The benefits of green roofing for Latvian building environment
2013
Kara, P., Riga Technical Univ. (Latvia). Inst. of Materials and Structures | Pastars, P., Riga Technical Univ. (Latvia). Faculty of Civil Engineering
Green roofs serve several purposes for a building, such as absorbing rainwater, providing insulation, creating a habitat for wildlife and helping to lower urban air temperatures and mitigate the heat island effect. The modern trend started when green roofs were developed in Germany in the 1960s, and has since spread to many countries. Today, it is estimated that about 10% of all German roofs have been “greened”. Green roofs are also becoming increasingly popular in the United States, although they are not as common as in Europe; however, one sees more and more architects opting for green roofs as an alternative to large flat roofs. A green or vegetated roof is not such a traditional roof type for the Latvian building environment. Mainly because of a lot of the ideas that it harms the whole structure, problems with leaking, problems with hydro isolation, too large a weight and a lot of additional maintenance work and costs. And the greatest idea is that this roof type is totally unsuitable for local weather conditions when historically green roofs are widely used in Norway and also in Great Britain where weather conditions are much more harmful for greenery. These ideas mainly are coming from the fear to get into a situation with high risk to maintain a building with a green roof and if it is cost effective. In the present research, review is given on green roofing worldwide and Latvia, different roof systems and describes the benefits of green roof implementation.
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