Improving the performance of felt-based living wall systems in terms of irrigation management

Abstract

Vertical greening systems are becoming a new reality worldwide in urban areas in order to increase and enhance green spaces. Commercially there are many systems employing various materials which aim to enable an adequate development of the vegetal cover, ensuring long-term successful performance. Irrigation represents one of the main key factors, but there is a knowledge gap involving the performance of commercial systems in terms of water management. Felt-based systems present more difficulties due to the smaller water retention capacity, which is an important drawback, especially in warm climates. This work aims to improve an existing commercial system (Fytotextile) in order to optimise water retention and vegetation performance in harsh climate conditions. Therefore, three evolutions of the Fytotextile system were tested in terms of water retention capacity, drainage and vegetation performance. Fytotextiles 3 and 4 vastly improved the initial water retention capacity of the commercial system (2.9 and 5.8 times that of Fytotextile 1, respectively) but the former exhibited a lower volume of water drained and a slightly better behaviour of the plants.