Sustainability model to assess the suitability of green roof alternatives for urban air pollution reduction applied in Tehran

Abstract

Green roofs are environmentally-friendly architectural solutions that contribute to air quality improvement, especially in an air-polluted metropolis like Tehran, where space is scarce and expensive. At present, there are different types of green roofs available, with the intensive, semi-intensive, and extensive the most feasible for urban settlements. This project aims to develop a new model to find the most suitable green roof to reduce air pollution in cities. To achieve this, after an initial study of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, this study combines the agile multi-criteria decision-making method MIVES with an analytic hierarchy process and sensitivity analysis. This new model has successfully evaluated the suitability of the aforementioned three alternatives in Tehran’s residential buildings. This assessment confirmed that this new approach can assist urban managers, architects, and constructors in selecting the most adequate green roof solution to contribute to improving air quality in cities. Nevertheless, all three evaluated solutions require improvement in terms of sustainability. This article recommends, for this specific case study, the application of an optimized version of the semi-intensive alternative by replacing its most expensive and large embodied energy components with coefficient and cost-effective materials, such as bio-waste and recycled materials.