A GIS METHODOLOGY FOR ESTIMATING THE POTENTIAL OF AVALIABLE

ROOF SURFACE FOR IMPLEMENTING EXTENSIVE GREEN ROOFS IN URBAN

AREAS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
AB

G. PrezA, D.E. PezB and M.E. BernalB

Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia. E-mail: g.perez1404@uniandes.edu.co

ABSTRACT. In the past decades urbanization processes have reduced permeable areas in cities thus generating higher
runoff volumes and increasing urban heat island effect. Conventional urban drainage design approach aims at collecting and
transporting storm-water as soon as possible therefore leading to flooding problems and large expenditures on infrastructure
regardless the preservation and improvement of the environment. Given the considerable amount of sub-used roof area
available in urban areas, in the last decade green roofs have been promoted as a suitable alternative to reduce storm water
volumes in developed countries. In the last years a number of green roofs have been implemented in some Colombian cites
however there is little knowledge about the optimal location of these technologies within a specific area or the potential of
implementation of green roofs for areas with serious stormwater management problems. This study assessed a new
methodology to determine the optimal areas for the implementation of extensive green roofs based on high resolution aerial
photography and the derivation of a digital surface model (DSM) for a specific urban area with problems of insufficient
rainwater transport capacity in the city of Bogota D.C (Colombia).
INTRODUCTION
Urbanization and the increase in impervious surfaces
typically associated with urban development have
consistently been shown to result in degraded urban
environmental conditions and increasing storm water
management problems (Miltner et al., 2004; Wang et al.,
2001). A number of policy tools have been implemented to
reduce the impact that impervious surface has in urban
watersheds. One strategy is to place a limit on the amount of
total impervious area (TIA) in a given watershed (Carter &
Jackson 2007). Local governments of developed countries
commonly execute this standard of maximum allowed
impermeable area based on the application of models for
quantification of social and environmental benefits due to
best management practices (BMPs) implementation. BMPs
include, among others, green roofs, soak-ways, swales,
infiltration basins and ponds. In highly urbanized areas of
developed countries as Colombia there is no current
legislation to guide or promote the implementation of BMPs
to solve problems related to urbanization processes as
temperature increasing, worsening of urban landscape and
occurrence of flooding due to intense rainfall events.
In city centres, where access to green space is negligible,
green roofs systems offer the possibility to turn to account
areas that would otherwise be useless and thereby create
space where people can rest or enjoy as a part of the urban
landscape (Teemusk & Mander 2007). Commonly
construction of green roofs involves four layers: drainage
material, filter, soil substrate and vegetation. The thickness
and the composition of the layer material as well as the
vegetation type show great variation along the world
according to the specific climatic and structural conditions
of the construction site (Stovin et al., 2011). Green roofs are
typically divided into two main engineering categories
depending on the type of vegetation used: intensive and
extensive. Intensive green roofs are established with deep
soil layers; they can support larger plants and bushes and
typically require more maintenance and watering. Extensive
vegetated roofs are established with thin soil layers. They
are planted with smaller plants which in the final stage are
expected to provide full coverage of the vegetated roof.
Extensive vegetated roofs are most commonly aimed to be
maintenance free (Luo et al., 2011). Extensive green roof
have been chosen as a popular technology that mitigates
urban runoff, decreases temperature and provides an
ecofriendly space in high populated urban centres (Lee et
al., 2013). The main limitation for the construction of a
green roof is the slope and load capacity of the building

deck. According to the construction industry research and

information association (CIRIA) standards, extensive green
roofs can be installed and survive successfully in buildings
with percentage slope between 0 and 30% (Snodgrass &
McIntyre 2010). The lack of South American, and more
specifically Colombian, validated data and modelling tools
to enable green roofs to be evaluated against alternative
stormwater management approaches and perhaps most
significantly the current lack of any methodology for
designing and assessing extensive green roofs is one of the
major constraints to the implementation of this eco-friendly
technology in Colombian cities. This article provides a
simple methodology based on aerial photography to estimate
the feasibility of green roofs taking into account the slope
percentage of outstanding buildings in Cedritos, Bogota D.C
(Colombia).
MATERIALS AND METHODS

1.

