A revised terminology for vegetated rooftops based on function and vegetation

Kotze, D. Johan; Kuoppamäki, Kirsi; Niemi-Kapee, Juhamatti; Mesimäki, Marja; Vaurola, Ville; Lehvävirta, Susanna

doi:10.1016/j.ufug.2020.126644

Cited by 23 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…Vegetated roofs (i.e. roofs covered with vegetation, see Kotze et al 2020) is an example of NBS that can provide a variety of environmental, economic and social benefits (Francis and Lorimer 2011;Nurmi et al 2016). Particularly, roofs with nearly self-sustaining vegetation are rapidly increasing in number in modern cities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetated roofs in boreal climate support mobile open habitat arthropods, with differentiation between meadow and succulent roofs

et al. 2020

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Vegetated roofs are hoped to benefit urban wildlife, yet there are few empirical results regarding the conservation potential of such roofs. In this paper, we focus on arthropods on vegetated roofs. We vacuum sampled 17 succulent, meadow or succulent-meadow roofs, in Helsinki, Finland, and used order to species level information together with trait data to describe the communities. We evaluated the importance of biophysical roof characteristics on shaping arthropod assemblages to provide information concerning roof designs that promote rich arthropod fauna. Arthropod communities differed between the three roof types and the influence of roof variables varied between and within arthropod orders. The main local drivers of arthropod abundance across the individually analysed taxa were roof height and vegetation, with mainly positive effects of height (up to 11 m) and litter cover, and mainly negative effects of grass cover. Based on trait data from true bugs, spiders and ants, the roofs consisted mainly of common dispersive species that are generalist feeders and associated with dry open habitats or have wide habitat tolerance. We found one true bug species new to the country and assume that it arrived with imported vegetation. Based on these findings, vegetated roofs of varying height and size benefit common generalists and fauna of open dry habitats, but seem to lack rare native specialists and may introduce non-natives if imported plant material is used. Because the responses to vegetation characteristics are taxon-specific, high diversity of roof vegetation types would benefit arthropod conservation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetated roofs in boreal climate support mobile open habitat arthropods, with differentiation between meadow and succulent roofs

et al. 2020

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“…Instead, we suggest a "habitat effect", or vegetation effect (see Kyrö et al, 2020), to best explain arthropod community assembly on vegetated roofs. Thus, as a practical implication from this study, we underline the importance of roof design, including focusing on the vegetation (see Kotze et al, 2020) when building vegetated roofs to support biodiversity. Also, even though arthropod communities on young vegetated roofs diverge from habitats at ground level, they are connected to green space networks in the city, as shown by the importance of local ground level habitats as sources for the roof fauna.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…To halt or even reverse this trend, there is an urgent call to dampen the connection between the growth of cities and the loss of vegetated areas (Maes and Jacobs, 2017;Garrard et al, 2018). Vegetated roofs (see Kotze et al, 2020), also called green roofs, are urban greening tools that preserve and restore vegetation in built areas. They mitigate a wide range of environmental problems related to urbanization, as they, e.g., reduce the urban heat island effect, contribute to stormwater management and have a positive effect on air quality (Oberndorfer et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arthropod Communities on Young Vegetated Roofs Are More Similar to Each Other Than to Communities at Ground Level

et al. 2022

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Vegetated roofs are human-manufactured ecosystems and potentially promising conservation tools for various taxa and habitats. Focussing on arthropods, we conducted a 3 year study on newly constructed vegetated roofs with shallow substrates (up to 10 cm) and vegetation established with pre-grown mats, plug plants and seeds to describe pioneer arthropod communities on roofs and to compare them with ground level communities. We vacuum sampled arthropods from the roofs and nearby ground level sites with low, open vegetation, i.e., potential source habitats. We showed that the roofs and ground sites resembled each other for ordinal species richness but differed in community composition: with time the roofs started to resemble each other rather than their closest ground level habitats. Species richness increased with time on roofs and at ground level, but the roofs had consistently less species than the ground sites and only a few species were unique to the roofs. Also, the proportion of predators increased on roofs, while not at ground level. We conclude that vegetated roofs established with similar substrates and vegetation, filter arthropods in a way that produces novel communities that are different from those at ground level but similar to one another. The role of these insular communities in species networks and ecosystem function remains to be investigated.

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“…This is particularly prominent when considering riverine/inland and coastal applications using green infrastructure strategies. Other reviews of the green infrastructure literature have found that the overlapping terminology and conceptualizations can hinder communication, collaboration, and research discovery (Kotze et al., 2020; Matsler et al., 2021; Osaka et al., 2021; Prudencio & Null, 2018). The range of terms and strategies outlined in this review highlight the fact that researchers need to clearly convey the strategies used as well as the methodologies and assumptions made to facilitate future research around green infrastructure applications.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Decision Making Under Deep Uncertainty Applications Using Green Infrastructure for Flood Management

Webber

Samaras

2022

Earth's Future

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Decision making under deep uncertainty (DMDU) approaches are well‐suited for making decisions about infrastructure to manage flooding exacerbated by climate change. One important system for climate resilience and flood management is green infrastructure, which refers to a network of natural and semi‐engineered areas that provides ecosystem functions. Green infrastructure is often characterized as a low‐regret strategy with multiple co‐benefits under uncertainty. These attributes enable green infrastructure to be an important adaptation strategy under DMDU frameworks for flood management. However, DMDU analyses that include green infrastructure are still relatively limited, perhaps due to computational or modeling complexity and other barriers. This paper identifies and reviews publications in the flood management literature that use DMDU frameworks and refer to green infrastructure adaptation strategies, in order to identify trends and inform future research. The reviewed publications are categorized according to a variety of performance metrics, climate change scenarios, DMDU metrics, and hydrologic modeling techniques, and represent several adaptation strategies applied to case studies on five continents using a range of data sources and assumptions. This paper highlights a number of solutions that can be employed to facilitate additional research at the intersection of these fields. Primary among these is the transparent documentation and use of open source models, methods, and data. Future research should also focus on communication among different stakeholders, particularly in ensuring definitions, assumptions, and data requirements are clear. These partnerships can facilitate effective application of robust strategies such as green infrastructure for urban adaptation to the effects of climate change.

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A revised terminology for vegetated rooftops based on function and vegetation

Cited by 23 publications

References 75 publications

Vegetated roofs in boreal climate support mobile open habitat arthropods, with differentiation between meadow and succulent roofs

Vegetated roofs in boreal climate support mobile open habitat arthropods, with differentiation between meadow and succulent roofs

Arthropod Communities on Young Vegetated Roofs Are More Similar to Each Other Than to Communities at Ground Level

A Review of Decision Making Under Deep Uncertainty Applications Using Green Infrastructure for Flood Management

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