This document summarizes a presentation on green roofs and vertical gardens. It discusses the history of roof gardens dating back to ancient Mesopotamian structures. It also describes the benefits of green roofs and vertical gardens such as reducing the urban heat island effect and energy consumption. The document presents two case studies, one on integrating green roofs with solar panels which found energy savings, and another on using vertical gardens to reduce indoor carbon dioxide levels. In conclusion, green roofs and vertical gardens can help the environment if designed sustainably and cost-effectively.

1. Seminar in-charge
Dr. T. Manjunatha Rao, Principal Scientist, IIHR, Hessaraghatta, Bengluru
Speaker
Ch. Girija Kumari, ID: 10468
Ph. D. Scholar
Dept. of Floriculture and Landscaping
IARI-IIHR, Bengluru, Karnataka

2. Roof top garden / Green roof
“A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially
or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium,
planted over a water proofing membrane’’
Janakiram et al., 2014

3. A BRIEF HISTORY OF ROOF GARDENS
The earliest known record of roof gardens are the ancient
ziggurats of Mesopotamia
These massive stone structures were built between 4,000 -
600 BC
A series of stairs along the outside perimeter of the
stepped pyramid provided access to the various tiers of the
structure
A ziggurat which closely resembles that
in Nanna built by the first king of the Ur
Dynasty, Ur Nammu. The tiers of trees
provided shade from the blazing
Babylonian sun.
Shimmin, 2012

4. THE HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON
King Nebuchadnezzar, a famous general in his time, built the Hanging
gardens for his wife during 8th – 6th century BC
The ziggurat had a 400 ft2 base, with landscaped terraces eventually the
grand roof garden at the top, 75 feet above the ground
Artist’s rendition of the Hanging
Gardens of Babylon, one of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
The terraced layout explains the
phrase "hanging garden,” where the
vegetation hung over the walls to
the level below
The weight of the garden was
supported by a series of arcades
whose walls were sixteen feet thick

5. Archimedes screw
THE HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON
•The garden was watered through a complex irrigation system fed by
“machines” hidden from public view that pumped water from the river
Euphrates eighty feet below to the top of the roof garden
• The structure supported a forest of trees, exotic plants, wildlife and
perpetually green grass
•Some trees grew to be as tall as 50 feet

6. Need for Roof gardening
A garden is always known to provide a place to enjoy and relax
but in cities space is a limiting factor
Boom in real estate business, sky rise corporate buildings,
western look out malls, star hotels, garden suburbs have paved
the way to bring new landscape solutions in recent times
Mushrooming roof top garden in a gargantuan manner
matching the modern life trend is one such new initiation
Jawaharlal & Kumar, 2013

7. Benefits of Roof Gardening
Reduce the “urban heat island effect”
Reduce amount of greenhouse gas
Reduce and clean storm water runoff
Reduce energy consumption
Increase the beauty of cities

8. Green roofs can be used to alleviate urban-heat island effect
Wong, 2006

9. Thermal properties of green roof
a. Evapo-transpiration
b. Shading by plants
c. Thermal insulation
d. Thermal mass storage
Hui, 2009

10. Basic components of a green roof system

11. Types of roof gardens
Extensive roof
garden
Intensive roof
garden

12. EXTENSIVE
INTENSIVE

13. 2oth century- new era of roof gardens
Extensive roof gardens have origin in 20th century in Germany. This trend was
in Germany since 1960s
Berlin has between 5-30% of roof space greened in different parts of the city
 In London, about 100,000 m² green roofs were installed in 2008
Shanghai, also installed a similar amount in 2008
In France, approximately 1 million m2 of roofs are greened per annum
 Similarly, approximately the same area was covered in 2009 in North America
Germany adds about 11 million m2 of green roofs each year
www.greenroof.org

14. Rooftop gardening is an attractive and energy-saving
alternative to a conventional rooftop
Daley,2007

15. Case study - 1
Integration of green roof and
solar photovoltaic systems
Hui and Chan, 2011
Paper submitted to Joint Symposium 2011: Integrated Building Design in the New Era of
Sustainability

16. Objectives of the study
To study the benefits of integrating the green roof and
solar photo voltaic systems
Assessing the important factors affecting the interactions
between the two systems
To promote sustainable building design
Hui and Chan , 2011

17. ENERGY SIMULATION ANALYSIS
Four simulation models for the investigation of energy performance
Hui and Chan, 2011

18. FIELD MEASUREMENTS
Hui and Chan, 2011

19. Annual Energy Consumption of lighting and space
conditioning
Hui and Chan, 2011

20. Monthly power generation of stand-alone PV and green roof integrated PV systems
Hui and Chan, 2011

21. Hui and Chan, 2011
4-50 C

22. PV power output on bare roof and integrated system
4.3 %
more
Hui and Chan, 2011

23. Summary
Energy consumption for air
conditioning of the integrated
system is less
PV system on integrated
approach generates 8.3% more
electricity than the stand-alone
option
Extent of the benefits depends
on the system design and how to
determine the optimum
arrangement for a particular
building site lower than the
stand-alone system

