De Groeve, M;
Kale, E;
Godts, S;
Orr, SA;
De Kock, T;
(2024)
Impact of vertical greening on urban microclimate and historic building materials: A meta-analysis.
Building and Environment
, Article 111365. 10.1016/j.buildenv.2024.111365.
Preview |
PDF
1-s2.0-S0360132324002075-main.pdf - Published Version Download (2MB) | Preview |
Abstract
An urban environment is subject to elevated temperatures and higher pollution levels compared to less densely populated areas. Implementing green infrastructures, such as vertical greening, is one method to mitigate this effect. Vertical greening is especially suitable for built heritage in city centres due to the limited space required for plant growth, while still providing substantial green surface area. However, built heritage is often excluded from mitigation strategies due to the unknown potential risks of vertical greening on the degradation of historic building materials. This paper provides a meta-analysis of the literature to establish a current understanding of how the introduction of vertical greening affects microclimates near the surfaces of built heritage and associates those changes with common degradation mechanisms of historic building materials including salt crystallization, freeze-thaw weathering, biodeterioration and chemical weathering resulting from pollutant dispersion. Vertical greening can reduce the fluctuations of surface temperature, air temperature, relative humidity and the amount of solar irradiation and particulate matter on a wall, which is likely to reduce the risk of most common degradation mechanisms in historic building materials induced by salts and frost. Even though degradation induced by particulate matter and bio-activity has received less attention in the literature, our analysis suggests that these factors can also be influenced by vertical greening. The risk of chemical degradation appears to decrease with vertical greening while bioactivity may increase.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Impact of vertical greening on urban microclimate and historic building materials: A meta-analysis |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.buildenv.2024.111365 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2024.111365 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an Open Access article made available under a Creative Commons License. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Built heritage, Green wall, Nature-based solutions, Microclimate, Material degradation, Urban heat island |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > Bartlett School Env, Energy and Resources |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10188338 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
