A comprehensive study on green roof performance for retrofitting existing buildings

Cascone, Stefano; Catania, Federico; Gagliano, Antonio; Sciuto, Gaetano

doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.03.052

Cited by 164 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…Because a green roof is a load on the roof structure, it is important to keep the weight below the load limit prescribed by law, i.e., 200 kg/m 2 (about 1.96 kN/m 2 ) is the load that can be applied on the flat roofs of residential buildings according to the European standard [118]. In a previous study [119], the authors compared the weights of three different granular drainage materials. Perlite and expanded clay represent commercial drainage solutions, while rubber crumb is an innovative solution in the green roof market.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Green Roof Design: State of the Art on Technology and Materials

Cascone

2019

Sustainability

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163

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In order to consider green roofs as an environmentally friendly technology, the selection of efficient and sustainable components is extremely important. Previous review papers have mainly focused on the performance and advantages of green roofs. The objective of this paper is to examine the primary layers: The waterproof and anti-root membranes; the protection, filter, and drainage layers; the substrate; and the vegetation. First, the history, modern applications, benefits and classification are analyzed in order to present a well-defined state of the art of this technology. Then, the roles, requirements, characteristics, and materials are assessed for each green roof layers. This technology was compared to a conventional roof technology, Mediterranean climate conditions and their influence on green roof design were assessed, also comparing them with Tropical area and focusing on irrigation systems, examples about the commercial materials and products available in the market were provided and innovative materials coming from recycled sources were analyzed. Future research should evaluate new materials for green roof technologies, in order to enhance their performance and increase their sustainability. The information provided in this review paper will be useful to develop Mediterranean green roof guidelines for selecting suitable components and materials during the design and installation phases.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Green Roof Design: State of the Art on Technology and Materials

Cascone

2019

Sustainability

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163

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“…At building scale, green roofs reduce the sensible heat flux due to the cooling effect [15,16] thus decreasing the heating and cooling demand of a building [17][18][19], and improving human thermal comfort [20,21]. This effect may vary depending on the climate conditions [22][23][24], and the level of insulation specially in cases of building retrofitting [25,26]. Most of these multiple benefits are linked to the cooling effect due to the evapotranspiration process (ET) that humidifies the external ambient air, reduces the surface temperature of the roof [27], and mitigates the urban heat island phenomenon [28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The evapotranspiration process in green roofs: A review

Cascone

Coma

Gagliano

et al. 2019

Building and Environment

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165

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Previous research has shown that most of the green roof benefits are related to the cooling effect. In the literature available, however, it is still not clear how and how much the evapotranspiration affects the performance of a green roof. In order to fill the gap in this research topic, this study carries out a review on the cooling effect due to the evapotranspiration process of green roofs. First of all, an overview of the evapotranspiration phenomenon in green roofs, as well as the equipment and methods used for its measurement are presented. Then, the main experimental results available in literature, the physicalmathematical models and the dynamic simulation software used for the evaluation of the latent heat flux are also analysed and discussed among the available literature. Moreover, this review proposes a classification of the results carried out by previous studies as function of the main parameters affecting the evapotranspiration process (e.g. volumetric water content, stomatal resistance, Leaf Area Index, solar radiation, wind velocity, relative humidity, soil thickness, and substrate composition). Additionally, a sensitivity analysis of the results obtained from the literature allowed underlining the correlation among the main factors affecting the evapotranspiration. Finally, a vision of the world area where green roof studies were performed is provided. From the results, it is possible to emphasize that most of the studies that evaluated the evapotranspiration used high precision load cells. Furthermore, all the heat transfer models of green roofs considered in this review took into account the latent heat flux due to evaporation of water from the substrate and plants transpiration, however, only few of them were experimentally validated.

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“…Constructed green roofs with a deeper substrate layer could also retain more water and reduce runoff volume [45][46][47]. However, this option may not be applicable because the most extensive green roof has strict load limits [48,49]. Another option to enhance the runoff reduction and water retention capacity is to construct an additional water storage layer in the green roof system [19,50].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Resilience by Centipedegrass Green Roof: A Case Study

et al. 2019

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Centipedegrass (Eremochloa ophiuroides) is a low-maintenance turfgrass. The first extensive green roof of centipedegrass was established in TongZhou Civil Squares in 2014. However, storm-water-runoff reduction, water-retention capacity, and plant-water requirements by a centipedegrass green roof has not yet been defined. The soil moisture dynamics, rainwater-retention capacity, runoff reduction, and plant evapotranspiration were investigated by simulated centipedegrass green roof plots, which were constructed in the same manner as the green roofs in TongZhou Civil Squares in 2018. The results showed that the centipedegrass green roof retained 705.54 mm of rainwater, which consisted 47.4% of runoff reduction. The saturated soil moisture was 33.4 ± 0.6%; the excess rainfall over the saturated soil moisture resulted in runoff. The capacity of rainwater retention was negatively related to the soil moisture before rain events and was driven by plant evapotranspiration. Drought symptoms only occurred three times over the course of a year when the soil moisture dropped down to 10.97%. Our results indicate that the rainwater retained in the soil almost met the needs of plant consumption; a further increase of rainwater retention capacity might achieve an irrigation-free design in a centipedegrass green roof.

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A comprehensive study on green roof performance for retrofitting existing buildings

Cited by 164 publications

References 76 publications

Green Roof Design: State of the Art on Technology and Materials

Green Roof Design: State of the Art on Technology and Materials

The evapotranspiration process in green roofs: A review

Water Resilience by Centipedegrass Green Roof: A Case Study

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