Economic and environmental sustainability and public perceptions of rooftop farm versus extensive garden

Abstract

Green roofs have become popular in urban areas as a solution to restore green space in cities and mitigate urban problems. In this study, the economic and environmental sustainability of using green roofs for rooftop agriculture (i.e., roof farms) is evaluated and compared with that of using green roofs as extensive gardens of flowers and non-edible plants with low maintenance (i.e., roof gardens) based on these two green roofs that were installed and operated for over five years in a university building in Seoul, Korea. The life cycle cost analysis results show that the total cost of the roof garden is 38.9% lower than the flat roof whereas the total cost of the roof farm is 68.3% higher than the roof garden. The environmental impacts of both the roof garden and farm were 2.4–35 times as high as those of the flat roof. The need to frequently replenish the lightweight soil over its lifetime was the main contributor to both the economic cost and environmental impacts of the roof farm, suggesting a need to develop cost-effective and environmentally benign lightweight soil materials. A survey was also conducted to investigate public preferences and perceptions of these two green roof options. Over 80% of the respondents expressed the necessity for green roofs in urban areas, and 79.3% preferred roof gardens over farms. Our results show that roof farms have several merits in urban areas, especially social benefits, but future research should focus on improving their economic and environmental sustainability.