Tthe Environmental Advantages on the Use of Green Roofs in Buildings in the UK - Coursework Example

Research Plan to investigate the environmental advantages on the use of green roofs in buildings in the UK This research will provide an analysis of green roofs, to include the concepts and environmental benefits derived in installing green roofs on roof tops of buildings. The purpose of the research was conceptualized from other studies and the reality that having green roofs in buildings provide some environmental benefits, not to mention the aesthetic reasons in having them. In conducting the research, information and data were taken from the literature on green roofs and green buildings which are said to be sprouting in urban centers and in many cities around the world. Literature will be taken from books and databases on green buildings and green living. Primary data will be sourced out from interviews of a sample of participants who are owners and tenants of buildings with green roofs in the cities of New York and Chicago. These cities are known to have buildings with green roofs and they are found to have acquired many benefits from this phenomenon. The literature review and the primary data taken from the participants will be analysed and compared, drawing in the process a new knowledge on why and how green roofs are constructed on tops of buildings. The results of these methodologies will provide a conclusion and recommendations for other researchers to use as basis and conduct further research studies. Introduction Green roofs originated from the concept of roof gardens in ancient Syria. The goal of the makers of roof gardens was for decorative purposes but later they found that these had environmental benefits. Roof gardens were used to entertain but expensive to build. So they were a luxury only kings could build upon the prodding of their queens. (Werthmann, 2007, p. 18) Green roofs came from this idea but present-day roofs and green buildings have environmental purposes. Green roofs are gardens built on top of buildings. Construction boom started as soon as flat-roof buildings mushroomed in cities and urban centers. Green roofs became a countermeasure for buildings which are seen as posing environmental problems. In the United States, green roofs have been installed in many of the state and federal buildings. The Chicago capitol has been hailed as a landmark and other green buildings are increasing in my many states. 1.1 Aim and objectives This research plan will aim to investigate the potential uses of green roofs in buildings and analyse how green roofs provide environmental benefits in the atmosphere and surrounding neighborhood. 1.2 Hypothesis Green roofs provide a countermeasure to the environmental problems caused by construction and presence of high-rise buildings. Literature Review A green roof is defined as a roof with a garden or vegetation on the roof top and it has an environmental purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions or a great amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere where buildings and other environmental hazards are present. Green roofs also reduce so-called stormwater runoff as sewers tend to overflow when large volumes of water come in during extreme weather condition. Stormwater runoff combines with polluted water resulting into spread of particulates and eventually disease (Hardin et al., 2012). Rooftops covered with vegetation help in controlling stormwater, improving the atmosphere quality, reducing heat, and expanding the life of the building. (Happe, 2005, p. 111) A basic green roof has water resistance that protects the building and nearby surrounding during heavy rainfall. It also has anti-root membranes and drainage layers to absorb water. Another layer retains moisture and this is followed by the soil layer. Trickle hoses are applied to water the plants. Plants are located at the uppermost layer (Salomon, 2012). UK architects have introduced their “hybrid” concept of green roofs while the Americans have provided new concepts and designs for roof-greening, an application of environmental and psychological purposes (Werthman, 2007, p. 18). Various designs provide multiple uses and effectiveness of green roofs. Engineers have combined green roofs and cistern so the water can be reused during warm weather and drought. The water becomes preserved and treated with a solution. A green roof has special drainage system connection, but the advantage here is that the cistern can supply water back to the green roof by means of a pump. The cistern provides a cooling effect inside the building; energy use is thus reduced. Modern green roofs are copied from German green-roof technology whose original primary objective was to reduce solar radiation and act as fire retardant. With the growing environmental concerns, green roofing is quickly seen as the immediate solution to flooding and other natural calamities. German experts then started to discover and introduce green-roof technology to counter environmental threats. The growth of green roofs in Germany is now measured in millions of square meters (Oberndorfer et al., 2007, p. 825). In Stuttgart, Germany, Daimler-Benz has about 27 acres of green roof. In other areas in Stuttgart, millions of square feet of rooftops have been covered with vegetation. About 20 to 25 percent of flat roofs in the city and 10 percent of residential roofs are green. The city government provides incentives in the form of tax abatements. (Stutz, 2010, paras. 