New York City has plenty of concrete, but it's not in the desert. Consequently, it faces an increasingly significant flooding problem. One obvious solution to this problem is to bring more soil and greenery into the city. But where?
The answer lies in bus stops. One solution is to add gardens to the rooftops of many bus stops around the city. Recent research in this field has concluded that it would be much cheaper than dealing exclusively with floods.
Urban planner Ben Matusow came up with this idea during his postgraduate studies at Pratt Institute's Center for Planning and the Environment. "The idea also comes with the opportunity to incorporate new vegetation, which could absorb carbon emissions and enhance urban life."
Simple, low-tech, and brilliant. However, it's not an original idea. Other cities have already done it, and that's one of the arguments for NYC to follow suit. One thing that has been established is that the plan should be implemented on a large scale. Economies of scale are real, and it applies to this concept as well as others. Greening a single bus shelter in Pittsburgh cost $12,000. Greening over 300 shelter roofs in Utrecht, the Netherlands, cost $1,400 each. If NYC is as cost-efficient as Utrecht, this approach would be over twice as cost-effective as the city's current approach.
Source: Clean Technica