Modelling of the Thermal Effect of Green Façades on Building Surface Temperature in Mediterranean Climate

Urban Green Infrastructures (UGIs) improve the supply of urban ecosystem services. UGIs can provide benefits such as better urban climate conditions and lower temperature of urban air. They can also limit the development of extreme temperatures on buildings surface, in particular in Mediterranean climate areas. Green facades permit the physical shading of the building envelope, produce a cooling effect by means of evapotranspiration in summer, and improve the thermal insulation in winter. A reduction of the thermal flows between exterior and interior and more sustainable buildings can be obtained. A three years experimental test was carried out at the University of Bari (Italy) for assessing the thermal performance of two green facades characterized by two different climbing plants (Pandorea jasminoides variegated and Rhyncospermum jasminoides). The selected plants well adapt to the local climate, growing quickly and vigorously. The environmental conditions and several climatic parameters on the walls were monitored during the field test. The temperature on the external surface during July 2015 was used for fitting a regression model. The model was validated on July 2016. It can be applied for predicting the two green facades performance in a Mediterranean climate only by using an input dataset on climate conditions.