Journal article
Living roof preference is influenced by plant characteristics and diversity
KE Lee, KJH Williams, LD Sargent, C Farrell, NS Williams
Landscape and Urban Planning | Published : 2014
Abstract
Living, or green roofs, are increasingly built in cities for their environmental benefits, however there is little evidence about how to maximise their aesthetic appeal. Because preferences for landscapes can be determined by vegetation characteristics we surveyed the preferences of 274 Australian office workers using 40 living roof images which systematically manipulated plant life-form, foliage colour, flowering, diversity and height. These preferences were compared to those for a bare concrete roof. The potential restorativeness of the most preferred living roof and the concrete roof were also assessed. Results showed that all living roofs were preferred over the concrete roof; however pr..
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Awarded by Department of Sustainability and Environment
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank Diahnn Sullivan for creating the living roof images used in this study. Thanks to the Green Infrastructure Research Group at Burnley who provided invaluable advice on living roof vegetation types. Sue Fincher from the University of Melbourne Statistical Consulting Centre provided advice on statistical analyses. This research was partly funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant LP0990704 supported by the City of Melbourne, Melbourne Water, The Committee for Melbourne and the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment. KL is supported by a PhD scholarship funded through the Cybec Foundation.