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Sustainability
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Vegetated Roofs and Walls
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Vegetated Roofs and Walls

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Engineering and Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2018) | Viewed by 27964

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Paulo Cesar Tabares Velasco

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Colorado School of Mines, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Golden, CO, United States
Interests: vegetated covers; thermal storage; phase change materials; building energy modeling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Green or vegetated surfaces can be installed in different building surfaces: Exterior roof and walls, as well as interior walls or interior free standing structures. All of these technologies offers many potential benefits to building occupants and society beyond energy savings. Thus, the number of installed green roof and walls buildings have substantially increased worldwide in the last two decades. However, successful implementation requires careful multi-disciplinary analysis and design.

This Special Issue of Sustainability is seeking experimental and simulation papers that demonstrate latest research on:

  1. materials embodied energy,
  2. compatibility with building materials and codes,
  3. innovative materials that promote plant growth, reduce roof heat flux, substrate weight or water use.

It also looks for papers that critically analyze how vegetated walls and roofs affect:

  1. indoor air quality
  2. building or urban water management practices
  3. building heating ventilation and air conditioning systems,
  4. building envelope prescriptive codes, and
  5. hygrothermal and durability performance of the building envelope

Dr. Paulo Cesar Tabares Velasco
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Built environment
  • Urban heat island effect
  • Hygrothermal modeling
  • Shading
  • Indoor air quality
  • Thermal mass
  • Water management
  • Envelope
  • Innovative materials
  • Resiliency
  • Energy water nexus
  • Energy simulations
  • Laboratory experiments
  • Field experiments

