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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 35 (2012) 361 368

AicE-Bs 2011 Famagusta Asia Pacific International Conference on Environment-Behaviour Studies, Salamis Bay Conti Resort Hotel, Famagusta, North Cyprus, 7-9 December 2011

Cooling Potentials and CO2 Uptake of Ipomoea Pes-caprae Installed on the Flat Roof of a Single Storey Residential Building in Malaysia
Asmat Ismaila*, Muna Hanim Abdul Samadb Abdul Malek Abdul Rahmanc & Foong Swee Yeokd
b,c a Department of Building, Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, UiTM, 32610 Bota Perak, Malaysia Architecture Programme, School of Housing, Building and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia d School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia

Abstract This paper emphasizes on the cooling effect of green roof in improving indoor comfort of Malaysian homes. The amount of CO2 uptake by the chosen green roof plant is also highlighted in this paper. This study used an experimental procedure in which the measurements of temperatures, solar radiation, indoor humidity and carbon uptake of a selected green roof plant (Ipomoea pes-caprae) were conducted on the case study building. 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Centre for Environment 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under the responsibility of Centre for EnvironmentBehaviour Studies(cE-Bs), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia Behaviour Studies (cE-Bs), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia
Keywords: global warming; green roof; ipomoea pes caprae; CO2 uptake

1. Introduction Global warming is a world calamity. This projected phenomenon could lead to extreme and unpredictable weather conditions such as, intense precipitation, sea level rise due to melting of ice, and increased indoor discomfort conditions. Many scholars said that, global warming is caused by human activities, which contributed to the massive increase of greenhouse gas due to burning of fossil fuels and

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +60195718863; E-mail address: asmat_ismail2007@yahoo.com.

1877-0428 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies(cE-Bs), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.02.099

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deforestation (Ahmad, 2007; Houghton, 2004; Kaur, 2008; Maslin, 2004; Yusoff, 2007a, 2008). Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important greenhouse gases that are increasing in the atmosphere. It contributed about 70% of the enhanced greenhouse effect (Houghton, 2004). If this extra greenhouse gases continuously generated, the ticker thermal blanket will develop and the earths atmosphere will keep too much heat. The increases amount of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, due to the human societies, increasingly adopt the sophisticated and mechanised lifestyles, has enhanced the warming capability of the natural greenhouse effect (Yusoff, 2007b). A range of projected buildings related CO2 emissions (including through the use of electricity) is from 8.6 GtCO2 in 2004 to 11.4 and 15.6 GtCO2 emissions in 2030 (Levine et al., 2007). Therefore, to reduce the CO2 emission and improve thermal performance in a building, the energy consumption and embodied energy in buildings should be reduced. According to IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, use of technologies, culture, occupant behaviour, and consumer choice were considered as the main determinants of energy use in buildings and play a fundamental role in determining CO2 emissions (Levine et al., 2007). Therefore, to reduce energy usage and CO2 emission also to improve thermal performance in a building, the application of passive element in building is necessary. Many studies have proved that the greening nature of the roof may provide a positive impact towards mitigating the impacts of global warming. It also can assure an improvement in indoor comfort inside the buildings. However, in the Malaysian context, study to examine the green roofs cooling potential and its contribution towards reducing the atmospheric carbon dioxide is extremely scanty. Therefore, this paper focus on the study of green roofs effect in improving indoor comfort of Malaysian homes and how much the atmospheric CO2 can be sequestered by a chosen plant installed on the roof. The comparison of outdoor and indoor environmental data from green roof (potted plant installed on the flat roof) and expose reference roof (bare roof) has used to evaluate the green roofs cooling potentials. Furthermore, we have estimated the amount of carbon sequestered by this plant. After comparing a few plants, Ipomoea pes-caprae or beach morning glory was chosen as green roof plant due to its ability to uptake higher carbon dioxide. By definition, green roof is roof consists of vegetation planted on usually water proved membrane and growing medium (Anon, 2007; Dunnett and Kingsbury, 2004). Over the years, many researchers have proved that green roof could give rise to enormous environmental benefits to the buildings and its occupants. Specifically, Eomorfopoulou and Aravantinos (1998) has shown in their studies that large surfaces covered with vegetation could contribute to the improvement of thermal performance of building. This notion was supported by Niachou et al. (2001) with an experimental result concluded that the surface temperature of non-insulated building without green roof were varied from 42-48C, while the surface temperature of the green roof upon non-insulated building were much lower with the range of 2840C. These result shown a large temperature differences between both roofs. In 2001, Onmura et al from Japan confirmed that the amount of heat coming into the room during summer could be significantly reduced by a roof lawn garden. They observed the reduction of roof slab surface temperature of around 60-30C during the measurement and estimated from there a 50% in heat flux. In Singapore, Wong et al. (2007) concluded that green roof tends to experience lower surface temperature than the exposed roof surface, of which over 60% of heat gain was prevented in areas covered well by vegetation. Spala et al. (2008) found that green roof installed on the office building in Athens significantly contributes to energy saving especially in summer and estimated a remarkable reduction of building cooling load. In Malaysia, a study by Rumana & Mohd Hamdan (2009) showed an impressive result. Outdoor surface temperature reduction of up to 19.8C was observed on the green roof. While, the reduction of indoor ceiling surface temperature was up to 3C compared to the bare roof. All the above studies were concentrated on the cooling effect of green roof. There are very few studies that emphasized the effect of green roofs plant in reducing the atmospheric carbon dioxide. Therefore, as mentioned earlier, one of the purposes of this paper is to highlight the CO2 uptake by selected green roof plant in a single storey residential building.

