Blue roof

A blue roof is a roof of a building that is designed explicitly to provide initial temporary water storage and then gradual release of stored water, typically rainfall. Blue roofs are constructed on flat or low sloped roofs in urban communities where flooding is a risk due to a lack of permeable surfaces for water to infiltrate, or seep back into the ground. Water is stored in blue roof systems until it either evaporates or is released downstream after the storm event has passed. Blue roofs that are used for temporary rooftop storage can be classified as "active" or "passive" depending on the types of control devices used to regulate drainage of water from the roof. Blue roofs can provide a number of benefits depending on design. These benefits include temporary storage of rainfall to mitigate runoff impacts, storage for reuse such as irrigation or cooling water makeup, or recreational opportunities. Due to the density of urban development, there is a general lack of permeable surfaces in cities. This lack of area for stormwater to infiltrate back into the ground leaves cities vulnerable to flooding. A number of blue roof pilot projects have been implemented around the United States, the results from which highlight their efficacy in reducing stormwater runoff during and after severe weather events. While blue roofs do not remove pollutants from water by temporarily detaining it, they do reduce the load severe rain events place on storm sewers which stops emergency overflow from combined sewer systems from discharging untreated wastewater into rivers, streams, and coastal waters. A significant blue roof pilot project intended to evaluate the potential of the systems for mitigating combined sewer overflow impacts was conducted between 2010 and 2012 by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. The NYCDEP blue-roof projects are the first to utilize a novel passive blue roof tray design which relies on the lateral transitivity of non-woven filter fabric for drawdown control in a full scale pilot.