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Green Envelope

This note is about attempts to construct green envelopes for urban structures, such as green roofs or green facades.

Green Roofs

For an overview:

Zhang, Gaochuan, and Bao-Jie He. ‘Towards Green Roof Implementation: Drivers, Motivations, Barriers and Recommendations’. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 58 (2021): 126992. https://doi.org/10/gkcmd7.

Impacts:

  • human social impacts
  • biodiversity impacts
  • health impacts
  • energy impacts
  • acoustic mitigation
  • heat island mitigation
  • food growing
  • urban climate adaptation solution
  • runoff reduction (70-97% in blue-green roofs, 12% in green roofs)

Argues for a systemic, biodiversity oriented understanding of green roofs as elements of a living city.

Bologna, Alberto, Adriana Ghersi, and Stefano Melli. ‘Integrated Readings for the Urban Green Roof. Expressive Codes and Forms of Nature’. AGATHÓN | International Journal of Architecture, Art and Design 11 (2022): 114–23. https://doi.org/10/gr4fp6.

A recent review of benefits and costs:

Manso, Maria, Inês Teotónio, Cristina Matos Silva, and Carlos Oliveira Cruz. ‘Green Roof and Green Wall Benefits and Costs: A Review of the Quantitative Evidence’. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 135 (2021): 110111. https://doi.org/10/ghf379.

Life Cycle Assessment of Green Roofs

There is quite a bit of literature on this, and seemingly a lot of interest too, judging by how quickly citations accumulate.

Green roofs

Shafique, Muhammad, Anam Azam, Muhammad Rafiq, Muhammad Ateeq, and Xiaowei Luo. ‘An Overview of Life Cycle Assessment of Green Roofs’. Journal of Cleaner Production 250 (2020): 119471. https://doi.org/10/ghqqs7.

Scolaro, Taylana Piccinini, and Enedir Ghisi. ‘Life Cycle Assessment of Green Roofs: A Literature Review of Layers Materials and Purposes’. Science of The Total Environment 829 (2022): 154650. https://doi.org/10/gr4g26.

For the overarching uncertainties of LCA for buildings, see:

Feng, Haibo, Jianfeng Zhao, Haonan Zhang, Shiyao Zhu, Dezhi Li, and Niraj Thurairajah. ‘Uncertainties in Whole-Building Life Cycle Assessment: A Systematic Review’. Journal of Building Engineering 50 (2022): 104191. https://doi.org/10/gr4g29.