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Lawlor (2001, p.303) reported that, the current increased in the atmospheric CO2 is resulted from increased human activity including burning fossil fuels and removal of forests. Carbon sequestration by forest plant is highest during the young and growing stages of plant. Subsequently, the uptake and loss of carbon will achieve equilibrium upon mature (100-200 years for a big tree). In the 1980s, the tropical regions were the stronger sources of CO2 due to massive development, but the carbon budget may have been near neutral in the 1990s. Therefore, to maintain the ability of carbon sequestration in order to enhance the quality of life, more and more green plants should be grown or replant. With the ability to uptake CO2 in the photosynthesis process and abundant sunlight in the Tropics, green plants potential as thermal shield and carbon sequester on the roof is studied in this project. 2. Material and Methods 2.1. Selection of Plant for Green Roof Selection of plant for green roof was done at the Marine Research Station, Muka Head, Teluk Bahang, Pulau Pinang on 1 July 2008. Five (5) different types of green plant have been tested on their carbon uptake. The chosen plants, namely Syngonium podophyllum (arrowhead plants), Ipomoea batatas (sweet potato), jasminum sambac, Ipomoea horsfalliae (cardinal creeper), Ipomoea pes-caprae (beach morning glory). Ipomoea pes capre or beach morning glory was selected due to its higher primary productivity rate in taking up carbon dioxide compared to other plants. It also can tolerate to high ambient temperature, which are properties required by the green roofs plant. Carbon uptake for all selected plant samples were measured using LI-6400 Portable Photosynthesis System. 2.2. The measurements of temperatures, solar radiation, indoor relative humidity and indoor wind speed on the experimental building. The measurements of temperatures and carbon uptake of the selected green roof plant (Ipomoea pescaprae) were conducted on a residential building. This building is a single storey detached house located within the premises of University Sains Malaysia, Penang Campus. This house is constructed of brick with the roof fully exposed to sunlight during daytime. The bedroom with a concrete flat roof, located at the rear of the house, was selected as the room for this study. This room orientated at the east-west direction. It is chosen as it experienced a higher temperature during the day due to full sun exposure, which is perfect for this study. The measurements of outdoor and indoor environments were conducted on the external and internal of this room. The room constructed with brickwork measuring of 3.04m x 2.74m x 3.05m high has a panel door and a casement window. The flat roof surface is insulated with bituminous felt and painted black. Six (6) days measurements for each roof i.e. exposed roof (bare roof) and green roof has been conducted in successive weeks. The measurements of green roof were conducted from 8 June 2009 until 13 June 2009 while the measurements for exposed roof (black, bare roof) have been conducted from 15 June 2009 until 20 June 2009. A total of 102 pots of ipomoea pes-capre were placed on the roof to fully cover the top surface of our study room. A data acquisition system using ADAM 4019 was installed in the studied room to data logging of every 15 minutes. The outdoor air temperature, solar radiation, outdoor surface temperature of roof, indoor surface temperature, indoor air temperature, indoor relative humidity and indoor air velocity have monitored during the experiment. There were three sensors placed on top of the roof i.e., LI-200SZ pyranometer (to measure global radiation), 1906 NRG 110S temperature sensor (to measure ambient air temperature), and surface temperature sensor (to measure the surface temperature for the studied room). Meanwhile, four sensors have placed in the room i.e., indoor air temperature sensor, indoor air velocity sensor, indoor surface temperature sensor (placed on

