Fieldston School in the Bronx has two Green Roofs: 1 upper roof, not accessible to students, with sensors (~5600 sf); and 1 lower roof which is accessible to students (~1500 sf). The new Green Roof Research Station is located on the upper green roof of Fieldston Middle School. The test weather station sits atop the 5,100 sf 4″ deep extensive sedum greenroof, and measures the following: Roof Cross Section FS, Temperature FS, Moisture/Precipitation FS, and Albedo. Windspeed, air temperature, relative humidity and solar radiation data are provided in real time.The lower greenroof has approximately 8″ of growing medium and has different test plots for native plants – 2 kinds of grasses and flowering perennials, but will also include areas with the same sedums as found on the upper roof for comparison.

The Ethical Culture Fieldson School website (see below) states, “As this dashboard shows, it measures the atmospheric data on the upper green roof of Fieldston Middle School and a nearby black roof. For example, in the dashboard one can see on sunny days the extremely high temperatures on the black roof as compared to the green roof. Also of key interest is the ?soil moisture? data converted into gallons of precipitable water present at any moment on the roof. This is water that would otherwise have run into the combined sewer system, especially during rainfall events, and lead to sanitary water overflows into the harbor and estuary. “The project is under the direction of Stuart Gaffin, an atmospheric physicist and research scientist at the Center for Climate Systems Research at Columbia. The data will be displayed at Fieldston, accessible to students and teachers, and shared with Columbia.” Download an Installation PDF here.