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 2672 KiB  
Article
Potential of Particle Matter Dry Deposition on Green Roofs and Living Walls Vegetation for Mitigating Urban Atmospheric Pollution in Semiarid Climates
by Margareth Viecco, Sergio Vera, Héctor Jorquera, Waldo Bustamante, Jorge Gironás, Cynnamon Dobbs and Eduardo Leiva
Sustainability 2018, 10(7), 2431; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072431 - 12 Jul 2018
Cited by 66 | Viewed by 7965
Abstract
In the last two decades, the incorporation of green roofs and living walls in buildings has increased significantly worldwide because of their benefits such as building energy savings, promoting biodiversity, controlling water run-off, mitigating urban heat island effect, improving indoor and urban air [...] Read more.
In the last two decades, the incorporation of green roofs and living walls in buildings has increased significantly worldwide because of their benefits such as building energy savings, promoting biodiversity, controlling water run-off, mitigating urban heat island effect, improving indoor and urban air quality, and connecting people with nature. However, few studies have quantified the impact of green roofs (GRs) and living walls (LWs) on mitigating air pollution, especially in semiarid climates where airborne particle matter (PM) levels are high. Therefore, the aim of this paper is quantifying the dry deposition of PM10 and PM2.5 by several vegetation species commonly used in GRs and LWs in semiarid climates. Five species (Pitosporumtobira, Lavandulaangustifolia, Lampranthusspectabillis, Sedumalbum, and Sedumreflexum) for GRs and four species (Apteniacordiflora, Erigeronkarvinskianus, Sedumpalmeri, and Sedumspuriump.) for LWs were tested in an experimental facility—through washing, filtering, and weighing—to quantify the dry deposition of PM2.5 and PM10 on vegetation leaves as well as PM captured by the leaf wax. The main result is that a significant amount of PM is deposited on the typical vegetation used in GRs and LWs in semiarid climates. However, large differences in PM dry deposition were found among species, ranging from 0.09 μg/cm2∙h−1 to 1.32 μg/cm2∙h−1 for PM2.5, 0.48 μg/cm2∙h−1 to 4.7 μg/cm2∙h−1 for PM10 and 0.41 μg/cm2∙h−1 to 25.6 μg/cm2∙h−1 for leaf wax. The species that showed the highest potential to capture PM were S. album, S. reflexum, S. palmeri, and L. spectabillis. This study shows this green infrastructures can contribute to mitigate air pollution, thus GRs and LWs have the potential for being included in decontamination plans. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetated Roofs and Walls)
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16 pages, 3174 KiB  
Article
A Comparative Approach to Artificial and Natural Green Walls According to Ecological Sustainability
by Alperen Meral, Nermin Başaran, Emrah Yalçınalp, Ezgi Doğan, Mehmet Kıvanç Ak and Engin Eroğlu
Sustainability 2018, 10(6), 1995; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10061995 - 13 Jun 2018
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 4478
Abstract
Together with the rapid industrialization of the world, urbanization is also uncontrollably increasing. Such an increase in urbanization exerts the greatest pressure on natural resources, obligating people to live in intense structural spaces and increasing the need for green spaces in cities. Because [...] Read more.
Together with the rapid industrialization of the world, urbanization is also uncontrollably increasing. Such an increase in urbanization exerts the greatest pressure on natural resources, obligating people to live in intense structural spaces and increasing the need for green spaces in cities. Because of the expensive costs of horizontal surfaces being “green”, urban places are faced with serious green-infrastructure problems. In recent years, alternatives have been searched for to eliminate such deficiencies. These alternatives, such as rain gardens, green walls (GWs), ecological designs, and green roofs, are commonly included in urban landscape designs. Besides rocky or steep-slope natural green walls (NGWs), natural green covers over buildings, walls, and so forth, structural members are also encountered in urban or rural places. On the other hand, artificial green walls (AGWs) have recently been used as a significant component of urban design. Although the AGWs are able to address various functional needs, they have not yet gained the desired popularity because of construction costs, static loads, constructional damages, and maintenance costs. In addition, such sites are largely left to exotic species with limited ecological requirements; these species are far from meeting ecological functions and resistance to extreme conditions. This study was conducted for a benchmarking assessment of artificial and natural green walls (A&NGWs) with a high potential in urban landscape design not only for esthetics, but also for ecological and economical purposes. Plant species, initial establishment, maintenance costs, and some other parameters of selected GWs were assessed. The study was considered as pioneering research for low-cost minimum-maintenance AGWs to be included in urban landscape designs. It was concluded, on the basis of the present findings, that the GW systems established with natural plant species, rock, and other materials already existing in natural landscapes could be constructed at fairly low costs, and such wall systems could have great ecological contributions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetated Roofs and Walls)
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14 pages, 3313 KiB  
Article
Green Roof for Stormwater Management in a Highly Urbanized Area: The Case of Seoul, Korea
by Muhammad Shafique, Reeho Kim and Kwon Kyung-Ho
Sustainability 2018, 10(3), 584; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10030584 - 26 Feb 2018
Cited by 98 | Viewed by 10103
Abstract
Urbanization changes natural pervious surfaces to hard, impervious surfaces such as roads, buildings and roofs. These modifications significantly affect the natural hydrologic cycle by increasing stormwater runoff rates and volume. Under these circumstances, green roofs offer multiple benefits including on-site stormwater management that [...] Read more.
Urbanization changes natural pervious surfaces to hard, impervious surfaces such as roads, buildings and roofs. These modifications significantly affect the natural hydrologic cycle by increasing stormwater runoff rates and volume. Under these circumstances, green roofs offer multiple benefits including on-site stormwater management that mimics the natural hydrologic conditions in an urban area. It can retain a large amount of rainwater for a longer time and delay the peak discharge. However, there is very limited research that has been carried out on the retrofitted green roof for stormwater management for South Korean conditions. This study has investigated the performance of retrofitted green roofs for stormwater management in a highly urbanized area of Seoul, the capital city of Korea. In this study, various storm events were monitored and the research results were analyzed to check the performance of the green roof with controlling the runoff in urban areas. Results also allowed us to conclude that the retention mainly depends on the intensity and duration of the rain events. From the analysis, average runoff retention on the green roof was 10% to 60% in different rain events. The application of an extensive green roof provides promising results for stormwater management in the highly urbanized area of Seoul. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetated Roofs and Walls)
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4483 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Solar Radiation Shading Effects by Trees in the Open Space around Buildings
by Hideki Takebayashi, Makiko Kasahara, Shingo Tanabe and Makoto Kouyama
Sustainability 2017, 9(8), 1398; https://doi.org/10.3390/su9081398 - 08 Aug 2017
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4938
Abstract
Work and leisure in outdoor spaces influences people’s physiological and psychological, while it can also lead to a reduction of energy consumed via air conditioning and lighting. In this study, the effects of solar radiation shading by trees in the open space around [...] Read more.
Work and leisure in outdoor spaces influences people’s physiological and psychological, while it can also lead to a reduction of energy consumed via air conditioning and lighting. In this study, the effects of solar radiation shading by trees in the open space around buildings on microclimatic development and pedestrian radiation environment are evaluated through a case study on the redevelopment buildings in front of Central Osaka Station, based on both observation and calculation. In both open space and green garden, direct solar radiation is shielded mainly by the buildings located behind the trees rather than by the trees themselves. Solar radiation shielding by trees is necessary in the range of more than 10 m from the south side of the buildings and more than 6 m from the west or east sides of the buildings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetated Roofs and Walls)
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