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the ceiling surface), and indoor relative humidity sensor. The pyranometer and the outdoor air temperature sensor were placed at 0.340 mm and 0.350m, respectively, from the outer roof surface. Both indoor air temperature and indoor relative humidity sensors were placed at 2.58 m from the floor. Meanwhile, indoor wind speed sensor was installed at a height of 2.49m from the floor surface. 2.3. The Measurement of Carbon Uptake) The measurement of the daily and annual CO2 uptake by Ipomoea pes-caprae is conducted in this study. The measurements of carbon uptake have been conducted twice, i.e. in July 2009 (which represents the carbon uptake for the second half of the year) and April 2010 (which represents the carbon uptake for the first half of the year). LI-6400 Portable Photosynthesis System was used to measure photosynthesis rate of Ipomoea pes-capre. The measurements were conducted as early as 5.30 am until 8.30 pm for three (3) consecutive days for both months. Ten (10) pots of Ipomoea-pes-caprae were randomly selected from the roof. The photosynthesis rate of two (2), healthy, sun-exposed, and fully expended leaves from each pot was tested in both months. The respiration rate was also calculated in this study on order to get the net photosynthesis rate of Ipomoea pes-caprae. The respiration rates were taken when the Photosynthetically Active Radiation, PAR input was at 0 mols m-2s-1 and the photosynthesis rates were at the negative value. The net photosynthesis rate obtained from the measurements represents the amount of net carbon uptake by Ipomoea pes-capre. 3. Result and Discussion 3.1. The measurement results for temperatures, solar radiation, indoor relative humidity, and indoor wind speed conducted on the experimental building. The data collections for both roofs were obtained from different day of measurements. Therefore, the average six days readings for both data were analyzed. Fig. 1(a) shows the average outdoor air temperatures between bare roof and green roof, which was quite similar to each other. The average temperature difference between 0.02 and 1.91C as observed from the data. Fig. 1(b) shows the average indoor air temperatures for six days reading between black, bare roof and green roof. Indoor air temperature readings for green roof were lower than that of black, bare roof at all time. The observed temperatures of the bare roof range between 28.88oC and 31.58oC while the temperatures of the green roof the observed temperatures range between 28.58 and 29.93C. The highest average indoor air temperature difference between both roofs recorded at 1.55oC between 4 pm and 9.45 pm. The lowest indoor air temperature of 1.73oC recorded at 7.30 pm was due to the watering of plant. These results showed that green roof using potted plants, has an ability to lower the indoor air temperature and improve indoor environment of a single storey houses. Although the temperature different between exposed roof and green roof was not very big, which was less than 2oC, but it still demonstrated the positive cooling effect.

Asmat Ismail et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 35 (2012) 361 368
38.00 36.00 34.00 32.00 30.00 28.00 26.00 24.00 22.00 20.00 0 :0 0 :0 0 1 :0 0 :0 0 2 :0 0 :0 0 3 :0 0 :0 0 4 :0 0 :0 1 5 :0 0 :0 1 6 :0 0 :0 0 7 :0 0 :0 0 8 :0 0 :0 0 9 :0 0 :0 0 1 0 :0 0 :0 0 1 1 :0 0 :0 0 1 2 :0 0 :0 0 1 3 :0 0 :0 0 1 4 :0 0 :0 0 1 5 :0 0 :0 0 1 6 :0 0 :0 0 1 7 :0 0 :0 0 1 8 :0 0 :0 0 1 9 :0 0 :0 0 2 0 :0 0 :0 0 2 1 :0 0 :0 0 2 2 :0 0 :0 0 2 3 :0 0 :0 0

