An Experimental Rooftop Greenery Setup in a Subtropical/Hot-Humid Climate for Sustainable Development and Mitigation of Climate Change

The consumption of energy in the building sector contributes substantially to greenhouse gas emissions. In subtropical and hot-humid climates, typically cooling is required in buildings year round to maintain a comfortable indoor environment. The reduction of energy consumption, in turn, reducing the production of greenhouse gases can be achieved through effective operation of the built environment. In order to move forward with the mitigation of climate change, the impacts of rapid urbanisation need to be-offset. Eco-roofs are one way to achieve this. The aim of this study is to report the energy and cost savings, and achieving environmental benefits of the implementation of eco-roofs in subtropical climates. Eco-roofs use plants to improve roofs performance, appearance or both. They fall into two main categories, which are intensive and extensive green roofs. In this study, an extensive rooftop greenery setup was used for experimental data collection and comparison with non-green roofs setup in a subtropical and hot-humid climate. From the experimental data, it was found that the eco-roofs reduced the cooling load by approximately 13.5% in such climate.