Green Roof for Stormwater Management in a Highly Urbanized Area: The Case of Seoul, Korea

Urbanization changes natural pervious surfaces to hard, impervious surfaces such as roads, buildings and roofs. These modifications significantly affect the natural hydrologic cycle by increasing stormwater runoff rates and volume. Under these circumstances, green roofs offer multiple benefits including on-site stormwater management that mimics the natural hydrologic conditions in an urban area. It can retain a large amount of rainwater for a longer time and delay the peak discharge. However, there is very limited research that has been carried out on the retrofitted green roof for stormwater management for South Korean conditions. This study has investigated the performance of retrofitted green roofs for stormwater management in a highly urbanized area of Seoul, the capital city of Korea. In this study, various storm events were monitored and the research results were analyzed to check the performance of the green roof with controlling the runoff in urban areas. Results also allowed us to conclude that the retention mainly depends on the intensity and duration of the rain events. From the analysis, average runoff retention on the green roof was 10% to 60% in different rain events. The application of an extensive green roof provides promising results for stormwater management in the highly urbanized area of Seoul.