Examining the distribution of green roofs in New York City through a lens of social, ecological, and technological filters

Green roofs provide multiple benefits including reducing the urban heat island effect, absorbing stormwater and air pollution, and serving as habitat for wildlife. However, many cities have not taken advantage of green roofs as a nature-based solution. In New York City (NYC), approximately 20% of th...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Michael L. Treglia, Timon McPhearson, Eric W. Sanderson, Greg Yetman, Emily Nobel. Maxwell
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Resilience Alliance 2022-09-01
Series:Ecology and Society
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol27/iss3/art20/
Description
Summary:Green roofs provide multiple benefits including reducing the urban heat island effect, absorbing stormwater and air pollution, and serving as habitat for wildlife. However, many cities have not taken advantage of green roofs as a nature-based solution. In New York City (NYC), approximately 20% of the landscape is covered by buildings, thus rooftops present a substantial opportunity for expanding green infrastructure. Spatial data on green roofs are critical for understanding their abundance and distribution, what filters may drive spatial patterns, and who benefits from them. We describe the development of a green roof dataset for NYC based on publicly available data and classification of aerial imagery from 2016. Of the over one million buildings in NYC, we found only 736 with green roofs (
ISSN:1708-3087