Evaluating the Impact of Vertical Greenery System on Cooling Effect on High Rise Buildings and Surroundings: A Review

Abstract

Rapid urbanization and the concern for climate change have led to a growing trend to bring nature into the cities. Due to artificial urbanization, urban heat islands have become a serious problem. Greenery is expected to be an effective countermeasure, and much research is available regarding green roofs, green walls, street trees and parks. The intent of this paper is to present a synthesis of the literature review on the design and technology for cooling of building and surroundings by using vertical greenery system. Effect of design parameters on building microclimate and the applicable cooling technologies are discussed.

A review of energy characteristic of vertical greenery systems

“…Growing media is the place that plant roots find nutrition [46]. It is possible for growing media to stay on the ground and only plants grow vertically and cover the vertical surfaces [39,40,46,47,51]. It is called green facade, and common in traditional architecture [35].…”

“…It is called green facade, and common in traditional architecture [35]. Moreover, it is possible for growing media stand vertically in front of the vertical surfaces [39,40,46,47,51]. It is called living wall, and it is modern technique.…”

“…Green vertical system [53], support system [39], and facade greening [40] are commonly applied terms for green facades, and vertical garden [46], carrier system [39] and bio-wall [46] are commonly applied terms for living walls. Table 4 presents dichotomy of vertical greenery systems and their terminology.…”

“…The benefits of vertical greenery systems are divided into three parts: environmental; economic; and social benefits [39,44,51,54].…”

“…It compared related studies and experiments and found some research design problems and missed issues in the studies such as lack of microclimatic information, plants properties, or green facade design components. Jaafar [39] conducted a literature review on vertical greenery systems with a focus on vertical greenery system heat reduction. In addition to these reviews, there are some literatures about vertical greenery systems [40][41][42].…”