Dear All,
Here are two leading Scientists who have voiced their concern about heat island effect due to exponential construction and infrastructural activities at the cost of felling of trees and greenery all around. These appeared as news items in Deccan Herald in the last couple of weeks.
I would like to suggest that instead of painting roofs white as suggested by Dr. Kasturirangan, a concerted effort must be made to publicise and then, if necessary, to enforce home / aratment owners to install roof gardens and lots of green foliage hanging from balconies of multi-storied buildings, Government Buildings, Commercial establishments etc.
Besides replacing first flush diverter's requirement in RWH systems capturng water from roofs, roof gardens can actually bring down room temperatures by as much as 20 degrees Celcius with cascading effect of less air conditioning requirement and consequent savings on electricity.
Wonder if Prajagalus would care to take this 'harmless' proposal up for building large scale public opinion about implementing such policies and persuading Government to ultimately make it mandatory as in the case of RWH systems?
Regards,
Chari
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A very good suggestion indeed
Mine is a single unit two story house about 16000 sq ft area inclusive of 200 sq ft of garage car park. We find that our upstairs bed rooms are intolerably hot especially during summer time. It is a good idea to have roof top green garden. Added to this some hanging type creepers on my stone walls would also provide additional cooling effect during summer. It is a nice idea in conserving energy at the same time reducing global warming.
heat island effect a global problem
The heat island effect is a global problem with the ever increasing size of cities globally and the associated increase of concrete and asphalt. What is alarming is that empty farmland and forests are vanishing at an accelerating rate. In a matter of 10 to 12 years alone the topography of Bangalore has changed..for example the beyond the southernmost tip of JP nagar empty farmlands used to exist hardly 12 years back but now they have been fully developed into houses.
This is sad story of expanding cities is a global reality and I don't think the solution is painting of rooftops or any "green" solutions because all of this cannot substitute for loss of farmlands and forest cover. The only anwser is to stop this unsustainable growth and indiscriminate expansion of cities and towns. If you happen to observe aerial photos of the Orange County region south of LA from the 1950s period and compare it an aerial photo from today you will see the mindboggling development in just 50 or 60 years with vast tracts of empty land covering 100s of square miles being gobbled up and replaced by asphalt and buildings. I guess the same would be true for Bangalore. I think answer boiils down to controlling the population growth. More population means more consumption of natural resources and ever growing cities and towns to support that population growth.
any good weblinks about roof top/balcony gardens ?
i had bad experience in growing a garden in my balcony . i had some flowering plants . They did not grow well and every time when it rained all the Mud would come out.
do you folks have any good weblinks on what kind of plants one can grow, how avoid rain washing way the Mud . i had searched about this topic long time back on the net but did not pursue much.
gardening on roofs
this link might help..
http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/blogs/show_entry/696-urban-terrace
Drainage Cells Will do the trick!
Dear Venu,
Use drainage cells in your garden area and you will cease to have erosion of soil during rainy season. Additionally the cup shaped drainage cells will retain water for grass or plant growth even when it does not rain or one forgets to hose the garden for a day or two.
The only web link I can think of is www.atlantiscorp.com.au .
If you click on sub-links within this web related to roof gardens, you will get all the details about drainage cells.
Best wishes,
Chari
RKC
Roof Garden
thank you for the links
thank you for the links. i think i got my solution for what i was looking for "upside down gardens " for balcony.