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How Buildings in Johannesburg Could Benefit from Green Roofs

on September 9, 2019 at 5:50 pm under , ,
Photo: Leonardo Ikeda / Shutterstock

An exploration of green roofs for indoor and exterior temperature regulation in the South African interior – Environment, Development and Sustainability.

We set out to study what benefits green roofs might bring to Johannesburg, a city in South Africa’s interior. There are a few buildings with green roofs in the inner city, but these are not common. Johannesburg’s climate – with high day time temperatures in summer and winter, as well as a distinctly seasonal summer rainfall – has not been previously researched to see whether its buildings might benefit from green roofs.

Exterior temperatures for the green roof closely matched ambient temperatures, suggesting that this roof type would help in minimising the Urban Heat Island effect. The soil roof returned the highest minimum temperatures, attributed to the dark colour of the soil that absorbs heat during the day. This roof gave the best thermal comfort levels at night; however, this roofing solution is not recommended since the exterior maximum temperatures were considerably higher than the ambient temperature.


Read more: How buildings in Johannesburg could benefit from green roofs

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