Abstract With the globalization and population growth, urbanization trends have attracted higher number of people to towns and cities causing very high population densities and space scarcity. Because of the current trends more and more buildings are being constructed causing a grave danger for the environment. This directly and indirectly increase the vulnerability of cities special in tropical context to climate change and related thermal issues due to the increasing temperature and urban heat island effect. Urbanisation has led to loss of greenery in urban areas directly causing the loss of biodiversity as well while increasing the building densities. Vertical greening is identified and implemented as an interesting integration in improving urban environmental quality and life standards which has the potential of solving the above issues. A research series was initiated with the aim of implementing a Vertical Greening System (VGS) to achieve the maximum benefit in terms of thermal performance in Tropical Sri Lankan context. The paper presents findings of the field study carried out to identify the thermal performance of existing VGS in Sri Lanka, an experimental field study done to identify the plant type best suited for the proposed VGS to enhance the thermal performance of the VGS and an experimental simulation study conducted to identify the benefits in building scale. Results of the on-site investigation of existing VGS revealed Living Walls to be better in thermal performance with a record of maximum temperature reduction of 10.16 °C,3.31 °C and 2.11 °C in external wall surface, internal wall surface and internal air temperature respectively. From the shortlisted plants the experimental field study signified Axonopus compressus as the best plant species recording a maximum temperature reduction of 10.08 °C and 3.15 °C in external wall surface and internal wall surface temperature respectively while proving to be better in survival and maintenance. Further the simulation studies signified a possible maximum internal temperature reduction of 4.89 °C during a day and a significant reduction of year-round energy consumption of building in building scale by introducing vertical greening to all facades.

中文翻译：

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在热带气候下实施垂直绿化的好处

摘要 随着全球化和人口增长，城市化趋势吸引了更多的人进入城镇，导致人口密度非常高和空间稀缺。由于当前的趋势，越来越多的建筑物正在建造，这对环境造成了严重的危险。由于温度升高和城市热岛效应，这直接和间接地增加了热带地区城市对气候变化和相关热问题的脆弱性。城市化导致城市地区绿化减少，直接导致生物多样性的丧失，同时增加了建筑密度。垂直绿化被确定并实施为改善城市环境质量和生活水平的有趣整合，具有解决上述问题的潜力。启动了一系列研究，目的是实施垂直绿化系统 (VGS)，以在热带斯里兰卡环境中实现热性能方面的最大收益。本文介绍了为确定斯里兰卡现有 VGS 的热性能而进行的实地研究的结果、为确定最适合拟议 VGS 的植物类型以提高 VGS 的热性能而进行的实验性实地研究以及实验模拟进行研究以确定建筑规模的好处。对现有VGS的现场调查结果显示，Living Walls的热性能更好，外墙表面、内墙表面和内部空气温度的最高降温记录分别为10.16°C、3.31°C和2.11°C分别。从入围的植物中，实验田间研究表明，压缩轴突树是最佳植物物种，外壁表面和内壁表面温度的最高温度分别降低了 10.08°C 和 3.15°C，同时证明在存活和维护方面更好。此外，模拟研究表明，通过在所有立面上引入垂直绿化，一天内的最大内部温度可能降低 4.89 °C，并显着降低建筑规模的全年建筑能耗。