Cost and Benefit of Green Infrastructures in Urban Heat Island Mitigation
摘要
Anthropogenic heat from cooling systems fitted in buildings have increased surrounding temperature, which causes Urban Heat Island (UHI). UHI has increased energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Hence, an immediate solution is required to reduce the impact of UHI. Green roofs and walls are proven to reduce UHI through evapotranspiration and heat insulators. According to past research, these components reduce 0.7–25% cooling energy demand and temperature by 0.2–20 ℃. However, the monetary value of green infrastructure implementation remains undisclosed. Hence, this research is done to compare the economic worth of both green components using cost–benefit analysis. Green roof has been proven to perform better than green wall, as it is more capable in decreasing building energy consumption by 15% to 79% compared to green wall by 10% to 59%. Furthermore, the cost and benefit of a green roof is slightly better than a green wall whereby the ratio of minimum cost and benefits conveyed by a green roof in reducing cooling energy consumption is 1:1.19. Therefore, the construction of green infrastructure such as green roof is beneficial in terms of environment and economy for the property owners.