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32.00 31.50 31.00 30.50 30.00 29.50 29.00 28.50 28.00 27.50

T em p eratu re ( 0 C)

T e m pe r atur e (0 C )

1.55oC 0.65oC 0.82oC watering time

1.40oC

Time (h) green roof black bare roof

(a)

Fig.1. (a) Comparison of average six days reading of outdoor air temperature between bare roof and green roof; (b) Comparison of average six days reading of indoor air temperature between bare roof and green roof.

Fig.2 demonstrated the results of outdoor and indoor surfaces temperatures for both roofs. In Fig. 2(a), the outdoor surface temperature of green roof was lower than that of exposed roof (black, bare roof) at all time. The biggest average temperature difference of green roof and exposed roof (black, bare roof) was observed between 11.15 am and 4.45 pm with the value of 4.62oC. The highest average temperature difference of 5.74oC was recorded at 2.45pm. Meanwhile, an indoor surface temperatures result for both roofs is shown in Fig.2 (b). The average indoor surface temperature of exposed roof was always higher than that of green roof, with the maximum value of 7.86oC recorded at 4.45pm. The average difference temperature between green roof and exposed roof showed a remarkable value between 1.15pm until 8.00pm. The average value of indoor temperature difference recorded at 6.85oC within this range. Both graphs show that, the temperature difference between those two roofs was lower around 8 to 9 am and started to rise towards afternoon hours. This results show a great cooling potential of using potted plants to cool the roof surface and the room underneath.
43.00 T e m p e ra tu r e ( 0 C )
T e m p e r a tu r e ( 0 C ) 44.00 42.00

40.00 4.62 C 37.00 34.00 31.00 28.00 0 :0 0 :0 0 1 :0 0 :0 0 2 :0 0 :0 0 3 :0 0 :0 0 4 :0 0 :0 1 5 :0 0 :0 1 6 :0 0 :0 0 7 :0 0 :0 0 8 :0 0 :0 0 9 :0 0 :0 0 1 0 :0 0 :0 0 1 1 :0 0 :0 0 1 2 :0 0 :0 0 1 3 :0 0 :0 0 1 4 :0 0 :0 0 1 5 :0 0 :0 0 1 6 :0 0 :0 0 1 7 :0 0 :0 0 1 8 :0 0 :0 0 1 9 :0 0 :0 0 2 0 :0 0 :0 0 2 1 :0 0 :0 0 2 2 :0 0 :0 0 2 3 :0 0 :0 0 1.37 o C 2.48 o C 2.59 o C


o

40.00 38.00 36.00 34.00 32.00 30.00 0 :0 0 :0 0 1 :0 0 :0 0 2 :0 0 :0 0 3 :0 0 :0 0 4 :0 0 :0 1 5 :0 0 :0 1 6 :0 0 :0 0 7 :0 0 :0 0 8 :0 0 :0 0 9 :0 0 :0 0 1 0 :0 0 :0 0 1 1 :0 0 :0 0 1 2 :0 0 :0 0 1 3 :0 0 :0 0 1 4 :0 0 :0 0 1 5 :0 0 :0 0 1 6 :0 0 :0 0 1 7 :0 0 :0 0 1 8 :0 0 :0 0 1 9 :0 0 :0 0 2 0 :0 0 :0 0 2 1 :0 0 :0 0 2 2 :0 0 :0 0 2 3 :0 0 :0 0 Time (h) Green roof black bare roof 1.67 o C 2.16 C
o

Time (h) green roof black bare roof

(a)

0 :0 0 :0 0 1 :0 0 :0 0 2 :0 0 :0 0 3 :0 0 :0 0 4 :0 0 :0 1 5 :0 0 :0 1 6 :0 0 :0 0 7 :0 0 :0 0 8 :0 0 :0 0 9 :0 0 :0 0 1 0 :0 0 :0 0 1 1 :0 0 :0 0 1 2 :0 0 :0 0 1 3 :0 0 :0 0 1 4 :0 0 :0 0 1 5 :0 0 :0 0 1 6 :0 0 :0 0 1 7 :0 0 :0 0 1 8 :0 0 :0 0 1 9 :0 0 :0 0 2 0 :0 0 :0 0 2 1 :0 0 :0 0 2 2 :0 0 :0 0 2 3 :0 0 :0 0 T ime (h) green roof black bare roof

(b)

6.85 o C 4.39 o C

(b)

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Fig. 2. (a) Comparison of average six days reading of outdoor surface temperature between bare roof and green roof; (b) Comparison of average six days reading of indoor surface temperature between bare roof and green roof.

