Green Roof Concepts as a Passive Cooling Approach in Tropical Climate- An Overview

Nowadays, increasing of energy consumption due to global warming issues such as heat island effects has attracted the awareness of researchers, architects, engineers, property developers, and authorities to the crucial of green construction or sustainable development concept. Energy efficiency has been identified as a key consideration in discussions of this concept. In term of energy, Malaysia ranked 33rd in the list of global electricity consumption and 25th in the list of man-made carbon dioxide emissions. If energy consumption continues to increase at its current rate, domestic petroleum reserve in Peninsular Malaysia is predicted to be depleted by 2014 and Sarawak by 2020 [1]. As responding to the increasing of energy consumption, the demand of green roof technology as passive cooling technique has been recognized worldwide. Generally, by greening the rooftops in urban area, the impact on the urban climate and microclimate as well as on the indoor climate of buildings beneath them will be reduced. Therefore, this paper systematically review the concepts of green roof to give a basic understanding as global. Discussion on the benefits of this concept and its components among topic will be discussed.