8-9) The green roofs industry in the United States has been increasingly growing. In 2009, building owners built 10 million square feet and this will increase in the coming years (Stutz 2010, para. 22). The application of living roofs in Manhattan and in many parts of the United States has proved the practicality of this phenomenon (Zanecki, 2013). On the other hand, The Japanese government in Tokyo requires new buildings to be covered with at least 20 percent of vegetation in their roofs (Scanlon, 2002 as cited in Gartland, 2008). Tokyo’s temperature rises up to 3 degrees centigrade from the normal because of the extreme heat released by buildings. In Toronto, buildings with at least 21,500 square feet floor area must have a vegetation cover of 10 to 60 percent (Salomon 2012). One of the largest green roofs in the United States is sitting atop the Postal Service, known as the Morgan facility. This green roof heavily encounters rain and summer heat that reaches up to 150 degrees, but with the presence of the green roof it is not anymore affected. The plants of different species and planted over a few inches of soil and other planting material continue to live despite strong torrential rains. During summer, this green rooftop in mid Manhattan has reduced to three quarters the stormwater runoff into New York’s sewer and water system, and in winter 40 percent is reduced. As the roof top cools the building, the United States Postal Service has saved energy costs amounting to $30,000 every year. (Stutz 2010, paras. 1-2) Methodology This research plan will introduce two types of research methods in analyzing green roofs and the benefits in installing green roofs in high-rise buildings or even residential houses. First, the research will use literature review as a method to draw data and information on green roofs. Literature reviews allow researchers to look at past researches and the results of those studies. Literature reviews are also considered qualitative because we draw qualitative data from the studies of expert researchers. A detailed literature review is required of master’s and doctoral students when they design a thesis. Researchers analyse information from a literature review and compare this with their new-found data from their own survey research. Researchers must be able to evaluate the work of others in terms of their new-found information and data, particularly the relevance of those researches to their own work. (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2006, p. 67) From the literature, a researcher can draw different sources which have three classifications: 1) general references, or sources which researchers usually refer to first because they provide location of other sources, like articles, monographs, books, and other documents, which have direct connection to the research question; 2) primary sources, or publications in which researchers report the results of their studies, for example, journals which are published monthly or quarterly and the articles usually refer to a particular research study; and 3) secondary sources, which are publications in which authors describe the work of others, and are usually textbooks. On the other hand, qualitative research is one area of ethnographic research wherein the emphasis is on documenting or portraying the everyday experiences of individuals by observing and interviewing them and relevant others. Qualitative research involves in-depth interviewing and continual, ongoing participant observation of a situation. In this research, we use interviews of building owners and occupants on their experiences in living with green roofs and green buildings. For example, the participants will be asked to describe what they feel and what environmental benefits they experience in living in a building with green roofs and green walls. The sample participants are building owners and tenants from a number of buildings in an urban neighborhood. The participants will be asked to answer the questionnaires in their emails sent to them. But first, formalities will have to be afforded, like sending letter-requests to the participants asking their permission to be a part of the survey and informing them that the survey is mainly confidential and for academic purposes only. The responses of the participants will be analyzed and kept in a database with a username and password only this Researcher will have access. Conclusion This research plan will provide an in-depth analysis about the reasons why building owners go to the extent of using some amount of money in building green roofs on top of buildings. The benefits, costs, and the problems involved will be dealt with in this research as conclusions and recommendations will also be drawn out from the research. References Fraenkel, J. & Wallen, N. (2006). How to design and evaluate research in education (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Education. Gartland, L. (2008). Heat islands: understanding and mitigating heat in urban areas. Sterling, Virginia: Earthscan. Happe, D. (2005). Green roofs are sprouting up. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 60(5), 110-113. Retrieved from ProQuest database. Hardin, M., Wanielista, M., & Chopra, M. (2012). A mass balance model for designing green roof systems that incorporate a cistern for re-use. Water 2012, 4(1), 914-931. doi: 10.3390/w4040914. Oberndorfer, E., Lundholm, J., Bass, B., & Coffman, R. (2007). Green roofs as urban ecosystems: ecological structures, functions, and services. Architectural Science Publications and Research, 57(10), 823-833. Retrieved from Digital Commons database. Salomon, I. (2012). Sustainable development’s coolest trend is: a crowning achievement. SCI, 29(1), 28-31. Retrieved from ABI/INFORM Complete database. Stutz, B. (2010). Green roofs are starting to sprout in American cities. Retrieved from Werthmann, C. (2007). Green roof – a case study: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates’ design for the headquarters of the American society of landscape architects. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Zanecki, V. (2013). Affordable net-zero-energy in outlying D.C. Solar Today, 1(1), 24-27. Retrieved from Environment Complete database. Read More