Water, water, everywhere….
Posted: August 19, 2009
It poured Tuesday afternoon at the Ag Progress Days site. While we waited out the deluge in the College exhibit building, I and about 75 others had the chance to really look at the displays.
Rob Berghage talking about the green roof exhibit.
Our theme for the building this year is, ironically, water. I think this is a critical topic; I’ve said to many audiences that I firmly believe that water is the next generation’s oil.
The living roof exhibit, put together by Rob Berghage’s class, is a site to behold. As water was sheeting off the roof of the building, I reflected on the role of a green roof in storm water management and how that can influence not only energy efficiency in the building but also water quality downstream – it is a way of taking what might be an impervious surface (a building) and giving it many of the properties of the original vegetated soil. The plants on the roof absorb water during a storm event and give it back in the form of evaporation later. Can’t make it to Ag Progress Days at Rock Springs on either Wednesday or Thursday? Check out the green roof on the second floor of the Forestry Building on the Penn State University Park campus.
Oh, there were lots of other exhibits in the College building, but the green roof had plants in bloom. I’m an entomologist – I was watching the pollinators visiting the flowers!
