Excess water on a roof is a grave issue that affects many households during stormy weather. In addition to posing a number of inconveniences, rainwater on a rooftop enhances the problem of water wastage. Blue roofs (rain and domestic water collection systems) that are produced by Hanging Gardens collect, store, and reuse water, one of nature’s most precious resources. The technology provides a remedy to the described above ecological and architectural complications in an efficient manner.
Blue roofs offer an improved solution for gathering rain and wastewater for domestic and commercial use. The product also could potentially allow for efficient collection of water from showers and bathrooms, which, after cleaning, can be used to flush toilets and for agricultural irrigation. This modular block system is used to create a layer above a rooftop, a built-in platform of rainwater drainage, and collection system. The company’s product demonstrates an effective way to distribute and cope with excess rainwater.
Several means are utilized in the technology to secure the water-proof quality of the blue roofs. For instance, such obstructions and layers as dams, gravel, and custom-made coverings are used in the product to hinder water from penetrating a surface. Additionally, the company’s product is constructed with the usage of smart drains, valves, and pumps. Low-flow pipes are incorporated into the blue roofs to hold rain, and, subsequently, the excess water is kept in an area where it evaporates or is directed into a sewer. The company’s novel smart blue roofs are able to contain water during maximum rain storm periods. Once the storm is over, the Hanging Gardens’ system releases the rainwater into a specifically-designed for heavy rains disposal system. Moreover, the product’s description emphasizes that the water is discharged if certain conditions are met, such as the level of excess capacity. This method secures that water treatment facilities are not overflowed with the rain and can continue to perform their function stably.
The Hanging Garden’s innovative product, in addition to being eco-friendly in itself, in some cases constitutes a part of another green technology. Blue roofs and green roofs differ significantly, as the first does not incorporate plants into its water-filtration system; nevertheless, green roofs integrate blue roofs as a part of their vegetation irrigation. The company’s CEO, Anthony Mater, states that blue roofs are used in a St. Paul, Minnesota project in combination with green roofs, and underground storage.
The price of Hanging Gardens’ simple blue roof is significantly lower than that of an average green garden: per square foot, the cost of the product is around one US dollar. According to the company’s CEO, smart blue roofs are developed for areas that suffer from flooding and have rigorous rainwater codes and fees. Therefore, smart blue roofs do not form a part of every project as their cost is significantly higher than that of a regular water-proof roof.
The product designed by Hanging Gardens is not entirely a new installation and could be considered as based on a well-known technology. The innovative blue roofs seem to combine characteristics pertinent to both new installations and retrofitting. Roof water drainage has been a part of passive and active water collection and construction methods for a significant amount of time. Nonetheless, the increase in blue roof installations is quite recent and concurs with the first decade of this century. In the United States, as well as globally, blue roofs are on the rise, especially in large urban zones, where flat rooftops constitute a large percentage of the built surface. Projects similar to those that Hanging Gardens undertake spread extensively, repurposing and reforming cities’ rooftops, giving them a superior purpose.
The innovative side of the Hanging Gardens’ product comes from the computing system implemented in their smart blue roofs. The system’s principal purpose is to control optimization algorithms that constantly monitor real-time weather forecast data and other information that is gathered by its sensor monitors. Furthermore, Hanging Gardens establishes a network between buildings that have installed smart blue roofs that communicate with each other and maintain a data collection system, helping to predict and prevent flooding or the overflowing of water treatment facilities in a particular area. This product’s component accounts for the innovative side that distinguishes new installations.
LEED certification is an objective that a lot of facility managers and officers pursue to establish the sustainability status for their buildings and neighborhoods. Even though LEED certification concerns only buildings and certain types of territories and does not certify products and services, Hanging Gardens’ smart blue rooftops could help a facility or a district achieve the wanted status. The water efficacy LEED credit is designed to measure water usage validity – in this respect, the blue roofs could perform a function of eco-friendly water redistribution and a storage system, as the collected rainwater can be repurposed. Irrigation, pets and livestock, composting, fire protection, and washing vehicles require water, and the blue roofs could provide it for the outlined purposes. Since the credit of innovation accounts for sustainable design strategies, Hanging Gardens’ product could assist in scoring additional points with the imaginative usage of technologies, the computing system for example, which render a building more progressive. In this way, a smart blue roof is a technology that simplifies the procedure of green building certification and makes it more attainable.
The green or sustainable status of technology comes from its long- and short-term influence on the environmental quality of a territory where it is located. Energy efficiency, safety, and recycling potential are the elements that seem to warrant the green status to the blue roofs under consideration. Water recycling systems that the blue roofs potentially form a part of bring a number of eco-friendly advantages to a household or a facility, preventing pollution and diminishing the amount of water that otherwise would be discharged and wasted. Hanging Gardens’ blue roofs increase safety rates as their detection, and prognostic functions work to prevent some of natural cataclysms, such as floods, which affect the lives and well-being of wildlife, cattle, and humans. The blue roofs, as a green technology, offer means to oppose the consequences that climate change and pollution entail.
Nature modification is a process inherent to human essence and indispensable for the species’ current mode of existence. As societies become more complex, the state of ecology on the planet also deteriorates gradually. Hanging Gardens’ smart blue roofs aim to solve a comparatively small issue; nevertheless, these first steps are essential to achieve a more global objective. Blue roofs play a crucial role in coping with the problem of water wastage and local deluges by building municipal storm water management systems that can, possibly, safe lives and guard wildlife diversity.