Green roof, a review of history and benefits

Authors

  • Mohammad Mehdi Sadeghian  Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Landscape Design, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University

Keywords:

Green Roof, Benefits, Intensive, Extensive

Abstract

Green roofs, also called "vegetated roof covers" or "living roofs," are comparatively thin layers of living plants installed on top of expectable roofs. Green roofs back to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which provided a green oasis for royal family. Ancestors to the modern green roof, such as sod roofs, have been used in many cultures for centuries. Green roofs provide many ecological, aesthetic, and financial benefits, including Conserving energy, Controlling storm water runoff, erosion, and pollution, Improving the aesthetic environment in both work and home settings, Creating wildlife habitat, Reducing sound reflection and transmission, Improving water quality, Mitigating urban heat island effects, cooling and cleaning the air. The study has been conducted on the basis of literature survey with Library, Journals, Internet, Various seminar papers, reports of research organization.

References

  1. J.C. Berndtsson. 2010. Green roof performance towards management of runoff water quantity and quality: a review. Ecol Eng; 36:351–360.
  2. H. Niu, C. Clark, J. Zhou, P. Adriaens. 2010. Scaling of economic benefits from green roof implementation in Washington, DC. Environ Sci Technol, 44:4302– 8.
  3. K. Vijayaraghavan, F.D. Raja. 2014. Design and development of green roof substrate to improve runoff water quality: Plant growth experiments and adsorption. Water Res, 63:94–101.
  4. D.J.  Sailor. 2008. A green roof model for building energy simulation programs. Energy Build. 40: 1466–1478.
  5. T. Van Renterghem, D. Botteldooren. 2009. Reducing the acoustical facade load from road traffic with green roofs. Build. Environ. 44: 1081–1087.
  6. S. Brenneisen. 2006.  Space for Urban Wildlife: Designing Green Roofs as Habitats in Switzerland, Urban Habitats, 4(1): 27-36.
  7. N.D. VanWoert, D.B. Rowe, J.A. Andresen, C.L. Rugh, L.  Xiao. 2005. Watering regime and green roof substrate design affect Sedum plant growth. HortScience, 40: 659–664.
  8. A. Nagase, N. Dunnett. 2010. Drought tolerance in different vegetation types for extensive green roofs: effects of watering and diversity. Landscape. Urban Plan.
  9. J.M. Bousselot, J.E. Klett, R.D. Koski. 2011. Moisture Content of Extensive Green Roof Substrate and Growth Response of 15 Temperate Plant Species during Dry Down, Hortscience, 46(3): 518-522.
  10. A.K. Durhman, D.B. Rowe, C.L. Rugh. 2007. Effect of substrate depth on initial growth, coverage, and survival of 25 succulent green roof plant taxa. HortScience, 42: 588–595.
  11. K.L. Getter, D.B. Rowe. 2009. Substrate depth influences Sedum plant community on a green roof. HortScience, 44: 401–407.
  12. P. Nektarios, P. Tsiotsiopoulou, I. Chronopoulos.  2004. Comparison of different roof garden substrates and their impact on plant growth. Acta Hortic. 643: 311–313.
  13. D.B. Rowe, M.A. Monterusso, C.L. Rugh. 2006. Assessment of heat expanded slate and fertility requirements in green roof substrates. HortTechnology, 16: 471–477.
  14. C.E. Thuring, R.D. Berghage, D.J. Beattie. 2010. Green roof plant responses to different substrate types and depths under various drought conditions. Hort- Technology 20: 395–401.
  15. C.J. Molineux, C.H. Fentiman, A.C. Gange. 2009. Characterising alternative recycled waste materials for use as green roof growing media in the U.K. Ecol. Eng., 35: 1507–1513.
  16. J. Mentens, D. Raes, M. Hermy. 2006. Green roofs as a tool for solving the rainwater runoff problem in the urbanized 21st century? Landsc Urban Plan, 77:217–226.
  17. X.P. Chen, P. Huang, Z.X. Zhou, C. Gao. 2015. A review of green roof performance towards management of roof runoff. Chin J Appl Ecol, 26:2581–2590.
  18. A. Nagase, N. Dunnett. 2012. Amount of water runoff from different vegetation types on extensive green roofs: effects of plant species, diversity and plant structure. Landsc Urban Plan, 104:356–363.
  19. T.L. Carter, T.C. Rasmussen. 2006.  Hydrologic behavior of vegetated roofs. J Am Water Resour Assoc, 42:1261–1274.
  20. E.L. Villarreal, L. Bengtsson. 2005. Response of a sedum green roof to individual rain events. Ecol Eng, 25:1–7.
