant Connection, Long Island NY, Green Roof Legislation, Policies and Tax Incentives." Green Roof

Legislation, Policies and Tax Incentives. !* Part 638: Green Building Tax Credit. !* "THE COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK." The Phi Beta Kappa Key 2.1 (1913) !* Typical Green Roof. NYC Parks Green Roof !* Executive Acknowledgements, Honorable, and Michael R. Bloomberg. DDC COOL & GREEN ROOF-

ING MANUAL !* Green Roof Incentives | A 2010 Resource Guide !* Green Roofs in the District of Columbia. !* Green Roofs for Existing School Buildings !* "Green Walls Benefits - GRHC WEBSITE." !* "What Is a Green Roof—Technical Preservation Services, National Park Service." National Parks Ser-

vice. U.S. Department of the Interior !* "Build a Living Roof / Green Roof." Instructables.com. !* "Stormwater Management - Green Roofs.” !* 2003, The Construction Specifier August, and No.8 Vol. 56. Green Roof Specifications and Standards !* 2013 Annual Green Roof Industry Survey April 2014 !!!!!!!! �34


!!!!!* "Urban Habitats: Vegetated Roofs as Reconciled Habitats: Rapid Assays Beyond Mere Species

Counts." !* "Plant Connection, Long Island NY, Green Roof Legislation, Policies and Tax Incentives." !* Reducing Urban Heat Islands: Compendium of Strategies. Washington, DC: Climate Protection Part-

nership Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2008. !* Administration, National Aeronautics And Space. NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space. !* US EPA, State And Local Branch, Climate Protection Partnerships Division. Energy Performance of

Green Roofs: The Role of the Roof in Affecting Building Energy and the Urban Atmospheric Environ-ment: EPA Heat Island Reduction Program Webcast !

* "Report from the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University." Bulletin of the American Group. International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works

* "Urban Habitats: Vegetated Roofs as Reconciled Habitats: Rapid Assays Beyond Mere Species Counts." Urban Habitats: Vegetated Roofs as Reconciled Habitats: Rapid Assays Beyond Mere Species Counts. !

* "Original Green Values Calculator." Green Values Storm water Calculator. !* R:12-06-B, June 2012. Looking Up: How Green Roofs and Cool Roofs !!!

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Documents

Green Roofs _Environmnetal Assessment