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A recent thought experiment for the city of Seattle regarding green roofs. Consider the image above. Let us highlight the area we are looking at, a green roof off of 1st and Union in downtown Seattle, Washington. Now, the question I asked myself was, “Why would you settle for just a patch of green when you could have a system of living networks right outside your stoop?” Pushing the envelope further, “What if Seattle converted all the rooftops in the inner city into green roofs?”
Naturally, this lead me to an Alice in Wonderland stream of consciousness followed by a brief Google induced image and web search. Feel free to expand upon this list of questions (or half answers!) below.
- What kind of wildlife would be reintroduced? – Perhaps just ten eco-roofs would be enough to take 1 bird off the endangered or threatened species list.
- What could we harvest for food? – 2010 marks the beginning of code changes for the City of Seattle in regards to Urban Agriculture.
- Would there be a drastic change in the city’s Urban Heat Island effect? – It is hard think of one person who would not want to save money on air conditioning costs, reduce air pollution and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Would cleaner water enter into the Puget Sound?
- How much water would we save?
What if this wasn’t a dream and became a reality? What if Seattle truly became its namesake; The Emerald City?
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Special thanks to Bing Maps for the Bird’s eye view! They own the images I just splashed some paint on top.
