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Kansas State University is not testing one standard green roof. Its APDesign-led program studies five distinct roofs in Manhattan—two at Seaton Hall, two at Memorial Stadium and an experimental roof on Regnier Hall. Together, they show that native plants can survive with little or no irrigation in some beds, but that outcome depends on species, substrate, depth, slope, exposure, weather and establishment practices. K-State’s Seaton Hall Upper roof, for example, lost substantial vegetation after supplemental watering ended during prolonged dry conditions.
For designers and owners in Kansas and the Great Plains, the practical conclusion is qualified: a low-water green roof is possible, but “native” does not mean maintenance-free or drought-proof. K-State’s sites are valuable because they compare the variables that determine whether a roof remains covered and healthy under Flint Hills conditions.
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Why K-State studies several roofs instead of one demonstration
The Landscape Architecture and Regional & Community Planning department in APDesign leads the project with participation from other K-State colleges. The stated purpose is to inform green-roof design, implementation and management in the Flint Hills and elsewhere in Kansas and the Great Plains, where roofs experience hot and cold extremes, strong winds, drought and intense rain.
The project page identifies five study sites. The first roof was developed in 2009; the APDesign experimental roof was built in summer and fall 2017, with vegetation and environmental monitoring beginning in 2018. Each roof answers a different question, so a result from one cannot be treated as a rule for all green roofs.
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| Site | Scale and construction | Main variables or observations |
|---|---|---|
| Seaton Hall Upper | 28.5 m² (305 ft²); semi-intensive; full sun; media about 3–4 inches at edges and 5–7 inches in the middle | Long-term viability of native plants after a two-to-four-year establishment period and reduced or discontinued irrigation |
| Seaton Hall Lower | 32 m² (340 ft²); 72 plots | Two regional substrates, three plant mixes and three substrate depths |
| Memorial Stadium East and West | About 0.4 hectares (43,000 ft²) combined; steep slopes; sandy media generally 5–6 inches deep; geo-web secured by cables | Vegetation, soil moisture, irrigation distribution and butterfly use |
| APDesign Experimental Roof, Regnier Hall | 153 m² (1,650 ft²) total in three 51 m² (550 ft²) sections; extensive, semi-intensive and intensive depth treatments | Microclimate, temperatures, moisture, nutrients, survival and cover across substrates and plant mixes |
Seaton Hall Upper: the clearest warning against “no irrigation” promises
The Upper Seaton roof was installed in 2009 above a third-floor breezeway. It is a small, full-sun, semi-intensive roof measuring about 28.5 square metres (305 square feet). The growing medium is shallowest near the edges—approximately 3 to 4 inches—and deeper toward the center, where it reaches about 5 to 7 inches.
K-State initially irrigated the vegetation through 2010, reduced watering during 2011 and discontinued supplemental irrigation in 2012. After that change, vegetation began to decline or die back, with most native forbs dying. The project page attributes the brownout and dieback primarily to prolonged dry periods without supplemental irrigation.
K-State’s stated finding is specific to this full-sun Flint Hills roof: supplemental irrigation is important if the goal is to retain relatively full plant coverage. The same page says weekly watering during dry periods would likely be enough for a number of native grasses and wildflowers on this particular roof. That is a site-specific likelihood, not a universal schedule for Kansas roofs or a guarantee that weekly watering will work for every plant mix.
What the Upper roof demonstrates
- Establishment watering and long-term maintenance watering are separate decisions. Plants may establish under irrigation and still decline when that support is removed.
- Full sun and shallow media can turn an extended dry spell into a plant-survival test even when the species are regionally native.
- Coverage is a design objective that may require supplemental water; survival of a few plants is a different standard from maintaining a continuous vegetated surface.
Seaton Hall Lower: testing depth, media and plant mix together
Installed in 2012, the Lower Seaton roof covers about 32 square metres (340 square feet). Its 72 experimental plots compare two regionally available substrate types, three plant mixes and three substrate depths.
The design addresses a construction tradeoff. More growing medium can provide plants with greater water-holding volume and rooting space, but added depth increases weight, structural-support requirements and potentially cost. The experiment asks whether those gains in plant health justify the additional depth under local conditions.