Study site

The neighborhood of Cedritos in Bogota D.C,

Colombia was selected as the test site for the proposed
methodology due to its current problems as a result of
urbanization processes. Cedritos is located at the north
east of Bogota D.C in the eastern part of the Andes
mountain chain in the equatorial South America. The
city average elevation above sea level is
approximately 2550 [m]. The neighborhood of
Cedritos is mainly a residential area located in the
north part of the city, near to the Monserrate minor
mountain change. During the last twenty years
Cedritos has suffered a major process of urban redensification which has significantly reduced
impervious surfaces in the area. According to the
latest reports presented by the local waste water
management company (Empresa de Acueducto y
Alcantarillado de Bogota, EAAB) storm water
network in the area has collapsed requiring major
investments to update the infrastructure (Correa &
Rodriguez., 2012). Cedritos neighborhood consists
mainly of residential and commercial buildings with
an average height of 3 floors per construction.
Cedritos is located in an area of upper middle class
and is one of the most valued areas in the circle of real
estate, its comprises 27 blocks with a total area of
500 000 square meters and more than 25 000 square
meters in roof area distributed over 3000 buildings,
which offers great potential for the implementation of
extensive green roofs.

2. Materials
In this methodology the percent slope of the buildings
that comprise the study area is calculated based on
aerial photographs obtained from an unmanned
aircraft or drone eBee manufactured by senseFly .
The percent slope is estimated by deriving the Digital
surface Model (DSM) from the aerial photography of
the study area by using the GIS technology (ArcMap
10.1 & ArcScene 10.1). The DSM of the study area
was constructed based on flight lines to ensure overlap
between photos of more than 70% which resulted in a
raster grid of 8 cm of resolution.
3. Slope percent estimation
In highly populated cities of developing countries with
a great number of different urban typologies, such as
Bogota D.C, it is not so simple to determine the
potentially useful areas for the application of a given
low impact developed technology as extensive green
roofs. In this case study a new methodology to
estimate potentially useful area for implementation of
extensive green roof is proposed. In this methodology
slope percent and roof area are used as the main
variables for the selection of areas suitable for the
construction of extensive green roofs. Detailed
cartographic model showing the procedure used to
estimate the percentage slope of study area buildings
is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 2. Extensive Green Roof Assessment based on GIS analysis

and slope estimation for the study site (Cedritos, Bogota D.C,
Colombia).

Based on the geographic attributes of the vector output layer

feasible areas can be estimated as those whose slope percent
is less than 5%. In the same way impractical and unfeasible
areas can be determined as those with slopes between 5 and
15% and higher than 15% respectively. These areas are
shown in detail in Table 1 along with the percentages
according to the total area of roofs in the neighbourhood of
Cedritos.
Table 1. Feasible Green Roof Areas resume table.
Type of Area

Area [ha]

% of Total

Feasible area
Impractical area
Unfeasible area

10.83
5.58
10.16

41
21
38

Total roof Area

26.67

100

DISCUSSION

Figure 1. Flowchart of the procedure for calculating percentage

slope. Blue boxes represent Input Layers, orange boxes represent
internal result layers and filled box represents final output layer

Once the vector layer with the information of slope

type and roof area a visual validation of the result can
be carried out using the study area ortho-photo mosaic
and Google Earth and Street view imagery.

A methodology to estimate the potential area for

implementation of green roofs has been proposed and
validated to the studied site area of Cedritos. Based on
the results presented in Table 1 it can be concluded
that the study area has a high potential for
implementation of extensive green roofs (more than
40% of the roof area can be vegetated), however it
should be noted that this analysis does not take into
account other important factors such as the roof
material and the dead load capacity of each buildings
deck. If conservative retention factors are used to
conduct preliminary analysis of the economic benefits
associated with the implementation of green roofs as a
tool for runoff reduction it can be prove that it would
reduce from 30 to 40 percent of annual runoff
volumes (Mentens et al., 2005).

RESULTS
The methodology proposed in the present study can easily
provide a classification of potential applicability of
extensive green roofs for a specified area when aerial
photographs with adequate pixel resolution are available. In
Figure 2 a map with the results roof classification based on
slope is presented for the study site of Cedritos.
Figure 3. Detailed analysis of feasible areas for implementing

extensive green roofs. A: base aerial photography of Cedritos at

16Mp resolution. B: Slope grade polygons for Cedritos buildings,
green: slope <5%, yellow: 5% <slope <15% and red slope >15%.

According to results for the study area and local costs of

construction and maintenance of extensive green roofs, it
has been identified that flat roofs with areas greater 100
square meters offer the highest social and private net
benefits when extensive green roofs are implemented
(Groncol S.A.S 2014, company dedicated to Green roof
and vegetated walls design and construction ). In Figure 3 a
detailed area between 140 and 142 streets is shown. In this
figure it can be identified the green areas which meet the net
benefits conditions.
Finally With the purpose of develop more accurate analysis
of the potential areas for implementing green roofs it is
recommended to make image analysis in order to identify
the different types of materials associated with each of the
polygons representing buildings based on imagery on the
different bands of the electromagnetic spectrum.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research was funded by Los Andes University

and involved the participation and advice of engineers;
Daniel Pez Barajas, Maximiliano Bernal and Elias
Hernndez Garcia from Laser y GPS company.
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