Emilsson, Tobias
- Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Research article2008Peer reviewedOpen access
Emilsson, Tobias
Technology for establishment of vegetated roofs (green roofs) has developed rapidly over recent years but knowledge about how these systems will develop over time is still limited. This study investigates vegetation development on unfertilised thin extensive vegetated roofs during a 3-year period. The vegetation systems investigated were designed to be low maintenance and had a saturated weight of SOkg/m', a thickness of 4cm and droughtresistant succulent and bryophyte vegetation.Vegetation development was investigated in relation to: establishment method, species mixture and substrate composition in a factorial experiment. Vegetation cover was investigated using point intercept.Moss was found to develop on most substrates and reached more than 80% cover on some plots. Sedum album and Sedum acre were the dominant species on the roofs. S. acre was found to decrease drastically after 2 years. The lack of difference found in this studybetween the establishment techniques shows that there are other possible marketable ways to construct vegetated roofs in Sweden, as an alternative to vegetation mats. Uniform extensive vegetated roofs with a high dominance of succulent species have limited value for plant biodiversity, as few species establish spontaneously. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
green roof; roof vegetation; Sedum; substrate establishment technique; species mix; succession; urban vegetation
Ecological Engineering
2008, Volume: 33, number: 3-4, pages: 265-277
SDG11 Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
Landscape Architecture
Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2008.05.005
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/18559