A critical appraisal of green vegetated roofs: Energy and environment in focus

Abstract

Modern-day technology aims for luxury and comfort in human life by advancement in technology. The revolutionary technological achievement has dramatically enhanced the living standards of a man. Furthermore, the construction industry is one of the largest exploiters of both renewable and non-renewable resources and promotes the use of such technologies strategically for their benefits. However, the implication of these technologies which calls for the use of supplemental technologies, promoting one another that results in increasing energy demand with limited available resources, causing a demand- supply gap resulting into a pressure that leads to stock market graph crashing and economic crisis. Urbanization, due to the growing population takes in more green patches and farmlands causing deforestation and degradation to the biosphere, further causing an increase in disasters and health hazards as a demerit. Hence with urban sprawling and scarcity of open green recreational areas, vegetated green roof has been one effective economic solution. This paper reviews the efforts of various research and review articles, government reports and experiments that emphasis on energy conservation and sustainable environment. The paper starts by describing various components and types of green roofs, and their uses. Thermal insulation, effects of shading and cooling, heat flux and evapotranspiration, reduction of carbon emissions, water savings and, microclimatic conditions are the focus group. As per previous studies, the heat flow in buildings can be reduced by 74%. Green roofs also aide in keeping the building warm during winters while retaining rainwater during the rainfall season also. It also discusses the life cycle assessment as a methodological principle and framework, and its limitations for the analysis of green roof and its passive architecture features.