  21. O. Saadatian, K. Sopian, E. Salleh, C.H. Lim, S. Riffat, E. Saadatian, A. Toudeshki, M.Y. Sulaiman. 2013. A review of energy aspects of green roofs. Renew Sustain Energy Rev, 23:155–168.
  22. S.S.G. Hashemi, H.B. Mahmud, M.A. Ashraf. 2015. Performance of green roofs with respect to water quality and reduction of energy consumption in tropics: a review. Renew Sustain Energy Rev, 52:669–679.
  23. A. Niachou, K. Papakonstantinou, M. Santamouris, A. Tsangrassoulis, G. Mihalakakou. 2001. Analysis of the green roof thermal properties and investigation of its energy performance. Energy Build, 33:719–729.
  24. N.H. Wong, Y. Chen, S.I.A. Ong. 2003. A. Investigation of thermal bene?ts of rooftop garden in the tropical environment. Build Environ, 38:261–70.
  25. D. Kolokotsa, M. Santamouris, S.C. Zerefos. 2013. Green and cool roofs’ urban heat island mitigation potential in European climates for of?ce buildings under free ?oating conditions. Sol Energy, 95:118–130.
  26. U. Berardi, A. Ghaffarianhoseini. 2014. State-of-the-art analysis of the environmental bene?ts of green roofs. Appl Energy, 115: 411–428.
  27. M. Santamouris, C. Pavlou, P. Doukas, G. Mihalakakou, A. Synnefa, A. Hatzibiros, P. Patargias. 2007. Investigating and analyzing the energy and environmental performance of an experimental green roof system installed in a nursery school building in Athens, Greece. Energy, 32:1781–1788.
  28. W. Dramstad, J. Olson, R. Forman. 1996. Land­scape ecology principles in landscape architecture and land-use planning. Island Press: Washington, DC.
  29. A. Teemusk, U. Mander. 2007. Rainwater runoff quantity and quality performance from a green roof: the effects of short-term rain events. Ecol Eng, 30:271–277.
  30. K. Vijayaraghavan, U.M. Joshi, R. Balasubramanian. 2012. A ?eld study to evaluate runoff quality from green roofs. Water Res, 46:1337–1345.
  31. T. Van Seters, L.  Rocha, D. Smith, G.  MacMillan. 2009.  Evaluation of green roofs for runoff retention, runoff quality, and leach ability. Water Qual Res J Canada, 44:33–47.
  32. D.B. Rowe. 2011. Green roofs as a means of pollution abatement. Environ Pollut, 159:2100–2110.
  33. E.G. Malcolm, M.L. Reese, M.H. Schaus, I.M. Ozmon, L.M. Tran. 2014. Measurements of nutrients and mercury in green roof and gravel roof run off. Ecol Eng, 73:705–712.
  34. M. Razzaghmanesh, S. Beecham, F. Kazemi. 2014. Impact of green roofs on storm water quality in a South Australian urban environment. Sci Total Environ, 470:651–659.
  35. T. Emilsson, J.C. Berndtsson, J.E. Mattsson, K. Rolf. 2007. Effect of using conventional and controlled release fertilizer on nutrient runoff from various vegetated roof systems. Ecol Eng, 29:260–271.
  36. T. Van Renterghem, D. Botteldooren. 2008. Numerical evaluation of sound propagating over green roofs. J Sound Vib, 317:781–799.
  37. H.S. Yang, J.  Kang, M.S. Choi. 2012. Acoustic effects of green roof systems on a low pro?led structure at street level. Build Environ, 50:44–55.
  38. T. Van Renterghem, D. Botteldooren. 2011. In-situ measurements of sound propagating over extensive green roofs. Build Environ, 46:729–738.
  39. M. Connelly, M.Hodgson. 2013. Experimental investigation of the sound transmission of vegetated roofs. Appl Acoust, 74:1136–1143.
  40. H. Mayer. 1999. Air pollution in cities. Atm Environ, 33:4029–4037.
  41. J.F. Li, O.W.H. Wai, Y.S. Li, J.M. Zhan, Y.A. Ho, J. Li, E. Lam. 2010. Effect of green roof on ambient CO concentration. Build Environ, 45:2644–2651.
  42. J. Johnson, J. Newton. 1996. Building green, a guide for using plants on roofs and pavement. London: The London Ecology Unit.
  43. K. Scholz-Barth. 2001. Green roofs: Storm water management from the top down. Environmental De­sign & Construction 4, 1.
  44. S. Peck, C. Callaghan, B. Bass, M. Kuhn. 1998. Greenbacks from green roofs: Forging a new industry in Canada. Canada Mortgage and Hous­ing Association: Ottawa, Canada.
  45. Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, Available at:  www.greenroofs.org.

Downloads

Published

2017-04-30

Issue

Section

Research Articles

How to Cite

[1]
Mohammad Mehdi Sadeghian, " Green roof, a review of history and benefits, International Journal of Scientific Research in Science and Technology(IJSRST), Online ISSN : 2395-602X, Print ISSN : 2395-6011, Volume 3, Issue 3, pp.510-515, March-April-2017.