Fig. 3 shows the average indoor relative humidity and solar radiation for both roofs. Average indoor relative humidity for exposed roof was lower than that of green roof at all time during the experiment. The biggest difference can be seen during the afternoon hours when the outdoor and indoor temperatures were at higher values (Fig. 3(a)). Fig. 3(b) demonstrated the pattern of solar radiation for both roofs. The average solar radiations for exposed and green roofs recorded at 536 and 599 W/m2 respectively between 8.15 am and 6.45pm.
R e l a ti v e H u m i d i ty , R H (% ) 75.00
S o la r r a d ia tio n ( W /m 2 )
0 :0 0 :0 0 1 :0 0 :0 0 2 :0 0 :0 0 3 :0 0 :0 0 4 :0 0 :0 0 5 :0 0 :0 0 6 :0 0 :0 0 7 :0 0 :0 0 8 :0 0 :0 0 9 :0 0 :0 0 1 0 :0 0 :0 2 1 1 :0 0 :0 1 1 2 :0 0 :0 1 1 3 :0 0 :0 1 1 4 :0 0 :0 1 1 5 :0 0 :0 1 1 6 :0 0 :0 1 1 7 :0 0 :0 1 1 8 :0 0 :0 1 1 9 :0 0 :0 1 2 0 :0 0 :0 1 2 1 :0 0 :0 1 2 2 :0 0 :0 0 2 3 :0 0 :0 1

1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0 0 :0 0 :0 0 1 :0 0 :0 0 2 :0 0 :0 0 3 :0 0 :0 0 4 :0 0 :0 1 5 :0 0 :0 1 6 :0 0 :0 0 7 :0 0 :0 0 8 :0 0 :0 0 9 :0 0 :0 0 1 0 :0 0 :0 0 1 1 :0 0 :0 0 1 2 :0 0 :0 0 1 3 :0 0 :0 0 1 4 :0 0 :0 0 1 5 :0 0 :0 0 1 6 :0 0 :0 0 1 7 :0 0 :0 0 1 8 :0 0 :0 0 1 9 :0 0 :0 0 2 0 :0 0 :0 0 2 1 :0 0 :0 0 2 2 :0 0 :0 0 2 3 :0 0 :0 0 Time (h) green roof black bare roof

70.00 65.00 60.00 55.00 50.00 45.00 40.00

Time (hour) black bare roof Green Roof

(a)

(b)

Fig. 3. (a) A comparison of average six days reading of indoor relative humidity between bare roof and green roof; (b) A comparison of average six days reading of solar radiation between bare roof and green roof.

The measurement of indoor wind speed was ineffective in this study due to lack of cross ventilation inside the room. This happened because only window was open during daytime hours while, the door was shut at all time due to the safety purpose. The indoor wind speed sensor can only plot the data into the computer when the door was open during the data downloading by the researcher. 3.2. Calculation of daily and annual CO2 uptake by Ipomoea pes-caprae. The net photosynthesis rate can be calculated by using the equation (1). A = Pn R (1) Where A is net CO2uptake rate, Pn is daytime CO2 uptake, and R is dark respiration rate. This equation was adopted from Sureeporn et al (2004). Referring to equation (1), daytime photosynthesis rate, and dark respiration rate need to be measured in order to calculate the daily carbon uptake. As mentioned earlier, dark respiration rate was obtained from the data logged in LICOR 6400, which indicated the PAR value at zero (0) mols m-2s-1. Average one-day daytime photosynthesis and dark respiration rate for July 2009 were 9.143 molCO2m-2s-1 and 1.64 molCO2m-2s-1 respectively. Therefore, by using equation (1), the net photosynthesis rate one-day in a month of July 2009 was 7.503 molCO2m-2s-1. Meanwhile, the daytime photosynthesis and dark respiration rate in April 2010 was slightly different from that of July. The values for both processes were smaller than that of July due to the higher ambient temperature during the measurements period. In April 2010, the average one-day daytime

