Integrating Sustainable Green Roofs with Building Information Modeling

Abstract

The demand for designs which are sustainable and long-lasting has grown tremendously over the years, and is highly sought after in the building construction industry of today. The movement for global environment is fully dedicated and committed to ensure the protection of future generations. For a system which is sustainable, three factors are essential which must be taken into consideration, namely economic, social and environmental factors. The use of environment friendly roofs will be beneficial for the environment, in addition to being profitable both now and in the future. Prior to the actual construction and execution of a construction project, BIM (Building Information Modeling) provides designers and engineers with a great technological innovation to digitally create and design projects. Nevertheless, the in-built database of BIM's tools lacks information about green roof, which is important for engineers in order to design buildings that incorporate the concepts of green roofs and to carry out their sustainability evaluation. A proper methodology has been presented through this paper which incorporates Building Information Modeling with a database management system in order to design green roofs for building projects and to carry out an evaluation of their environmental and economic impact. The methodology will discuss the development and implementation of a model which includes a comprehensive database that stores green roof products and Life Cycle Cost Analysis and Assessment (LCCA/LCA) module. During the conceptual stage, the engineers and designers are able to animate, design, analyze and evaluate green roofs for buildings in the three dimensional mode in an environment which is user friendly. In order to point out the developed model's capability, a numerical case has been presented as an example.

Table of Contents

Introduction4

Literature Review6

Green Roofs6

Sustainable green roofs6

Comparison of Roofing Materials7

The Living “Green Roof”9

Green Roof Materials17

Benefits of Green Roofs20

Building Information Modeling (BIM)22

BIM and sustainable designs29

BIM and building green29

Methodology32

Three Dimensional (3D) Green Roof Modelling33

LCCA/LCA Module35

Capital Costs of Green Roofs35

Maintenance Cost of Green Roofs36

Effect of Green Roofs on Air Quality36

Energy Savings of Green Roofs37

Storm Water Retention by Green Roofs38

Validation38

Conclusion42

References43

Integrating Sustainable Green Roofs with Building Information Modeling

Introduction

Engineering applications are complemented by using innovations in technology, which are important for the advancement of technological breakthroughs. As a result of advancement in technology, home owners and investors are capitalizing on the various innovations in different fields, for the process of designing. Growing energy consumption by the community in terms of lighting, heating and cooling in directly related to the population of the human race. There is a growing realization among the people that adverse consequences may be had as a result of use of large amounts of energy derived from dwindling natural resources, thus the techniques and principles of design which are sustainable, are being widely turned to by designers and engineers alike.

A technique which is being used more widely is called green roof, and this paper will look to shed light on it. Modeling the design of a building before its actual construction is imperative for designers in order to come up with ...