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Green Walls and Water


Green walls can provide numerous benefits as is well documented, from improved air quality, visual amenity, cooling, protection of the facade, a landmark statement and in some cases a less expensive alternative to traditional facade materials.

From a water management perspective, green walls require a lot of irrigation to maintain them and are not particularly sustainable if using a potable water supply. However, there is always a need to discharge of water used in buildings from grey water sources, cooling tower blowdown, condensate, cleaning water and stormwater.

These sources can be used for irrigation of the green walls, thus reducing the discharge to sewer, and saving money.

The larger the development site, the more issues with surface water runoff and flooding can be a problem. In these cases, too much water needs to be managed and green walls provide a consistent demand for disposing of the excess.

Balancing supply and demand, inflows and outflows, with evaporation and evapotranspiration from green walls can, as part of an integrated water design, alleviate what ever problem the site has - too much water from flooding, high cost to dispose of water, restrictions on supply in dry climates or high demand vegetation for aesthetic or agricultural uses.

Green roofs and their potential for water management and food supply will be discussed in a future article.

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