A study of the adoption and maintenance of green roofs as part of the Urban Green spaces for the City of Nairobi.

Abstract

This research investigated green (vegetated) roofs in the city of Nairobi in terms of adoption and maintenance as part of the urban green spaces. The information drawn from worldwide studies show that vegetated roofs are integral in urban green spaces and urban infrastructure and has the potential to address the dynamic multifaceted environmental threats caused by urban population. These threats include reduced urban biodiversity, urban flash floods and impacts of changes in climate in the urban areas. This paper makes a general argument that the rooftops of the contemporary urban buildings can be used as green (vegetated) roofs. This would increase chances of having more green spaces in the city of Nairobi and solve the issue of loss of green spaces. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of adoption and management of green roofs in the city of Nairobi. The study’s specific objectives were; 1) to investigate the location, type and nature of green roofs in the city of Nairobi, 2) to establish how the city of Nairobi residents perceive the maintenance and adoption of green roofs in terms of (technology, costs, maintenance, and installation, 3) to review the existing policies, planning guidelines, regulations, and laws that discourage or encourage maintenance and adoption of green roofs in the city of Nairobi and, 4) to identify strategies and practices that can be pursued in the promotion of the adoption and maintenance of green roofs in the city of Nairobi. This research used case study research design whereby six case studies of accessible and available vegetated roofs were identified; 1) the Haveli Towers in Parklands, 2) the former Coca-Cola Building in Upper Hill, 3) the Swiss Embassy in Gigiri, 4) the French Embassy in Westlands, 5) the Morningside office in Kilimani, and 6) GTC in Westlands. The IEBC demarcation data was used in mapping the distribution of the green (vegetated) roof case studies across the city of Nairobi. Qualitative data was collected and analyzed based on this mapping. This study found that the existing urban policies neither do they promote nor discourage the adoption and maintenance of green (vegetated) roofs in the city of Nairobi. Therefore, the few green (vegetated) roofs installed in the city of Nairobi have been adopted without any specific government policy. Apart from the lack of urban legal framework, the study identified other barriers within the city of Nairobi that discourage the adoption of green (vegetated) roofs in the city of Nairobi; 1) Challenges in repair of GRs which make leak detections almost impossible, 2) lack of skilled manpower to install and maintain the green (vegetated) roofs, 3) high cost of both installation and management of the vegetated roofs. Further, this study found out that most residents of the city of Nairobi are not aware of the green (vegetated) roofs. The distribution of green (vegetated) roofs in the city of Nairobi was found to be uneven. Most of the case studies were found to be in the western part of the city of Nairobi. The study recommends; 1) provision of favorable policies, laws, planning guidelines as well as incentives by the Nairobi County government to encourage city of Nairobi residents and investors to adopt green (vegetated) roofs, 2) The issuance of EIA licenses by NEMA should include a condition to encourage the city developers to use a section of their rooftops as a green roof, 3) More research is to be done to quantify the challenges facing maintenance and adoption of green (vegetative) roofs in the city of Nairobi.