Quantifying the Impact of Green-Roofs on Urban Heat Island Mitigation

Climate change is one of the main concerns of our times, and it became even more noticeable due to its impact on global temperature, precipitation patterns, and even arctic sea ice melting. Moreover, it has been proven that climate change is one of the main factors affecting the Urban Heat Island (UHI); which in its turn, increases the energy demand in sustainable cities, where reducing power costs still a major challenge. Furthermore, in order to keep a balanced environment, and contribute to temperature mitigation, the use of vegetation cover is definitely one remarkable strategy. It helps decreasing the temperature down to the values required in sustainable development, reducing energy consumption, and lowering Greenhouse Emission (GHE). In this work, we assess the impact of green-roofs on UHI, and we try to define a decision model that helps calculating the best green-roof/green-infrastructure ratio. Besides, we aim to identify the best practices and measures to take in order to mitigate the UHI in semi-arid climate areas.