Green walls and roofs: A mandatory or voluntary approach for Australia? Literature

Publisher:
Horticulture Innovation Australia
Publication Type:
Report
Citation:
Green walls and roofs: A mandatory or voluntary approach for Australia? Literature Review, 2017, pp. 1 - 54
Issue Date:
2017-06-06
Full metadata record
A review of literature on mandatory and voluntary approaches to the delivery of green roofs and walls (GRGW) globally. The key findings and patterns emerging around; Drivers for living architecture (LA) GRGW. As cities grow, increases in GHG emissions, air pollution, impervious surfaces urban temperatures, loss of tree canopy cover and land for food production. LA can mitigate the negative aspects. GRGW have social, economic, health and environmental benefits. Barriers are social, economic, technological and environmental. Costs are a significant barrier and lack of construction industry experience. Industry and BE professional capacity is in developing phase and not fully ready to implement on a larger scale. Training and skill development needed. There is significant potential to retrofit existing buildings, feasibility determined partly by structural capacity to sustain additional loads and; this needs to be more fully understood by stakeholders. Lack of policy and regulations to integrate LA practices in new build and retrofit. No consistent policy approach found in Australia. No states have GRGW policy (COS & COM councils have policies for LGAs. NSW, Vic, SA & WA have guidelines and policies referring to GRGW. Overall a lack of policy to promote LA. US Cost Benefit Analysis found a viable case for large-scale retrofit of GR. Increases in residential property value with green infrastructure between 6 to 15%, (AECOM, 2017). Wide-scale adoption of GR in Toronto could attenuate the UHI by 0.5 to 5o C - as heatwave is a resilience issue for Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, wide-scale adoption could be beneficial.
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