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Because substrate, depth and planting are varied as a set of plots, the Lower roof is more useful as a decision framework than as a single prescription. A result associated with one combination should not be copied onto a roof with different exposure, drainage, loading limits or plant palette.
Memorial Stadium: a large, steep system with water-distribution challenges
The East and West Memorial Stadium roofs together cover approximately 0.4 hectares, or 43,000 square feet. They are much larger than the Seaton demonstrations and sit on steeply sloped roof areas. Sandy growing media generally measure 5 to 6 inches deep, and a geo-web system secured with cables holds the substrate in place.
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The plantings are mostly species native to the Flint Hills. K-State reports 26 species on the west roof and 21 on the east. The roofs were installed in part to protect the stadium’s structural integrity by limiting visitor loading on seating areas. Research that began in 2016 examines vegetation, soil moisture, irrigation needs and butterfly use.
A preliminary result reported by K-State is that irrigation should be applied as uniformly as possible across the slope so plants at different elevations receive water. On a sloped roof, water delivery is therefore a distribution problem as well as a volume problem. An irrigation setting that appears adequate at one level may leave another level too dry.
APDesign Experimental Roof: controlled comparisons at Regnier Hall
The APDesign Experimental Green Roof was constructed in 2017 on Regnier Hall. It contains three sections of about 51 square metres (550 square feet) each, for a total of 153 square metres (1,650 square feet). The sections represent three depth categories:
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- Extensive: approximately 2.5–4.5 inches of substrate.
- Semi-intensive: approximately 5–6.5 inches.
- Intensive: approximately 7–9 inches.
In the detailed experiment, plots are approximately 4, 6 and 8 inches deep. Researchers compare two substrates—Kansas BuildEx and Rooflite Extensive MC—and three planting mixes: all sedums; sedums with native grasses; and native grasses with forbs.
Measurements include microclimate, surface and subsurface temperatures, soil moisture, nutrient conditions, plant survival and vegetation cover. Weather-station sensors, soil-moisture sensors, temperature sensors and dataloggers provide the monitoring infrastructure. The university identifies METER Group as an equipment supplier and lists additional substrate, system, plant and construction suppliers, but the roof is access-restricted and should not be treated as a public demonstration site.
This roof is especially useful for separating variables that are often blended together in ordinary installations. A sedum-only mix in shallow media is not equivalent to native grasses and forbs in deeper media, even when both roofs receive the same rainfall. The experiment can reveal local tradeoffs; it cannot guarantee the same result on another building.
What the newer irrigation observations add
A K-State feature published in Fall 2025 describes graduate researcher Muhaiminul Islam and associate professor Lee Skabelund studying how substrate type and irrigation frequency affect plant cover. Their methods include soil-moisture sensors and overhead photographs. Some experimental beds stopped receiving irrigation in 2023. K-State reports that some plants withered while others survived.
Islam described the question this way: “One of the main goals of my research is trying to explore if the substrate type makes significant difference in plant cover under different irrigation frequency — which plants perform better in under minimal irrigation,” said Islam, Jarvis Graduate Research Fellow for K-State’s Green Roofs Lab.
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He also reported: “Over the course of one year, the part we did not irrigate got very dry. But there are some green roofs we don’t irrigate at all, and many plants survive. This indicates that low maintenance green roofs are possible, and we can save water.” The observation supports investigating low-maintenance designs, but it does not establish that irrigation is unnecessary across all roofs, species or weather years.
Can native plants survive on a Kansas green roof without irrigation?
Sometimes, but the evidence does not support a blanket yes. The answer changes with the question being asked:
| If the goal is… | What the K-State sites suggest |
|---|---|
| Keeping any living plants on the roof | Some plants may survive reduced or absent irrigation, as observed in certain beds in the 2023 observations. |
| Maintaining relatively full, continuous cover | The Upper Seaton roof indicates that supplemental irrigation matters during prolonged dry periods in full sun. |
| Choosing a watering strategy | Measure actual moisture and account for slope, media and plant mix; the Memorial Stadium preliminary finding favors uniform distribution. |
| Eliminating maintenance | Not supported. Plant decline, dieback and seasonal stress remain possible even with native species. |
“Native” describes regional adaptation, not immunity to heat, wind, shallow rooting volume or an unusually long dry spell. A roof can be designed for seasonal brownout, sparse cover or habitat value, but those are different performance targets from a permanently green appearance.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.The variables that explain different outcomes
Substrate composition
Growing media control drainage, water storage, rooting conditions and weight. K-State’s Lower Seaton and APDesign comparisons use more than one substrate precisely because media can change plant cover under the same irrigation frequency.
