Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2008. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 58 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 54-58).

Rooftop gardens are an important tool within sustainable urban agriculture (UA) that can contribute towards food security. This paper explores the barriers, benefits and incentives of rooftop gardens which have documented environmental and social benefits, including use as a tool towards combating climate change and for creating community within cities. Significant barriers exist, with opportunities for mitigating such barriers and creating incentives for participation in rooftop UA including grant programs specifically designed to guide businesses through implementation of gardens on commercial buildings, rooftop restaurants for increasing tourism potential, change in policy for support of UA, awards for businesses who are leaders in using roof space for food production, innovations in design, and education and training. Rooftop UA has potential for growth in Vancouver, if impetus comes from various sectors, including government, non-profit organizations and the City of Vancouver, with specific emphasis on making rooftop UA exciting for business and profitable.

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We live in an increasingly urbanized world as people migrate to cities for employment and cultural benefits. Growing and dense urban populations contribute heavily to water pollution and energy waste contributing to global biodiversity extinction. At the same time, contemporary urban areas deliver diminishing returns to residents as cities become cramped, unhealthy, and unattractive. The rooftops of urban buildings offer exciting opportunities for remedying these trends. New rooftop designs highlight the need for more plant life and green space in urban areas, improve energy efficiency, and offer urban residents gardens to enjoy and relax in. Rooftops can enhance buildings in urban areas through landscape design, transforming neglected space into valuable real estate that provides ecological and economic services. Well designed rooftops can enhance property values, assist with primary on-site storm water management, help build energy efficiency, mitigate the urban hear island effect, and filter air and water. A good green roof exists in symbiosis with its neighbors and the city at large. Contemporary rooftop design strives for an ethical stewardship of the earth. I have chosen to design a green roof around the aesthetics and traditions of Japanese horticulture. Japanese landscape design evolved to maximize space and create intricate gardens in small areas and is deep in symbolism and ritual upkeep. / Master of Landscape Architecture

The thesis takes into notice a rare case of integration of rooftop urban agriculture into sustainable development of urban areas. The current situation shows that the development of rooftop urban agriculture has not been adequately studied. This master thesis aims to enhance the understanding regarding planning opportunities and challenges for integration of rooftop urban farming in urban design and sustainable urban development with a focus on environmental benefits of its implementation. Furthermore, the thesis brings up a conceptual design programme «Malmö FIVE» that shows one of the ways how architects and urban planners could inspire city developers and municipalities to explore the ways of the redevelopment of the existing unused urban spaces into the new resilient environments.  The thesis based on a combination of literature review, analysis of planning materials, site visits, conducting interviews, discussions and attending seminars and lectures to answer the research questions. The research identified multiple challenges that can be encountered in the process of implementation of rooftop urban agriculture. The findings determined the importance of rooftop urban agriculture being approached from the strategic sustainability perspective to value its potential fully. Rooftop urban agriculture can provide significant environmental values thus have an essential role in the sustainable development of urban areas.

In many developing countries, the stress of rapidly growing populations, mismanagement of resources and changing climate has created a burden on already compromised water resources. In Africa, where a significant proportion of the population is without access to improved water source, the urgency for clean available water sources to sustain healthy and productive human and natural populations has become a priority. As a water scarce country, Kenya has seen an increased investment in rainwater harvesting (RWH) projects to harness the vastly untapped rainwater resource, particularly in rural areas. Most of RWH literature is centered on the potential and implementation of rainwater harvesting systems, however not much focus has been placed on examining the demand satisfaction of these systems. This study investigates the reliability of rooftop rainwater harvesting (RRWH) as a key priority source of water supply for domestic use in three towns in Western Kenya: Kisumu, Nakuru and Lodwar. This was done using two approaches (1) the fraction of time water was available and (2) the fraction of time that a minimum demand was met, with acceptable reliability of 0.95 or higher. Actual rainfall data and RRWH parameters were used to produce supply/demand simulations of the system under Constant-Demand and Responsive-Demand scenarios over ten years. It was observed that all towns achieved acceptable reliability values for RRWH in terms of water availability however Lodwar only achieved demand satisfaction below 0.95. This study concluded that though RRWH cannot satisfy the minimum demand requirement through all days of the year, it is more than able to provide an alternative water supply for the domestic household in periods of long dry spells or when primary water source are inadequate.

abstract: Detection of extruded features like rooftops and trees in aerial images automatically is a very active area of research. Elevated features identified from aerial imagery have potential applications in urban planning, identifying cover in military training or flight training. Detection of such features using commonly available geospatial data like orthographic aerial imagery is very challenging because rooftop and tree textures are often camouflaged by similar looking features like roads, ground and grass. So, additonal data such as LIDAR, multispectral imagery and multiple viewpoints are exploited for more accurate detection. However, such data is often not available, or may be improperly registered or inacurate. In this thesis, we discuss a novel framework that only uses orthographic images for detection and modeling of rooftops. A segmentation scheme that initializes by assigning either foreground (rooftop) or background labels to certain pixels in the image based on shadows is proposed. Then it employs grabcut to assign one of those two labels to the rest of the pixels based on initial labeling. Parametric model fitting is performed on the segmented results in order to create a 3D scene and to facilitate roof-shape and height estimation. The framework can also benefit from additional geospatial data such as streetmaps and LIDAR, if available. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Computer Science 2013

