Role of specific plant characteristics on thermal and carbon sequestration properties of living walls in tropical climate

Abstract

Living walls have the potential to be used as a climate mitigation measure for improving thermal comfort, reducing building energy consumption, and sequestering carbon. Vegetation is an important component of living walls contributing to temperature reduction and carbon sequestration. To investigate the cooling effect and the carbon sequestration potential of vegetation with some specific physical characteristics, an experimental study of living walls located in the tropical climate of Thailand was undertaken for six months covering cold and hot seasons. Three herbaceous plants were selected based on their different leaf sizes including Cuphea hyssopifola H.B.K, Tibouchina urvilleana, and Excoecaria cochinchinensis. These partial results from a six-month monitoring demonstrate the cooling capacity of living walls due to their lower surface and indoor temperatures than the reference wall up to 7.2 °C and 3.3 °C during the daytime in the summer respectively. Differences in the ability to reduce temperature and store carbon are also found between three plant species. Cuphea hyssopifola H.B.K, the plant with the densest foliage, smallest leaves, and woody branches, had the best performance in both aspects.