Benefits and Drawbacks of Living Walls - Research Proposal Example

Running Head: Research Proposal Research Proposal – Benefits and drawback of Living Walls s List of Contents Introduction Background Key Objectives of Research Literature Review Research Methodology Data Collection Methods Analysis of Data and interpretation of findings Conclusion Timescale References Background Information The rapid growth of the human population across the world demands more land area that can be used for the residential purpose and for conducting other social activities of the humans. This need compels the human beings to reduce the land area covered by the plants, trees, herbs and forest and to make it usable for the residential purpose by removing these vegetations from the land. The vegetations help the earth to maintain a sustainable level of air quality and also work for the reduction of air pollution (Jones, 2002, p98). The temperature of the surface also remains at moderate level due to the vegetations but the reduction in vegetation due to increased population and urbanization has led towards the critical situation where the inhabitants of the urban areas experiences significantly high temperatures in the summer seasons. This temperature used to be higher than the temperatures of the surrounding areas of the urban cities because in the surrounding rural areas, the temperature remains at low level due to more vegetation and less air pollution created by automobile and industrial waste (Barker, 1997, p32). The rise in urbanization and industrial activities also contributes towards reduction of vegetation and rise in the temperature of the urban areas that tends to draw negative impacts upon lives of the inhabitants of these areas. Due to the negative consequences of high temperature in urbanized areas, there are several important steps being taken to mitigate the effects of high temperature. The concept of living walls has evolved during the last decade as an important mitigating measure of high temperature. There are several benefits of the living walls that have contributed towards their popularity during last few years however, at the same time there are also certain drawbacks of constructing the living walls (Frith and Gedge, 2000, p11). The paper proposes a qualitative research study that intends to explore the negative and positive aspects of constructing living walls. The proposed research study aims at identification of different living wall types and their benefits and disadvantages as compared with other types of wall construction. Moreover, the research study will explore the importance and significance of living walls in the context of urban heat islands to explain how this construction method could assist in lowering the energy consumption and improving the human health, environmental quality and health and well being of the inhabitants of the area where the living walls are constructed. The research study will be conducted secondary sources and the related available literature will be reviewed to attain the set objectives of the research. Key Objectives of Research The research study aims to identify the advantages of disadvantages of constructing living walls as compared with other methods of wall construction. The proposed study intends to describe the types and functions of the living walls and significance of these walls for reducing temperature of the urban areas, improving air quality and health conditions of the inhabitants. There are certain important issues associated with the topic of the research that the research paper also aims to explore and explain in relevance with living wall construction like urban heat island, reduction of energy consumption, effects of hydrology, comparison of u-values and vertical allotment. Based upon these objectives, the research study aims to seek the answer of following research questions What are the advantages and disadvantages of living wall construction as compared with other types of wall construction? How the living walls help in mitigating the urban heat island and improve the air quality and health of the people? Literature Review The section explains the key issues associated with the topic of the proposed research study. The study is based upon discussing different aspects of living wall and the background information about the research topic includes the explanation of the concept and type of living wall and their significance and urban heat island mitigating measure and tool of improving air quality and human health conditions. Living walls – types and functions Experts believe that the temperature of the urban areas increased basically when the building with relatively high temperature blocks the surface contact with the night sky that has low temperature. Some materials that are commonly used in the constructions of the urban areas like concrete, asphalt etc also contributes towards the urban heat islands. These materials have different heat capacity and thermal conductivity as compared with the surrounding areas due to which the temperature balance of the urban areas is affected and led towards urban heat islands. The temperature goes high when the dark color rooftops absorb heat so it is recommended by the experts that there should be proper material used for the construction of the buildings and other structures in the urban areas. In this context, the importance of constructing living walls becomes very important. It implies that the construction of living walls helps in reducing the temperature of urban heat islands and has proved to be a significant construction method as compared with other types of wall constructions (Runnalls and Oke, 