Covering the roof of a building with soil and vegetation can look beautiful, but that’s not why cities across America are having green roofs installed on their buildings. As climate change continues to create more intense storms, green roofs are a good way to prevent flooding by stopping storm water from reaching the ground in the first place. The soil acts as a sponge to rainfall, with one study estimating that a green roof can absorb as much as 61 percent of annual rainfall on a building. And by reducing runoff, you stop less water from picking up oil, trash and other pollutants from roadways, which then get pushed into sewers.
Green rooftops are helping U.S cities prevent floods
More of Today's Solutions
Scientists build first fully human bone marrow model to revolutionize blood d...
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In a transformative leap for regenerative medicine, scientists have developed the first entirely human-engineered bone marrow system. This ...
Read More7 cold and flu season mistakes doctors want you to quit making
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM You’ve heard the warnings: cold and flu season is no joke. But despite our best intentions (and fully ...
Read MoreThree ways we can repurpose closed department stores
40 percent of US department stores have closed their doors in the past five years, but the question remains: what do we do with ...
Read MoreHubble takes beautiful image of galaxies “dancing”
The Hubble Space Telescope ventured into space over three decades ago in 1990, and has observed around 50,000 celestial bodies to date. During this ...
Read More
