Integrated rooftop greenhouses and green skyline cities

Abstract

The paper proposes a new strategy against the global warming, which if applied on large scale is able to turn our cities into green oasis, decreasing their actual carbon footprint and increasing their carbon offset. Our approach is to replace conventional roofs with integrated rooftop greenhouses IRTG, which are connected with the interior of the building by controlled flows of energy, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water. The main IRTG feature is the tight human-plant symbiosis ensured by a two flows ventilation system, conveying O 2 enriched air from RTG to building and CO 2 enriched air from building to RTG. To be applicable at large scale with no particular infrastructure demands, IRTGs systems are provided with renewable energy devices suited to the local climate: heat pumps (water to water for building’s basement and air to air for greenhouse), solar panels, etc. and also with Internet of Things equipment. Such way IRTGs can harvest local renewable energy resources (geo-thermal, solar, wind, etc.), store them and manage them together with the water resources. Besides future dedicated projects, inserting IRTGs into the existing urban infrastructures is possible, depending of the buildings’ condition, so nowadays cities may be gradually turned into Smart Green Skyline Cities.