2000, p283). The construction of living walls provides wide range of benefits. The living walls not only reduce the temperature of the building but also act as means for water reuse. The living walls observe large percentages of the heat and could be utilized for the reduction of heat transfer inside the buildings as well as to improve the durability of the roofs (Frith and Gedge, 2000, p11). The temperature of the urban areas also tends to increase due to the replacement of vegetation by asphalt and concrete used for the construction of roads, buildings, and other structures that are now very necessary to accommodate the growing populations of most of the urban areas. These surfaces do not reflect the heat but they absorb the sunlight and as a result the overall surface temperature is increased. It is also widely believed that the lack of vegetation in the urban areas is one of the main causes of urban heat islands because it inhibits cooling of the surface. The geometric effects are among the important causes of urban heat islands (Jones, 2002, p98). The living walls are basically of two types including passive and active system. The active system living walls is a construction technique that integrates the living wall in to the air circulation system of a building. The active living walls enhance the purity of the natural air through root system of the walls. In some building, the active living walls are constructed behind the glass to assure predictable air flow. The passive living wall system seems to be less effective because they do not have any system of moving the air in to the root systems. Both of these types of living walls have their own significance and are selected by the constructors keeping in view the requirements of the building (Miller, 1998, p22). The concept of urban heat Island and Significance of Living walls Urban Heat Island is one of the important phenomenon of meteorology and a widely accepted outcome of the human modifications to the environment. It refers to a metropolitan area that becomes significantly warmers as compared with the areas surrounding it. The urban heat islands draw some very strong atmospheric, biological, and economic impacts that strongly affect the human life in most of the urban areas. Urban heat island is basically characterized by the human induced landscape changes that resulted in the creation of difference between the urban and rural environment temperatures. The mitigation measures not only help in keeping the temperature of the urban at lower level but also protect the human health from the negative consequences of the urban heat islands by reducing air pollution (Wolverton and Wolverton, 1993, p11). The concept of urban heat island is not very new and soon after the trend of urbanization got momentum, the experts noticed the difference between the temperature of the urban areas and their surroundings. Luke Howard in mid nineteenth century discovered that London was warmer then the surrounding countryside and this temperature difference are contributed by the human activities that bring changes in the environment. After this discovery the urban heat islands became an important area of meteorological studies and the experts started keen paying attention towards discovering and identifying the climatic impacts of the human activities that result in the rise of the temperature of the urban areas. The experts have discovered that the magnitude of the urban heat island is heavily dependent upon the synoptic meteorological parameters including cloud cover, wind speed and generalized synoptic weather regimes and the urban heat island are the among the major outcomes of the human induced modifications that change the environment and climate (Oke and Maxwell, 1975, p191). Many of the tall buildings constructed in the urban areas are made with multiple surfaces to allow reflection and absorption of sunlight that causes increase in the temperature of the surface. Furthermore, many of the buildings also block the flow of wind and inhibit the surface cooling. Industrialization and other advancements also cause urban heat islands because there is waste heat generated from the automobiles, air conditioners, different mills and industries, manufacturing units, factories and other sources that results in the rise of the temperature and ultimately causes urban heat islands (Frith and Gedge, 2000, p11). Reducing Energy consumption and Improvement of Air Quality The high temperature of the urban areas especially where the urban heat islands exists, the health as well as the welfare of the residents is badly affected. The main characteristics of the UHI is high temperature due to which the duration and magnitude of the heat waves rises within the urban area that could be a major cause of human mortality. The night time effects of urban heat islands are considered even more harmful then the day time because it prevents the urban population from having the cool relief at nights. Due to high temperature of the urban areas, there is more energy need for the air-conditioning and refrigeration in the cities with extreme hot climates. The electricity consumption and expenditures increase up to a high rate in many of the urban areas (Wolverton and Wolverton, 1993, p11). The high temperature of the urban areas also affect the meteorological conditions of the cities as they can change the wing patterns and can also effects the clouds formation, humidity and rate of precipitation. Furthermore, the urban heat islands can also have an effect upon the plant growing seasons that can take 15 days longer then the rural areas. The water quality is also affected due to urban heat