Dubai Municipality launches public awareness initiative on Green Roofs

Farhan Al Marzouqi, Head of Corporate Marketing and Exhibitions Section in the Corporate Marketing and Relations Department of Dubai Municipality said that models will be distributed for display as part of an integrated plan to clarify the engineering idea of green roofs in a much simpler way so that all categories of the society understand it easily.

In addition to that educational publications will be provided by the Municipality to support the idea clearly. This will be done with the participation of shopping centres and markets, which will provide space to display the models. The Municipality centres and the Main Building of the Municipality will also display these things. As per the plan the model will be continuously transported across the Emirate with a focus on residential areas in order to cover the largest segment of the community. This will continue for a period of 12 months.

Al Marzouqi pointed out that the models will be displayed initially in the Mall of the Emirates for two weeks and then moved to Dubai Festival Center, and again at the Mall of the Emirates for another two weeks, and then it will be displayed in the branches of Al Mizhar Markets at Al Warqa, Umm Suqeim, Nad Al Hamar, Al Rigga and Al Sufouh for a month, to be transferred after that to the other three branches of the Markets.

"So, thus we will cover two full months and in another two months period the Al Arabi Mall, Al Mizhar, Al Twar Centre, and Dubai Municipality Main Building will be covered," he said.

Al Marzouqi thanked the participating companies, shopping malls and markets, which have sponsored the event and provided space to display the models.

The Green Building project comes under the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to adopt standards for sustainable development, which is one of his priorities in building the future Dubai with adopting green roofs technology that yields very positive results to the buildings, residents and the city in general.

The Green Roofs project aims at transforming the roofs of all buildings and houses in Dubai to cultivated areas and use water generated from air conditioners to irrigate plants. The project will be implemented gradually and in line with the Green Buildings project as the massive growth of urbanization in Dubai is leading to rising temperature in the region and Green Roof is one of the environment-friendly solutions taken up by Dubai Municipality to meet this expected expansion.

The Municipality conducted an extensive study that confirmed the success of this project in other countries. Hence, the Municipality decided to apply this idea in the field of environmental protection and reducing temperature and purifying air from other pollutants. The civic body has selected plants appropriate for this project in addition to making beautiful designs.

The organization of this campaign confirms the interest of Municipality authorities to participate in the environment, within the overall orientation for the application of green building standards in the Emirate of Dubai, and the pursuit of the Municipality to achieve the strategic goal to lift per capita green area to 23.4 square meters by the end of 2011. The Municipality has formed a special committee for the preparation of technical and application studies to establish the Green Roofs that will apply to all buildings in the Emirate of new and existing ones.

The application of the system will have a direct impact on the city from the environmental, aesthetic and economic aspects as the use of green roofs will lead to reducing the challenges of modern cities. The green roof protects the roof of the traditional building and the plantation on the roofs of the buildings will cool and purify the air and produce oxygen, and it also regulates the humidity and absorbs the dust.

Also, green roofs reduce energy consumption. Buildings with green roofs require less cooling in the summer than buildings with conventional roofs. It is one of the meaningful methods of thermal insulation which, if used widely, will contribute in addressing the phenomenon of accumulation of gases in the built environment, also known as the impact of urban heat island, where the temperature is around 3 to 5 degrees Celsius higher than the suburbs due to the absorption of the heat by buildings and streets and the inability of the city to get rid of this heat during the night period which leads to accumulation of gases. It is also worth mentioning that the green roof will isolate external sounds and a green space meets the needs of the community for green areas for a variety of uses in large cities.

The application of green roofs is optional for residential villas, but for investment buildings it was decided that the proposal be submitted by the consultant and the owner and discussed with specialists in the Municipality during the implementation phase of buildings so as to prevent any delay in treatment due to the application of the system. If they are satisfied with the system, it will be implemented before the issuance of the accomplishment certificate or the implementation suspended for another time.

There is no doubt that the past few years have seen a difference in global climate change, since global warming has accelerated, which has great impact on the determinants of basic life needs air, water and safety from disease. There has been a global consensus that the main cause of global warming is greenhouse gases emissions from human activities and urban development, which requires policy makers to take urgent action to mitigate the consequences of global warming and overcome it without abandoning the needs of economic development and social justice. The better design of buildings and providing energy can contribute to the reduction of global warming.

Dubai Municipality was the first to take initiative in the application of the system on its premises and the system will benefit from the concentration of rain water, the drainage and waste water treatment and water resulting from air conditioning units so as to not to drain the resources of additional water for irrigating the plants.

Preparation of a manual on Green Roofs has been completed, which includes application study of the system and construction and environmental standards that must be met during the application, in addition to the conditions, incentives, and the licensing mechanism. It also includes a list of the types of plants suitable for cultivation on the surface and soils that are suitable and their technical specifications. The manual also explains the needs of different plants for irrigation so that the plants those require minimal maintenance chosen.