Energy Efficient Landscape for Thermal Comfort in Buildings and Built-up Areas

Abstract—Energy and landscape are critical constituents in the physical development of built environment. Energy conservation and landscape quality have been widely acknowledged as important parameters in design of building, surroundings and built-up Areas. In design process the landscape is one of the vital parameters of functional, aesthetical and environmental considerations. It is essential to understand its contribution towards energy and environment to enable the designer to utilize its potential effectively in an integrated design approach and thought process with due consideration to climate change. It has a potentiality to dilute the greenhouse effect, absorb the dust particulates, sound and to bring strong impact on micro climate and sol-air temperature. This paper deals precisely, how the energy efficient landscape parameters can be assessed to integrate in the built up spaces so as to conserve the energy. The investigation has been carried to understand the energy conservation potential of ground for space conditioning for earth coupled buildings, soft and hard surfaces. The sol-air temperature of different surfaces and its influence on the micro climate around built spaces; thermal behavior of different vernacular/traditional materials have been analyzed with reference to diffusivity, decrimental factor, time lag and found that red sand stone pavers had shown better variation as compared to concrete, lime concrete and brick pavers. It is also emphasized the impotence of shading considerations and vegetation to reduce the heat island effect.