| Our urban infrastructure systems are stressed. The decay of water infrastructure is spurring demand for innovative solutions for stormwater management. Concurrently, the transition of predominantly coal-based utilities to renewable portfolios is slow, resulting in continuing adverse health impacts from air pollution. The need for emissions management and resilient water infrastructure in cities will further increase as the world's population continues to move to urban centers.; This dissertation explores the technical, economic, and policy opportunities for vegetated roofs as one solution to stormwater and energy emissions management. The objective was to explore policy strategies to integrate green roofs into emissions management using quantitative economic and physical-chemical modeling tools.; A net present value (NPV) approach was used to compare the cost of a conventional roof to a green roof accounting for benefits for stormwater, air pollution, and building energy conservation. Results indicated that, while a green roof costs 39 percent more initially, the 40-year NPV is 23 to 30 percent less mainly due to energy savings and potential health benefits from air pollution reduction. The impact of stormwater fees was minimal.; The benefit of green roofs to improve air quality is novel, and had to date not been explored quantitatively. A probabilistic, fugacity-based fate and transport model, SEDUM (Sequestering Emissions: Designable Uptake Model), was developed to assess the uptake of reactive nitrogen species (NO2 , NO, and HNO3). The model estimates uptake by vegetation and soil media, which were compared with dry deposition model results and water quality data. Under polluted conditions, a mean removal rate of 0.20 +/- 0.01 kgNO2/m2/y was estimated using SEDUM. For a 2,000 m2 roof, this translates into a health benefit between {dollar}640 and {dollar}2426 per year. Design parameters that impact pollutant uptake were identified.; Analysis of current stormwater and air quality policies showed that market-based incentives can close the cost differential once both stormwater and air quality incentives are considered. This work was sufficiently robust to demonstrate the economic and emissions mitigation potential to be included in best available control technology (BACT) consideration. Yet, market-based policy incentives are currently insufficient for widespread adoption. |
