Identifying the Potential for Intensive Green Roof Farming in New York City
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Date
2019-06-18
Authors
McComas, Sierra
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Abstract
Climate change, capitalism, globalism, densification of cities, and the rise of large
scale monocrop farming have created an environmental landscape of food instability and a lost
opportunity for human connection to and through food, especially in dense urban landscapes
like New York City.1 One solution to cultivate healthy human connections with and through
food, while also addressing economic and environmental pressures is through the practice of
rooftop farming. This research presents a guide to selecting potential sites for rooftop farm
development in NYC and what design typologies might be implemented. This work incorporates
the three elements of a sustainable business through the lens of the triple bottom line (people,
planet, and profit). This work uses a three phase process of GIS analysis and ground truthing,
typological classification schema via site visitation of case studies, and research by design to
produce potential projective designs pulling from the locations identified through GIS and the
typologies discovered. Through these methods, thousands of sites and many design potentials
were identified and categorized with relation to how they most strongly relate to one of the
three motivational elements of the triple bottom line and how each element influences a rooftop
farm development. This work intends to serve as a resource that will lead to the expansion and
proliferation of rooftop farming in urban environments.
Description
184 pages. Examining committee chair: Jacques Abelman
Keywords
Urban agriculture, New York City, Green roofs, Rooftop farms, Intensive green roofs, GIS, Design, Landscape architecture, Design guide, Landscape architecture research