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Deeper beds generally offer more rooting volume and reserve moisture, while increasing load and construction demands. K-State compares roughly 4-, 6- and 8-inch plots at APDesign and three depths at Lower Seaton rather than assuming one depth fits every planting.
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Plant mix
Sedums, native grasses and forbs have different rooting patterns and drought responses. A sedum-only bed should not be judged by the same expectations as a grass-and-forb mix.
Roof slope and exposure
Full sun increases drying pressure. Steep slopes add erosion-control and irrigation-uniformity issues, as the Memorial Stadium roofs demonstrate. Wind and roof-edge exposure can also make shallow media lose moisture faster than sheltered areas.
Weather and establishment regime
Rainfall timing matters as much as seasonal totals. A roof that performs acceptably in a wetter year may brown out during a prolonged dry period. The Upper Seaton timeline shows why establishment irrigation cannot be treated as proof of long-term self-sufficiency.
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Soil-moisture sensors are useful for observing how wet or dry a substrate is at different depths and locations. K-State uses them at Seaton Hall and on the APDesign roof, along with temperature sensors, weather data and repeated overhead images. For a building owner, a sensor can support a targeted watering decision instead of a calendar-only schedule.
A sensor is not a stand-alone guarantee of plant health. Two beds with similar moisture readings may contain different species, have different rooting depth or be at different stages of establishment. Monitoring is most useful when readings are interpreted with plant cover, weather and the roof’s design.
Expected services versus measured results
Green roofs are commonly designed for several services, including stormwater management, insulation, heat-island mitigation and habitat. K-State’s 2017 conference paper describes these as purposes or expected services of green roofs. The available project descriptions do not provide a whole-building energy audit, a quantified runoff reduction percentage or a measured heat-island result for the K-State roofs. Those benefits should therefore be presented as design objectives, not as demonstrated numerical outcomes of these sites.
Construction and management lessons for Kansas projects
- Define the performance target. Decide whether the priority is full visual cover, plant survival, habitat, stormwater function or a combination. The irrigation requirement can change with that target.
- Match depth to structure and planting. Compare the roof’s allowable load with the proposed media depth. K-State’s depth experiments illustrate why additional rooting volume must be weighed against structural support and cost.
- Select plants as a mix, not a label. “Native” is not a complete specification. Identify the grasses, forbs or succulents, their exposure tolerance and the cover standard expected by the owner.
- Plan establishment watering. Provide a regime for the first seasons and define how it will change after roots are established. Do not assume that turning irrigation off produces the same result as a low-frequency maintenance program.
- Design for uniform delivery on slopes. The Memorial Stadium observation supports checking upper, middle and lower slope zones rather than judging the system from one test point.
- Install monitoring where decisions will differ. Place moisture and temperature sensors in representative media depths and exposure zones, then pair readings with visual cover checks.
- Write a drought response. Set thresholds for supplemental watering, temporary protection or accepting seasonal brownout before an extreme dry period arrives.
- Document outcomes by roof zone. Record substrate, depth, species, irrigation and weather for each zone so a failed patch is not mistaken for a failure of the entire design.
How to interpret K-State’s evidence responsibly
The five roofs are a set of related field experiments, not a single standardized trial. Seaton Hall is small and useful for long-term plant-viability questions; Memorial Stadium adds scale and steep-slope distribution; APDesign provides replicated comparisons of depth, substrate and planting mix. Their differences are the reason the program is informative—and the reason a result should not be generalized without checking the underlying conditions.
For Kansas and Great Plains projects, the strongest defensible conclusion is practical rather than absolute: low-water green roofs can be designed, but reliable coverage requires matching plants and media to the site, planning for drought, and managing irrigation based on actual conditions. K-State’s experience shows both the opportunity and the cost of ignoring that qualification.
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