Intensive Extensive Green Roof

Extensive green roofs sedum roof systems extensive green roofs are designed to be low maintenance lightweight systems with no general access.

Intensive extensive green roof.

Extensive green roof an extensive green roof system is characterized of its vegetation ranging from sedums to small grasses herbs and flowering herbaceous plants which need little maintenance and no permanent irrigation system. Besides the visual impact of an extensive green roof they also provide a natural habitat for birds and insects. To start with take a look at the most simple family of green roofs. A 2006 study by the university of michigan comparing costs of conventional and green roofs showed that on average installing a green roof costs about 22 00 sq.

Although there are no precise definitions of them an extensive green roof has a shallow growing medium usually less than six inches with a modest roof load limited plant diversity minimal watering requirements and is often not accessible. For a conventional roof. Typically they have thin layers of substrate the growing medium to keep depth and weight to a minimum. From a distance an extensive sedum roof can be mistaken for a grass field.

Intensive green roof garden roof roof garden an intensive green roof system is characterized by its variety of vegetation ranging from herbaceous plants to small trees with professionel maintenance and advanced green roof irrigation systems. You can compare an intensive roof to a normal garden and this is why an intensive green roof is also known as a roof garden or garden roof. A typical growing medium depth of an intensive green roof is 6 inches or more. Extensive green roofs traditionally support 50 120 kg m 2 10 25 pounds per square foot of vegetation 45 while intensive roofs support 390 730 kg m 2 80 150 pounds per square foot of vegetation.

Gardens and parks on roofs can store a great deal of water and are therefore good sustainable urban drainage systems suds for stormwater management. Intensive systems allow the designer to create a park like setting so they are the best option for roof gardens that will be occupied. They fall into three main categories extensive intensive and semi intensive. Intensive green roofs require the deepest soil and have the greatest impact on the structural design but they also accommodate all types of plantings including large shrubs and trees.

The depth of an intensive green roof ranges from 15 cm to as much as 150 cm and can easily weigh as much 300 to more than 1500 kg m2. Urban agriculture on green roofs would be considered an intensive green roof as they need regular maintenance relatively deep soils and a certain amount of irrigation. The growing medium depth for an extensive green roof system is typically 6 inches or less. Intensive green roofs have more soil and a deeper growing medium sometimes several feet that can support a more diverse plant selection including small trees.

8 to 20 per square foot. Green roofs can be categorized as intensive semi intensive or extensive depending on the depth of planting medium and the amount of maintenance they need.