Treatment performance of an extensive vegetated roof in Waterloo, Ontario

Abstract

Vegetated roof technologies are used as treatment measures to mitigate the effects of urban stormwater. A mass balance approach was used to assess the treatment performance of a vegetated roof located on the City Hall in Waterloo, Ontario. The vegetated and control roof sections were instrumented to measure precipitation, storage, and outflow for 18 storm events from June to October, 2006. Concentrations of suspended solids, total phosphorus (TP), and SRP (SRP) in precipitation and roof (vegetated and control) runoff were measured. A total of 155.6 mm of rain fell during the study period. The vegetated roof retained 64.5 mm (43.9%) of the total rainfall while the control roof retained approximately 5.1 mm (4.0%). For individual rain events, the vegetated roof retained an average of 3.5 mm (47.6%), while the control roof retained approximately 0.3 mm (4.7%). Water retention varied with storm size, season, and frequency of storm events. The vegetated roof retained 80.1% of precipitation for storm events ≤3.5 mm, and 34.9% for storm events >3.5 mm. TP and SRP concentrations from the vegetated roof were significantly higher than either the precipitation or runoff from the control roof. © 2009, CAWQ.