Title: Optimising and investigating the effect of leaf area index, soil depth, and water content on energy conservation and pollutant reduction in green roof systems (case study: Mashhad City)

Authors: Mohammad Reza Seyedabadia; Mohsen Karrabi; Javad Abdollahi; Hossein Kazemian

Addresses: Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran ' Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran ' Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran ' Northern Analytical Lab Services (NALS), University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), Canada

Abstract: In this study, the effect of leaf area index, soil depth, and water content on the energy conservation and carbon emission was evaluated in building industry. For this purpose, firstly Design Builder software was employed to model a green roof on a 160 m² building located in the cold and dry climate of Mashhad City in Iran. The results showed that energy conservation in the building has a direct relationship with the soil layer thickness (up to 40 cm) and an inverse relationship with the soil water content. A two-fold increase in the LAI improved energy conservation performance of the green roof by 14%. After estimating the effect of green roofs on pollutant emissions, it was found that the highest emission reduction would be related to NO_x with the amount of 1,577.1 tons in warm seasons and 2,073 tons in cold seasons.

Keywords: green roof; environment; energy conservation; carbon emission reduction; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJETM.2022.125525

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 2022 Vol.25 No.5, pp.351 - 365

Received: 03 Sep 2020
Accepted: 08 Apr 2021
Published online: 13 Sep 2022 *

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