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Thermal and water regime studied in a thin soil layer of green roof systems at early stage of pedogenesis

  • Urban Soils and Sediments
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Abstract

Purpose

The potential heat load and stormwater reduction of the anthropogenic, lightweight soil systems, such as green roofs, are valuable to heat island effect mitigation and to urban water management. Benefits of extensive green roofs, as widely used vegetated roof system with very thin soil layer, could be threatened by temporal changes of the soil structure.

Materials and methods

Green roof raised beds filled with two different anthropogenic soils (artificially constructed stripped topsoil with admixed crushed bricks and a commercial mixture of a technogenic substrate) were built to investigate the benefits of such systems in a temperate climate. These two soils were chosen with the intent to compare their thermal and water regime. One soil is expected to be favorable for hydrological functioning, whereas the other one for the thermal performance. Temperature and water balance measurements complemented with meteorological observations and knowledge of physical properties of the soil substrates provide the basis for detailed analysis of a thermal and hydrological regime in green roof raised beds. Moreover, the state of pedogenesis was studied on undisturbed soil samples by means of X-ray computed tomography.

Results and discussion

The water balance of green roof raised beds was calculated for a whole vegetation season and individual rainfall events. Runoff from raised beds was 38 and 63 % of received rainfall. On the basis of a detailed analysis of individual rainfall events, rainfall-runoff dependency was found for both raised beds. The difference between measured actual evapotranspiration and calculated potential evapotranspiration was discussed on the period with contrasting conditions in terms of moisture stress. Thermal characteristics of soil substrates result in a highly contrasting diurnal variation of soil temperatures. Analysis of X-ray computed tomography-derived macroporosity profiles reveals significant temporal changes in the soil comprised of the stripped topsoil with admixed crushed bricks.

Conclusions

Both green roof systems were able to reduce heat load of roof construction when comparing with the concrete roof construction. Similarly, received rainfall was significantly reduced. The extent of rainfall reduction mainly depends on soil, vegetation status, and experienced weather patterns. Methods used for non-invasive imaging proved to be beneficial for studying of soil structure changes.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports within National Sustainability Programme I, project number LO1605 and with financial support from the Czech Science Foundation under project number 14-10455P.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Centre for Energy Efficient Buildings, Czech Technical University in Prague, Trinecka 1024, 273 43, Bustehrad, Czech Republic

    Vladimira Jelinkova & Jan Sacha

  2. Faculty of Civil Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Thakurova 7, 166 29, Prague 6, Czech Republic

    Michal Dohnal & Jan Sacha

Authors
  1. Vladimira Jelinkova
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  2. Michal Dohnal
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  3. Jan Sacha
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vladimira Jelinkova.

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Responsible editor: Paulo Pereira

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Jelinkova, V., Dohnal, M. & Sacha, J. Thermal and water regime studied in a thin soil layer of green roof systems at early stage of pedogenesis. J Soils Sediments 16, 2568–2579 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-016-1457-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-016-1457-7

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