by Brianna Crandall — October 26, 2015—In order to help city planners, architects and end users utilize green roofs to their full potential, green roof solutions provider Urbanscape has released a new Performance Evaluation Tool based on the results of a two-year in-situ performance study of various types of Urbanscape Green Roof Systems in different climate conditions.
The PET software measures the energy and stormwater management performance of green roofs.
The study, “Thermal and hydrological response of green roofs in different climatic conditions,” was made by the Urbanscape Green Solutions Team of experts in collaboration with the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia.
Based on the results of this extensive study, the economic and environmental advantages of a green roof can now be defined in terms of:
- Energy performance in summer (cooling effect)
- Energy performance in winter (thermal insulation)
- Rainwater or stormwater management performance
- Performance in reducing the urban heat island effect
Sample PET report preview
The results were used to prepare a special software package called the Urbanscape Performance Evaluation Tool (PET). The PET helps current and potential users/owners, urban planners, architects and designers to understand the real performance of a green roof in detailed numeric and graphic data reports.
With the Urbanscape Green Roof Performance Evaluation Tool, the industry is now a step closer to really understanding the benefits green roofs offer, including the energy savings they provide and the overall environmental impact of buildings in highly populated urban areas, which are facing several ecological and environmental issues, the company points out.
Readers can request a Sample Evaluation Report for a selected town or country.