24. V
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25. This concept of gardening was developed in Switzerland
Patrick blanc
VERTICAL GARDEN

26. Evolution of vertical gardens

27. What is Living Wall/Biowall ?
•Self sufficient vertical gardens attached to interior or exterior of a building
Living wall
Green
Facade
Green wall

28. Green facade
Green facades use climbing plants to cover walls or
structures
These are much less complex than a green walls
Plants are rooted in soil or containers, growing
upwards or cascading down on a structure
To maintain their position, develop growth and
survive through seasonal exposures, good structure is
important
Green facades are easily scalable and rely on the
adaptable characteristics of a broad range of plant
species
Green facades reduce wall surface temperatures by as much as 5-90 C
compared with exposed wall surfaces

29. Types of Green facades
Two types of structural green facades systems
1. Two dimensional system 2. Three dimensional system
www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com

30. Green Walls
Green walls are self sufficient
vertical gardens that are attached
to the exterior or interior of a
building
 They differ from green facades
(e.g. ivy walls) in that the plants
root in a structural support which
is fastened to the wall itself
The plants receive water and
nutrients within the vertical
support instead from the ground

32. 1_Trellis: support panel
2_Cellular polypropylene panel:
Water proofing thermal Insulator roots
proof with stapled shelves
3_Fertigation supply line
4_Growth medium: coconut coir_3cm
height
5_Green mat: ground cover plants
6_Metalic mesh: support substrate and
plants

33. How Does It work?
Irrigation Drain

34. Living wall system

35. Problems with vertical walls
Humidity
The best protection against humidity was obtained with use
elastomer materials
The modular systems are the best solution possible for solving
this type of problem
Steel structures can be used also, but this type of structures is
expensive

36. Plant suitable for vertical gardens for improving indoor air quality
Plant
assortment
Pollutants
Benzene Xylene Formaldehyde Toluene Carbon
monoxide
Chlorophytum *** ** *** *** ***
Dracaena ** *** ** *** ***
Hedera helix * * *** *
Nephrolepis
*** ***
exaltata
Phalaenopsis *
Scindapsus
aureus
*** * *** ***
Spathiphyllum ** ** **

37. Energy Savings Building Protection LEED® Credits
Indoor Air Quality Property Value
Acoustics
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Benefits of Vertical gardens
Aesthetics

38. Case Study-2
Utilizing a vertical garden to reduce indoor
carbon dioxide in an indoor environment
Yarn et al., 2013
Wulfenia Jouranl

39. Objective of the study
 To Investigate the effect of the photosynthesis of the plants in a
vertical garden on the indoor CO2 purification
Materials and methods
Four indoor plants The individual plant, small fan and CO2
Dieffenbachia 'Camilla‘
Pachira aquatica
Chlorophytum comosum
Spathiphyllum kochii
sensor were placed in a closed and
transparent acrylic case sized 0.5m in
length, 0.5m in width and 1m in height
Yarn et al., 2013

40. The CO2 absorption rate experiment of individual tested plant
Yarn et al., 2013

41. Dieffenbachia Chlorophytumcomosum
Pachira aquatica
Spathiphyllum kochii
night day night
Change in CO2 concentration of four different of plants with in two days
Yarn et al., 2013

42. plant cultivation area
human activity area
3 cyclic fan
3 return air inlet
split-type air conditioner
Yarn et al., 2013
Three-dimensional geometric model of the indoor environmental control room

43. Yarn et al., 2013
Indoor environmental control room in experiment

44. Variation of CO2 concentrations with time for Spathiphyllum kochii at different
initial CO2 background concentrations
Finally a stable
value of will be
reached (400
ppm)
Yarn et al., 2013

45. Instant absorption rates under different CO2
concentration levels
Yarn et al., 2013

46. Comparison of concentration level of CO2 for different ACH with or without plants
Yarn et al., 2013

47. Summary
The results showed that, after 150
minutes, 13% of CO2 generating from the
human breathing can be absorbed by the
240 plants
The experimental results proved that
indoor planting can be applied to purify
indoor air
However , the effect in not severe unless a
great amount of plants was cultivated in the
vertical garden
Vertical gardens can also be used to reduce
the air change rate of the ventilation system
in a living room and are beneficial to the
energy saving of the ventilation system

48. CONCLUSIONS
Green roofs and vertical
gardens can help reduce some of
the impact that urbanisation
imposes on the environment and
our quality of life
In general roof top and vertical
gardens are promising methods
to bring back greenery pushed
away from urban areas
But the hour of the mark is to
have cost effective and sustainable
roof and vertical garden using the
latest innovations

49. Landscape artist Marc Graney's system Phyto-kinetic Bus with green roof
Girona, Spain
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