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College of Environment and Design

MLA James Shulte at TEDXUGA

TEDXUGA

A City Under the Sedums: Vegetated Roof Adoption in a Modern Urbanizing World

 

This January, Master of Landscape Architecture student James Schulte had the opportunity to present his thesis research in the Salon Series hosted by TEDxUGA. According to the group Facebook page, the “TEDxUGA is an independently organized TED event that brings UGA’s leading thinkers and doers to the stage to share their passions, stories, research, and ideas.” In Schulte’s presentation, he discusses how we can combat the effects of climate change and help save Atlanta from the impacts of urbanization using vegetated roofs.   

Schulte’s research focuses on transforming a percentage of rooftops in Atlanta, Georgia, and provides an analysis of that impact from just 1% to 100% of available rooftop infrastructure. He encourages the audience to consider how Atlanta could be a global leader in sustainability by increasing the use of vegetated roofs. With an existing 50% tree canopy coverage, Atlanta is often referred to as the City in the Forest, inspiring the title of Shulte’s presentation “A City Under the Sedums: Vegetated Roof Adoption in a Modern Urbanizing World.”  

While interning at EDSA, Schulte worked on international projects allowing him to see the impact that landscape architecture could have. From there, he went on to work for HGOR, where he had the opportunity to design rooftop amenity spaces for corporate clients and the under-realized potential that these rooftops could have in combating climate change. In coming back to UGA to get his Master’s in Landscape Architecture, James hopes to work in academia to continue researching vegetated roofs and implementing his research on test plots through research grant funding.   

Excerpt from TEDxUGA's Facebook page video.
Original video

 

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