islands because in the hot pavements and roof surfaces, the excess heat is transferred to the storm water and this water with increased temperature is released in to the streams, rivers, ponds, and lakes (Buechley et al, 1972, p85). The construction of the living walls is supposed to be the solution of all these problems because it is expected that the living walls not only reduce the energy consumption of their buildings but also enrich the air quality that ultimately improves the health of the inhabitants. Research Methodology The main purpose of the proposed research study is to explain the advantages and disadvantages of living wall construction as compared with other methods of wall construction. The qualitative research approach has been selected as the research methodology for this study. The qualitative research could be of many types like case study, literature review, natural experiment, participant observation, interviews based, secondary analysis of data or the combination of these. For this study, the objective is to explore the benefits and drawbacks of living wall construction that could be best attained through the review of the available secondary literature. Thus, the proposed study will be done through conducting a review of all the secondary data available related with the topics of the research and the selected research method is “secondary analysis of data.” (Berg, 1989, p13) “Secondary analysis of data is to reanalyze the data that is already compiled by other researchers and organizations to meet the requirements of their own study or data base.” (Miles and Huberman, 1994, p124) The review and analysis of the secondary data is a critical look at the existing researches and documents related with the topic. It is the summary and analysis of the existing information. The secondary analysis is done to get a deep insight of the issues covered in the dissertation and to collect in depth information about different types of living walls, their functions, benefits and disadvantages. Data Collection Methods Secondary sources are used to conduct the study because the topic need information about the issues that can be gathered from documents and journals and does not need opinions and comments of any individual(s) hence the primary source like interviews are not selected for the study because the research objective could not be achieved through interviews. Hence the dissertation is based on detailed information collected from different secondary resources including metrology periodicals, architecture journals, books, magazines and web based informative portals. Analysis of Data and interpretation of findings The data and information collected through different secondary sources would be compiled and analyzed in order to come towards a logical conclusion to the issue raised by the research study. The analysis of the secondary data could be conducted and presented to explicitly explain all the issues related with the topic of the research study. Conclusion The paper proposes a qualitative research study based upon secondary analysis of data that tends to explore the types, functions, advantages and disadvantages of constructing living walls as compared with other types of wall construction. The paper presented the main objectives of the proposed research study and the methodology to attain the desired objectives. The paper also provides brief explanation to the background issues in order to provide a concise and clear understanding of the subject matter. Timescale There is time of a month given to complete this task. Thus, the time frame is designed in a manner to assure the attainment of desired objective will within the given time period. The research study will be conducted using following time scale. Week Activity Week 1 Accessing different secondary sources for collecting literature relevant to the topic like libraries, internet, personal and academic collection of books and other publications Week 2 Sorting out the relevant material and analyzing the information to address the issues raised in the research proposal Week 3 Compiling the analysis of material in presentable form to assure its logical flow and matching with the research objectives. Week 4 Proof reading, editing and final compiling References Barker G, (1997), a framework for the future: green networks with multiple uses in and around towns and cities. English Nature Research Report No 256. English Nature/MAB, Peterborough Berg, B., Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences, 1989 Buechley, R. W. and J. Van Bruggen, and L. E. Trippi (1972). "Heat island = death island?” Environmental Research 5: 85–92 Frith M and Gedge D, (2000). The black redstart in urban Britain. A conservation conundrum? British Wildlife (August 2000) 11 (6) Jones R A, (2002), Tecticolous invertebrates. A preliminary investigation of the invertebrate fauna on ecoroofs in urban London. English Nature, London Miles, M. & M. Huberman, Qualitative Data Analysis, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. , 1994 Miller C. (1998), Vegetated roof covers. A new method for controlling runoff in urbanized areas. Pennsylvania Stormwater Management Symposium, October 21–22 Oke TR, Maxwell GB (1975) urban heat island dynamics in Montreal and Vancouver. Atmos Envrionment 9: 191–200 Runnalls KE, Oke TR (2000) Dynamics and controls of the near-surface heat island of Vancouver, British Columbia. Physical Geography 21: 283–304 Wolverton B C and Wolverton J D, (1993) Plants and soil microorganisms. Removal of formaldehyde, xylene and ammonia from the indoor environment. Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences, 38 (2) 11–15 Read More