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Assessment of Green Roof Suitability by Active Remote Sensing of University of British Columbia Buildings

Moniz de Sa, Sarah

Green roofs are a promising mitigation tool against environmental concerns caused by increased urbanization. This study aims to address which of the University of British Columbia’s buildings are most suitable for a retrofitted green roof using active remote sensing. Through the assessment of six characteristics of buildings, a suitability score was given to all buildings within the area of interest on campus. The six suitability criteria are rooftop slope, rooftop area, building usage, building ownership, structural materials, and light intensity. The six suitability characteristics where selected based off literature on existing green roof retrofitting analyzing their structure, types and performance. This study is part of the Social Ecological Economic Development Studies (SEEDS) Sustainability Program to address sustainability policies and practices on UBC’s campus. The building suitability analysis resulted in the detection of five buildings with the greatest suitability score and their total rooftop area being 31,940.80 m^2. Each of the five buildings then was further investigated in terms of the vegetation health and density surrounding the buildings to isolate potential concerns of planting in the area. The mean NDVI of existing greenery surrounding the top five suitable buildings is 0.67, indicative of moderate to high density vegetation. Implementing green roof retrofitting on the suitable UBC buildings requires an additional accessibility analysis to maximize the positive social impacts of increasing campus greenery and make decisions on the green roof structure.

Vancouver; British Columbia

English

University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0448435

https://doi.org/10.5683/SP3/LVXF0V

Canada