Document Type : CASE STUDY

Authors

Department of Range and Watershed Management, Faculty of Natural Resources, Behbahan Khatam Alanbia University of Technology, Behbahan, Iran

Abstract

Urbanism directly affects the hydrological cycle. One of the ways to manage runoffs in urban areas that is considered nowadays is green roof creation. Green roof is mainly created in humid and semi-humid areas, and efficiency of green roofs in arid and semi-arid areas has attracted less attention. In the current study, to evaluate the effect of green roof in arid and semi-arid to reduce runoff, an experimental green roof without vegetation was designed in Behbahan city of Khuzestan province in Iran. The city has an arid and semi-arid climate. Experimental Green roof was studied during 7 months. During the study, the data regarding the height of rainfall, soil moisture in different soil layers of the experimental green roof as well as the amount of output runoff were measured. The results showed that the amount of moisture in the surface layer of soil is severely affected by rainfall. The average surface soil moisture has been about 20.5 % and in the deep and middle layers has been 24.8 and 24.1, respectively. In addition, regarding runoff reduction and delays in creating runoff, the results showed that in the observed rain events, in average, 92.2 percent of volume of rainfall has been kept in soil, and has not been converted into runoff. Due to arid and semi-arid climate of the target area and high-intensity of rainfall, green roof can reduce a considerable percentage of runoff.

Graphical Abstract

Performance evaluation of green roofs in urban runoff reduction

Highlights

  • The green roof without vegetation in all the studied rainfall events has maintained 92.2% of the rainfall volume in itself
  • 1/3 of precipitations in region are in the category of heavy precipitation
  • The Green roof has a positive effect in reduction of runoff compared to common roofs
  • The rapid changes of surface soil moisture content can be attributed to evaporation from surface and soil hydraulic conductivity.

Keywords

Main Subjects

 

LETTERS TO EDITOR

International Journal of Human Capital in Urban Management (IJHCUM) welcomes letters to the editor for the post-publication discussions and corrections which allows debate post publication on its site, through the Letters to Editor. Letters pertaining to manuscript published in IJHCUM should be sent to the editorial office of IJHCUM within three months of either online publication or before printed publication, except for critiques of original research. Following points are to be considering before sending the letters (comments) to the editor.


[1] Letters that include statements of statistics, facts, research, or theories should include appropriate references, although more than three are discouraged.

[2] Letters that are personal attacks on an author rather than thoughtful criticism of the author’s ideas will not be considered for publication.

[3] Letters can be no more than 300 words in length.

[4] Letter writers should include a statement at the beginning of the letter stating that it is being submitted either for publication or not.

[5] Anonymous letters will not be considered.

[6] Letter writers must include their city and state of residence or work.

[7] Letters will be edited for clarity and length.

CAPTCHA Image