ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the influence of soil composition and depth on the water and nutrient budgets of rooftop farms and concludes with a case study from New York City. Urban rooftop farms could potentially integrate many ecosystem services. These perceived services necessarily involve regulatory and investment sectors as well as public preferences. In April 2012, a new zoning code allowed retrofitting rooftops to include vegetable farms, prompting an influx of public and private funds into rooftop farms. However, the functional environmental performance of rooftop farms has received little attention from the scientific community and there is little quantitative information on the design and operation of rooftop farms from a resource subsidies perspective. Understanding the water and nutrient budgets could lay the foundation for optimizing the environmental, yield, and economic return of the farm.
