Inter-annual thermoregulation of extensive green roofs in warm and cool seasons: Plant selection matters

The thermoregulation of buildings and cities by green roofs is a primary driver of their integration into urban environments. In warm seasons, green roofs cool buildings (thereby reduce interior air conditioning costs), and cities (impervious surfaces contribute to urban heat islands and vegetation mitigates contributions by conventional roof surfaces). In cool seasons, green roofs insulate buildings by reducing heat flux through the roof surface. Here we investigate thermoregulation services provided by extensive green roofs in warm and cool seasons from temperature data points recorded at 5-minute intervals over a four-year period, and from modules containing either Sedum or perennial grasses and herbaceous flowers, mineral- or organic-based substrate, 10 cm or 15 cm substrate depth, and supplemental irrigation or none. We demonstrate that Sedum outperformed a mixture of perennial grasses and herbaceous flowers over the total inter-annual survey period. The meadow mixture was more dependent on supplemental irrigation than Sedum, but more susceptible to inter-annual climate variability. Our findings point to the durability of Sedum as a plant for extensive green roof cooling, as well as the importance of plant selection and identifying traits that match not just microclimatic conditions in summer, but also in winter.