From the government of Madrid An innovative program called the Green Roof Plan has been launched. Your goal is naturalize the roofs of buildings and houses of the city, to create spaces for coexistence that promote sustainability, resilience and help combat climate change.
Green roofs are increasing their presence in large cities as a measure of coexistence that promotes environmental sustainability by allowing the conditions of thermal, bioclimatic comfort and the urban environment to be improved. The capital has 124,574 buildings in its territory and only 100 (0.08%) have green roofs, covering an area of more than 100,000 square meters (the equivalent of ten football fields).
The City Council of Madrid wants to promote roof transformation of buildings built in naturalized spaces so that citizens can enjoy them and that, in turn, contribute to mitigating the heat island effect, reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) and achieving more sustainable and healthy environments for all.
Green roof plan in Madrid
The delegate of Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility, Borja Carabante, explained at a press conference this Special Green Roof Plan (PAV), prepared by the Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility Area, which has received initial approval at the Government Board . The text will be submitted to public information and is expected to be submitted to the Plenary Session so that get the final green light in the first quarter of 2025.
The action contemplated by the PAV entails great benefits both at an individual and collective level, but for the surfaces of already built buildings to transform into green roofs, the collaboration of the owners is needed. For this, the City Council of Madrid establishes urban incentives that serve as a stimulus for its creation. The main one, the construction of penthouses on the roof by direct license and without the need for a detailed study, except in the case of single-family homes and in those buildings that are out of planning due to excess height.
Madrid renews itself in ‘green’
With the PAV, the tenants or users of a building where implement green roofs They obtain new spaces for use and coexistence, improving their functionality. In addition, it is allowed to gain common elements that, given current conditions, have no place to be located, such as facility premises, storage rooms and common areas.
The current drafting of urban regulations allows the construction of penthouses through a direct license in those areas that authorize them and, in those that do not, through a detailed study. With the Green Roof Plan this procedure is eliminated, streamlining and facilitating the processing if a green roof is installed.
The attics may be used for uses permitted by the zonal standard or particular planning ordinance, provided without exceeding the established maximum buildability for the plot. In this sense, if green roofs are implemented, the City Council allows different spaces to be built without calculating the buildability in the following way:
- In collective service buildings, it is also permitted to build bicycle rooms and the attic layout of warehouses, archives, toilets, changing rooms, laundry rooms, cleaning offices and other auxiliary rooms without the permanence of people is permitted.
- In buildings with other uses, except single-family homes, bicycle rooms can be built.
- When an attic is not built on the roof and the roof is used entirely as a green roof, it is permitted to build the aforementioned spaces in other provisions of the building that are open or unused on the ground floor, lower than the ground floor or under the roof.
The City Council establishes an order of priority for the implementation of green infrastructure. The first of them is the installation of plant shadows and ground-level landscaping. If this is not possible or is insufficient, green roofs or facades could be chosen.
The promotion and incentive of the presence of green roofs in the city allows obtaining a series of benefits and ecosystem services, collaborating in the improvement of health, environmental quality, the economy and the quality of life of people in different areas. On the one hand, it represents an improvement in the thermal behavior of the building because reduce spending on heating and air conditioningreduces indirect CO2 emissions, thus reducing the carbon footprint.
Improving thermal comfort on deck helps mitigate the heat island effect through perspiration and humidification of dry air, which improves the climate and increases the feeling of well-being. The plants, through water evaporation, photosynthesis and the ability to store heat from their own water, they extract heat from their surroundings, reducing the temperature of the environment. In addition, they absorb and reflect some of the sunlight, which contributes to creating a cooler climate.
Another positive factor is that its installation means more efficiency in stormwater management. Green roofs absorb rainwater through the different layers, both the plants, the substrate and the drainage sheet. They help prevent possible flooding by reducing the flow that reaches the sewage network and serve as rainwater accumulation tank. Using different cistern technology solutions, it can be reused to water the same roof or other garden areas of the plot.
Vegetation also reduces air pollution by filtering particles and fixing greenhouse gases and increases urban biodiversity.
On the other hand, by increasing the mass of the cover, especially thanks to the thickness of the substrate layer, the acoustic absorption is increased, also acting on the vegetation as an attenuator of environmental noise. It is also thermally insulated because it involves the placement of a layer of topsoil, geotextile, drainage and waterproofing system that generates cooling of spaces under the cover and lower heat losses.
Although the text will be submitted to the Madrid Plenary Session for final approval in the first quarter of 2025, it is expected that it will be approved and that it will help the transformation of the roofs of built buildings in naturalized spaces, in order to contribute to reducing CO2, mitigating the heat island effect and achieving more sustainable and healthy environments.