Green walls an efficient solution for hygrothermal, noise and air pollution control in the buildings

 A building façade is considered to form the first line of protection against adverse climate and environmental conditions in an urban area, such as wind and rain, leading it to be affected and eventually damaged by continued and direct interaction. Furthermore, the increasing ecological and environmental concerns, due to the global warming associated with air and noise pollution, is proved to be linked to the small quantity of vegetation and green areas in urban environments and to technological development. Depending on that, new approaches to improve the environment quality in urban areas started to be developed. One of these approaches is Vertical and Horizontal Gardens, which are taking increasing roles in the recent years. Historically, vertical gardens were the starting point for considering the possibility of growing plants on vertical surfaces and some examples are dated back to 2000 years in Mediterranean regions. Green walls were first used in buildings for simply decorative purposes in many cities of Europe and north America in the 19th century. However, the environmental control value of the green walls in Europe was not noticed until 1980s, where a lot of programs and studies recognized their ability to mitigate particulate matter, reduce noise and provide cooling effects leading to the development of a lot of projects that promoted the usages of green walls. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the efficiency of green walls regarding their ability to mitigate environmental conflicts, taking in consideration the different methods of implementation and their respective advantages and disadvantages. This study systemically reviews recent researches on nature-based solutions namely green walls. Followed by an analysis of the environmental properties of different models of solutions, and an analysis of the costs and the average payback periods. The results of the review can provide a feedback of the most efficient green solutions that could offer good environmental quality with economic advantages. The first part of the paper provides an overall introduction considering the green walls and their implementing methodologies. While the second part presents the environmental and economic effects of the different vertical greening systems on the envelope of the building compared to common building materials. The final results prove that each system of vertical greening varies depending on the levels of environmental benefits and costs, where some systems are proved to be economically sustainable with good environmental properties while others offer a wider range of plants with several implementation methods making them easierinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Selecting fog harvesting meshes for environmental conditioning structures

Fog harvesting is a technique used to collect water from the fog. This technique became widely used around the world due to the lack of fresh water, as fog harvesting is considered to represent an economical and a reliable source of water. On that sense, fog collecting methods are mostly implemented in areas that lack access to fresh water and is mostly used for agricultural purposes and, in some cases, also for providing clean drinking water. The basic idea of harvesting the fog was first developed by farmers when some types of adjoining cavities and containers were put around plants to collect water from humid air, after that those techniques were turned into fog harvesting structures. The introduction of fog harvesting techniques was accompanied with the introduction of new materials and different structures, providing a range of options in regards to the meshes and to the harvesting methods. In this paper, a practical and theoretical assessment of existing fog harvesting meshes is performed in order to characterize their economic and physical characteristics. The final objective is to provide information about their ability to perform in different conditions which is to be added to an environmental conditioning structure for exterior spaces.(undefined

Effects of public participation in urban planning: the case of Nablus city

Due to water scarcity, it is important to organize and regulate water resources utilization to satisfy the conflicting water demands and needs. This paper aims to describe a comprehensive methodology for managing the water sector of a defined urbanized region, using the robust capabilities of a Geographic Information System (GIS). The proposed methodology is based on finding alternatives to cover the gap between recent supplies and future demands. Nablus which is a main governorate located in the north of West Bank, Palestine, was selected as case study because this area is classified as arid to semi-arid area. In fact, GIS integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographic information. The resulted plan of Nablus represents an example of the proposed methodology implementation and a valid framework for the elaboration of a water master plan

Evaluating the potential of vegetation to capture pollutants in urban environment

Urban environments are subject to a concentration of air pollutants that may cause several health problems and discomfort to their inhabitants. Pollutant emissions are related with several anthropogenic sources, such as biomass heat-ing systems in buildings, the vicinity of industries and especially the intense road traffic. Improvements in air quality and consequent mitigation of climate changes are essential to achieve a more sustainable urban environment. The presence of vegetation sprawled in urban areas is important to achieve this goal. This paper analysis the capacity of several plant species to capture atmospheric pollutants, and specifically Particulate Matter (PM) in urban environment. The adopted methodology focuses on measuring and calculating the ability to absorb PM by three plant species - Parthenocissus quinquefólia, Hedera Helix and Quercus pal-ustris Muenchh - in periods of exposure to pollutants from 3 to 14 days. The specific removal of air pollutants by plants is a parameter influenced by several factors, such as the type of associated green infrastructure, leaf area, leaf density, plant species, location, exposure time and the type of the polluting source. From this research it can be concluded that the type of plant and its morphological characteristics are more influential than the size of its leaves.Project FCT/C-TAC Research Centre for Territory, Environment and Construction of University of Minho and Project Lab2PT - Landscapes, Heritage and Territory laboratory - UIDB/04509/2020 through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologi

Fog harvesting meshes physical, economic and environmental characterization

As fresh water becomes scarce nowadays, fog harvesting appeared as a new opportunity to be considered as an economical and a reliable fresh water source. Thus Fog collectors represent a functional solution to provide fresh water to be used in agriculture and in some cases, also as drinking water. Fog harvesting techniques had been used first by farmers as some types of adjoining cavities and containers were added around plants to take advantage of the humid weather, after that, these techniques were turned into structures. With fog harvesting techniques emerging, new materials and new structures are being developed, providing a range of options in regards to the meshes and to the harvesting methods. In this paper, Fog harvesting meshes are reviewed and analysed to process its ability on providing environmental conditioning of exterior spaces. The purpose of such tests is to acquire a new understanding and provide other options for fog harvesting materials while taking into consideration the economic and environmental aspects of each material used.This work has the financial support of 2C2T-Science Center of Textile Technology and the Project Lab2PT -Landscapes, Heritage and Territory laboratory -AUR/04509 with the financial support from FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) and co-financing from the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007528 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007136, in the aim of the new partnership agreement PT2020 throught COMPETE 2020 -Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program (POCI and by national funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology of FCT-Portugal under the UJD/CTM project/000264. The project is developed with the support and assessment of Laboratory of Paisagem, Guimaraes, Portugal, and the support of the Global Platform for Syrian Student