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photosynthesis and dark respiration rate were 6.0245 molCO2m-2s-1 and 1.34 molCO2m-2s-1 respectively. Therefore, the net photosynthesis rate for April 2010 was 4.6845 molCO2m-2s-1. To calculate the annual CO2 uptake, the average value of CO2 uptake value in July 2009 and April 2010 were calculated. As mentioned in 2.3, the measurement in July represented the CO2 uptake for the second half of the year and the April measurement was represented the value for the first half of the year. Therefore, in order to calculate the annual net photosynthesis rate, the average value of July and April was calculated to get the annual net photosynthesis rate, which was 6.09 molCO2m-2s-1. In order to estimate how much the 102 pots of Ipomoea pes-capre installed on the flat roof could uptake CO2, the total leaf area for 102 pots have been estimated. By considering the 12 hours sunlight available in one day, 1 pot of Ipomoea pes-caprae can trapped 132.03g CO2 in 1 day. Therefore, in one year, the amount of CO2 uptake was estimated at 48.19kg CO2 per year (0.048 tonnes CO2/year). 4. Conclusion As mentioned earlier, human activities and behaviour play a crucial role in contributing to the impact of global warming. Occupants behaviour and the choice of technology usage enhance the CO2 emission in buildings. Tackling the hottest part of the building by using passive cooling technique not only could solve the problem of indoor thermal comfort, but also could improve the outdoor environment. From the results, it was confirmed that green roof could reduce the indoor air temperature and surface temperatures of a single storey residential building. It also can increase the indoor relative humidity to provide better indoor environment. However, using potted plants on the roof was not as effective as growing plants directly on the rooftop as a modern green roof design. It might be due to the reason that potted plants can only provide shades to the roof surface by their lush leaves, but not fully protected the roof surface likes modern green roofs do. In modern green roof design, several green roof layers such as waterproofing membrane, drainage layer, root barrier, substrate layer, and plant layer fully covered the roof surface. These layers can give better protection from the sun especially in the summertime. Meanwhile, Ipomoea pes-caprae pots placed on a flat roof were able to uptake higher amount of CO2 especially in the July 2009, which can be considered as a wet season due to the raining events during the months. During the experimental period, the leaf area measurement was conducted only once i.e. during April 2010. The leaf area measurement was only conducted after the plants have been grown for over a year and 10 months after conducted the first CO2 uptake measurement. The value of leaf area during April 2010 was smaller than that of July due to the lack of irrigation and fertilizing during April. The CO2 uptake amount during April 2010 recorded lower than that of July 2009 due to this reason. In addition, the ambient air temperature was also hot during those three consecutive days of measurements. As such, we believe the total carbon sequestered by the green plant we chosen should be higher that what has been estimated here. As a conclusion, it is evident that green roof has proven to be promising strategy in lowering the indoor air temperature as well as improving outdoor environment in terms of carbon uptake, thus lower the impact of global climate change. CO2 reduction in atmosphere not only could mitigate the impact of global warming but also improve the human health by providing clean, and healthy air to breathe. This, in turn, would improve the quality of life.

Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to the Ministry of Higher Education (Malaysia), Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia and Universiti Sains Malaysia for sponsoring this research. We are also grateful to Dr Khairun Yahya; the Director of Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies (CEMACS), USM, for allowing us to use

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the portable photosynthesis meter and the providing her staffs to help us during conducting CO2 uptake measurements. We also like to thank Mr Kumaradevan a/l Saminathan; Science officer and Abdullah Nanyan; senior lab assistant from CEMACS for assisted us in operating the portable photosynthesis meter and conducting the measurements. Finally, special thanks to the owner of the experimental building, Prof. Dr Mohamed Izham Mohd Ibrahim and Dr Norlela Maarup for allowing us to use their house as a case study building.

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