Green roof as an environmental safety tool for urban areas

Introduction. This paper is devoted to the impact of “green” roofs on the environmental safety of cities. Since fine dust particles РМ2.5 and РМ10 seriously affect human health, reducing not only the length of the working age, but also threatening life at all. Therefore, reducing the concentration of these solid particles in the air of urban areas is a serious problem for specialists in the field of technosphere safety. One possible solution to this problem is the widespread use of green roofs to green cities.

Materials and methods. The proposed work studies the ability of green roofs to reduce the density of particulate matter PM of various fractions and associated trace elements by several species of perennial plants during spring, summer and autumn. Detoxification of the air of the surrounding urban environment can occur due to phytoremediation, which allows the use of plants in reducing air pollution. Plants located at the level of the roofs of public buildings can capture heavy metals from the air, especially in residential areas where the roofs of buildings have significant areas. The paper assesses the ability of vegetation cover to capture fine dust particles in the air of urban areas based on the analysis of eight plant species. The experimental study focuses on plants with leaves of diverse morphology, which affects the capture of heavy metals.

Results. The study confirms the importance of choosing plants with special structural features for green urban infrastructure. High levels of heavy metals on green roofs were found in the summer season, which is associated with environmental conditions and the activity of industrial enterprises.

Conclusions. The content of solid particles in plants is also affected by the changing seasons. Rainfall in spring washes particles off the leaves, in summer gardening work captures and increases the level of density of solid dust particles. The study highlights the importance of studying the retention of heavy metals by particles of different sizes in plants.

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