What Does Rooftop Hydroponic Greenhouse Mean?
A rooftop
hydroponic greenhouse is a greenhouse located on the
roof of a building (usually a commercial building) that has been outfitted with
a hydroponic system, as opposed to conventional soil-based containers or raised beds.
Rooftop hydroponic greenhouses are becoming more common in urban areas where farmable land is scarce. It is considered easier to outfit a building with a hydroponics system on the roof, rather than a soil garden, because hydroponic gardens are cleaner and less cumbersome.
Maximum Yield Explains Rooftop Hydroponic Greenhouse
While suburban and rural areas are often home to ground-based greenhouses and gardens, urban areas lack these resources. Land is at a premium, and development often means that there is very little clear land available for growing.
Rooftop gardening has been developed to provide urban gardeners with options for growing. A rooftop hydroponic greenhouse is essentially exactly what it sounds like – a roof-mounted greenhouse that houses a hydroponic system.
Because these types of systems require no soil, they can reduce the weight on the rooftop. These types of greenhouses also limit the amount of material that must be transferred from the ground to the roof, and the water system can often be tied into the building’s water supply or into a rainwater collection system on the rooftop.
Rooftop greenhouses and gardens have been implemented in many cities within the US, as well as Canada and throughout Europe. Testing with rooftop hydroponic greenhouses is currently underway in China, as well.
There are numerous benefits to installing a rooftop hydroponic greenhouse. One of the most obvious is the fact that vegetables and fruits grown in the greenhouse could be used by residents of the building to offset their own food costs. In fact, if adopted on a larger scale, this sort of growing could help offset the dependence of entire cities on a supply chain that delivers food from hundreds or even thousands of miles away.
Another big benefit is that this sort of “greening” helps to offset the urban heat island effect (UHI), and helps make cities not only more livable, but healthier for humans and animals.
