For their capstone project in Civil and Environmental Engineering, students researched best practices for cool and green roofs and applied their findings to the city-owned Five Flags Civic Center. 

Defined as a built environment that experiences higher temperatures than suburban or rural areas, all communities have areas that possess higher heat ratios due to more pavement, fewer trees, and other elements. These are often in downtown. Two increasingly popular methods for addressing urban heat islands are cool and green roofs. 

A team of students collected and analyzed information about the state of cool and green roof technology and best practices. Next, they completed a structural analysis of the Five Flags Civic Center--a multi-purpose facility built in about 1911--and researched the most suitable sustainable roofing material types to fit the needs of the building, focusing on energy efficiency, maintenance costs, ease of application, and aesthetics. The design phase of the project balanced the associated capital cost of the project with the return on investment from its generated energy savings and the expected longevity of the new roofing.