The aim of the thesis was to study the relationship between film and architecture. Qualitative research methods were employed during precedent studies. The dynamic medium of film inspired an architectural anchor, the South African film archives. The Pretoria CBD was chosen as the backdrop for the Archive Cinema Complex, surrounded by public transport, pedestrianised streets and arcades. The objective of the design was to celebrate cinema and the collective heritage embodied in film. The programme was positioned in an existing building envelope, and it was allowed to partially occupy the roofscape, becoming a display to the city. The theory informed the need to identify views early on in the design process. Movement patterns around viewpoints define the viewer’s perspective during the spatial experience. Thus allowing the spectator to become the observed. The roof provided advantageous height required for an urban visual interplay. Investigation into circulation, in and around the building, created opportunities for interaction between various role players. These include the built environment, film, user and the city of Pretoria amongst others. The programme was extrapolated along this circulation route allowing the user to navigate the building. Cinematic devices, in particular memory and mental montage, were employed to define the route. On street level various images announce the programme. The placement of the building and visual interplay of projecting screens exposes the urban dwellers to film. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Architecture / unrestricted

abstract: Due to extreme summer temperatures that regularly reach 122°F (50°C), cooling energy requirements have been responsible for 70% of peak demand and 45% of total electricity consumption in Kuwait. It is estimated that 50%-60% of electric power is consumed by the residential sector, mostly in detached villas. This study analyzes the potential impact of energy efficiency measures (EEM) and renewable energy (RE) measures on the electric energy requirements of an existing villa built in 2004. Using architectural plans, interview data, and the eQUEST building energy simulation tool, a building energy model (BEM) was developed for a villa calibrated with hourly energy use data for the year 2014. Although the modeled villa consumed less energy than an average Kuwaiti villa of the same size, 26% energy reductions were still possible under compliance with 2018 building codes. Compliance with 2010 and 2014 building codes, however, would have increased energy use by 19% and 3% respectively. Furthermore, survey data of 150 villas was used to generate statistics on rooftop solar area availability. Accordingly, it was found that 78% of the survey sample’s average total rooftop area was not suitable for rooftop solar systems due to shading and other obstacles. The integration of a solar canopy circumvents this issue and also functions as a shading device for outdoor activities and as a protective cover for AC units and water tanks. Combining the highest modeled EEMs and RE measures on the villa, the energy use intensity (EUI) would be reduced to 15 kWh/m2/year from a baseline value of 127 kWh/m2/year, close to net zero. Finally, it was determined that EEMs were able to reduce the entire demand profile whereas RE measures were most effective at reducing demand around mid-day hours. In future studies, more effort should be spent on collecting hourly data from multiple villas to assist in the development of a detailed hourly bottom-up residential energy modeling methodology. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering 2020

In South Africa, there is an increasing interest in installing rooftop mounted solar photovoltaic systems. However, financing the photovoltaic systems causes most interest to be abandoned, largely due to the cost required to replace a building's asbestos roof. An alternative solution to replacing an asbestos roof is to install a ground-mounted photovoltaic system, which is more costly compared to a rooftop mounted system. This study aims to determine if a ground-mounted or a rooftop mounted solar photovoltaic system is the most financially feasible solar photovoltaic configuration. In this study three photovoltaic systems were analysed, all of which are installed in Atlantis, Western Cape (WC). Since all three systems are in the same area, they are all exposed to the same metrological conditions, allowing for identical energy generation potential. Two of the photovoltaic systems are ground-mounted systems located respectfully at the South African Renewable Energy Incubator (SAREBI) and at Stripform Packaging. The third system is a rooftop mounted system located at SA Tyre Recyclers. The photovoltaic system at SAREBI is a 9.75 kWp system consisting of 30 Canadian Solar CS6U-325P modules, one Schneider Electric 20 kW inverter, a tilt angle of 15° and an azimuth angle of -19°. The photovoltaic system at SA Tyre Recyclers is a 231 kWp system consisting of 700 JA Solar JAP72S-01-330-SC modules, 7 SolarEdge 27.6 kW inverters, a tilt angle of 13° and an azimuth angle of 22°. The photovoltaic system at Stripform Packaging is a 20.1 kWp system consisting of 60 Canadian Solar CS6U-335P modules, one SMA 20 kW inverter, a tilt angle of 15° and an azimuth angle of 46°. To achieve the aim of this study, the performance of each of the solar photovoltaic systems was examined, by comparing their annual specific yield. After which the technical aspects and differences of each of the photovoltaic systems were explored, to illustrate how each of the systems differ technically and how each system can be improved. Finally, the comparative cost of each of the solar photovoltaic systems was examined by analysing the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and the payback period for each of the photovoltaic systems. The results demonstrated that from an annual specific yield perspective, the ground-mounted configuration was the best performing, whilst from a financial perspective, the rooftop mounted configuration had the lowest levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and payback period. However, installing a ground-mounted system is more financially feasible than replacing an asbestos roof and then installing a rooftop mounted system. In conclusion, by fully understanding the performance, payback period and levelized cost of energy, a clear understanding of potential risk can be determined, thus making the installation of photovoltaic systems more appealing for financiers. It is recommended that this study be repeated in a manner in which each of the photovoltaic system configurations are constructed consisting of all the same photovoltaic components, measuring equipment, tilt and azimuth angles. All of which would result in two identical photovoltaic systems where one is installed on a rooftop and the other installed on the ground. Once the two photovoltaic system configurations are equal in all aspects, an accurate comparison to determine which configuration is the most optimal performer and which is the most financially viable will be possible.