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Sustainability
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Building-Integrated Vegetation Systems for Sustainable Cities
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Building-Integrated Vegetation Systems for Sustainable Cities

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Engineering and Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 September 2021) | Viewed by 9973

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Luis Pérez-Urrestarazu

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Urban Greening and Biosystems Engineering Research Group, ETSIA, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain
Interests: urban greening; living walls; vertical greening systems; irrigation engineering; aquaponics
Dr. Panayiotis Nektarios

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Floriculture and Landscape Architecture, Department of Agriculture, School of Agricultural Sciences, Hellenic Mediterranean University, Heraklion, 71410 Crete, Greece
Interests: landscape architecture, design and restoration; green roof establishment in semi-arid climates; vertical green walls; turfgrass science, culture and management; urban agriculture and food production; selection of native species for establishing sustainable green roofs; substrate selection for horticulture and green roof systems; environmental protection from agrochemical leaching; plant communities and plant interaction, allelopathy; water stress plant physiology; landscape design and restoration; stabilization and restoration of inclined surfaces
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Katia Perini

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Architecture and Design Department, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
Interests: green infrastructure; green envelopes; vegetation; environmental and economic sustainability in (of) urban areas and building/urban design

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The current urban development is currently leading to densely built cities where the space still available is scarce and the land is expensive. This model of urbanization provokes problems such as the increase of the urban heat island effect, pollution, or lack of green areas. In order to overcome this and to be able to increment the quantity of green spaces in urban areas, building surfaces (mainly walls and roofs) can be used to locate vegetation. Therefore, the use of innovative building-integrated vegetation systems is becoming more frequent, mainly in the form of green roofs and living walls.

These types of nature-based solutions are usually employed with different aims such as ecosystem service provision (e.g., biodiversity increase, air quality improvement, stormwater management, temperature regulation), improvement of the building performance (e.g., temperature and noise isolation) or even with social or aesthetical purposes.

This Special Issue is intended to bring studies focused on building-integrated vegetation systems together. We welcome papers related with their design and optimization, advantages and drawbacks, their management and maintenance or their effects on buildings and their occupants. We also accept studies in a broader scale from the urban planning perspective.

Prof. Luis Pérez-Urrestarazu
Prof. Panayiotis A. Nektarios
Dr. Katia Perini
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Green infrastructure
  • Green building technologies
  • Nature-based solutions
  • Sustainable construction
  • Vertical greening systems
  • Living walls/green walls
  • Green facades
  • Green roofs
  • Eco-roofs
  • Brown roofs
  • Green roof gardens and parks
  • Energy performance and thermal comfort in buildings using green infrastructure
  • Ecosystem services
  • Urban fauna and flora biodiversity
  • Air quality improvement
  • Stormwater management
  • Urban food production on buildings
  • Horticulture production in green roofs and walls
  • Aquaponics
  • Water management in urban buildings
  • Waste water for irrigation of building green infrastructure
  • Water recycling for irrigation of building green infrastructure
  • Irrigation requirements and practices for building green infrastructure
  • Aesthetics and public perceptions for building green infrastructure

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 54721 KiB  
Article
The Synergy of Living and Water Wall in Indoor Environment—Case Study in City of Brno, Czech Republic
by Katarina Cakyova, Marian Vertal, Jan Vystrcil, Ondrej Nespesny, David Beckovsky, Ales Rubina, Jan Pencik and Zuzana Vranayova
Sustainability 2021, 13(21), 11649; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132111649 - 21 Oct 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1838
Abstract
The indoor environment that surrounds us and the elements in it affect not only our mood but also the air quality. Vegetation elements are currently more popular, especially for their aesthetic value but also because of the fact that they affect the physical [...] Read more.
The indoor environment that surrounds us and the elements in it affect not only our mood but also the air quality. Vegetation elements are currently more popular, especially for their aesthetic value but also because of the fact that they affect the physical parameters of the indoor environment such as temperature and humidity. Water elements are a similar example. The presented paper combines these two elements to achieve the best possible level of thermal comfort. Experimental verification of the influence of the living wall on air temperature and humidity took place during the heating season in the city of Brno in the space of the university, while three scenarios were created: the effect of the living wall in a semi-open space, an enclosed space, and a space with a water wall with regulated water temperature. The potential of the water wall is determined based on experimental verification in laboratory conditions. The results show that the synergy of the living and water wall in the indoor space may eliminate the risk of too-low humidity during the heating season. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building-Integrated Vegetation Systems for Sustainable Cities)
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29 pages, 10284 KiB  
Article
Evaluation and Planning Decision on Façade Greening Made Easy—Integration in BIM and Implementation of an Automated Design Process
by Jutta Hollands and Azra Korjenic
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 9387; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13169387 - 21 Aug 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3578
Abstract
Façade greening at the intersection between buildings and urban space offers an optimal opportunity to integrate greenery into increasingly dense cities and influence the microclimate and contribute to high quality of life in urban areas. Despite proven numerous positive effects, there is still [...] Read more.
Façade greening at the intersection between buildings and urban space offers an optimal opportunity to integrate greenery into increasingly dense cities and influence the microclimate and contribute to high quality of life in urban areas. Despite proven numerous positive effects, there is still a lack of implementation and practical relevance is low until now. To integrate existing greening systems directly into future planning processes and thus keep up with the advancing digitalization in the building sector, an integration of these systems into Building Information Modeling (BIM) is urgently needed and in connection to this, the implementation of an automated planning process to support easier realization of greening projects contributing to a sustainable urban development. Therefore, BIM objects were created for five façade greening systems after analyzing the necessary basic data. Subsequently, an automated process was used to optimize the time-consuming conventional planning process of façade greening, with the aim of evaluating the simulated greening variants based on defined parameters. A case study presents the application of the prototypes and the possible calculations over the life cycle of the building. This development holds great potential by simplifying the process of decision-making and placing façade greenery on buildings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building-Integrated Vegetation Systems for Sustainable Cities)
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10 pages, 1288 KiB  
Article
Removal of Volatile Organic Compounds by Means of a Felt-Based Living Wall Using Different Plant Species
by Gina Patricia Suárez-Cáceres and Luis Pérez-Urrestarazu
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 6393; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116393 - 04 Jun 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3418
Abstract
Poor indoor quality affects people’s health and well-being. Phytoremediation is one way in which this problem can be tackled, with living walls being a viable option for places with limited space. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of five [...] Read more.
Poor indoor quality affects people’s health and well-being. Phytoremediation is one way in which this problem can be tackled, with living walls being a viable option for places with limited space. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of five plant species in a living wall to remove Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and to identify whether the type of pollutant has any influence. An enclosed chamber was used to add the contaminants n-hexane and formaldehyde independently. Total VOCs were measured for three days in two scenarios: (1) empty chamber, and (2) chamber with living wall. Five living walls were prepared, each with three plants of the same species: Spathiphyllum wallisii, Philodendron hederaceum, Ficus pumila, Tradescantia pallida, and Chlorophytum comosum. There was no correlation between leaf area/fresh weight/dry weight and the contaminant reduction. In general, all five species were more efficient in reducing TVOCs when exposed to formaldehyde than to n-hexane. Chlorophytum comosum was the most efficient species in reducing the concentration of TVOCs for both contaminants, Spathiphyllum wallisii being the least efficient by far. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building-Integrated Vegetation Systems for Sustainable Cities)
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