Obstacles to Adopt Green Roof in Malaysia - IEEE Xplore

2012 IEEE Colloquium on Humanities, Science & Engineering Research (CHUSER 2012), December 3-4, 2012, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

Obstacles To Adopt Green Roof In Malaysia Zulhabri Ismail, Haziq Abd Aziz and Nasyairi Mat Nasir, Mohd Zafrullah Mohd Taib Legal Aspects in Built Environment Initiative Group Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract—The building industry is considered as the largest contributor of negative impacts to the environment especially in urban areas. In Malaysia, sustainability issues have become crucial to mitigate urban heat island and reduce global warming effect. One of the ways to reduce global warming and urban heat island is by adopting green roofs on buildings. However, the application of green roofs in Malaysia is still low whereby only few buildings in Malaysia have adopted green roofs. This paper aims to identify the obstacles in adopting green roofs in Malaysia. The survey that has been done revealed that there are nine factors that hinder the green roof application in Malaysia. More efforts are needed to encourage building practitioners to adopt green roofs. Therefore, it is important that buildings in Malaysia to adopt green roofs in order to protect the environment especially in urban areas. Keywords- sustainability, environmental destruction, barriers, construction

I.

INTRODUCTION

Green roofs or also known as rooftop garden are becoming a trend in building industry due to the benefits that it offers. In developed countries such as Germany, Japan and Singapore, the application of green roofs are used widely as a way to protect the environment, mitigate urban heat island and reduce the effect of global warming. However, Malaysian construction industry has realized that besides being aesthetically pleasing, application of green roofs provide numerous environmental, technical and owner benefits. For instance, green roofs mitigate Urban Heat Island by cooling and humidifying the surrounding air, creating a microclimate which has beneficial effects within the immediate area. For technical benefit, green roofs also reduce storm water run, improve the thermal resistance of the roof throughout the year and reduce noise levels especially for buildings near airports, factories or busy freeways. Even though green roof application in Malaysia is still at the infancy stage, there are some successful green roofs applications applied in few buildings in Malaysia. However, the movement of green roofs application in Malaysia is very slow and there are several factors that hinder the application of green roofs in Malaysia. Therefore, this paper presents the findings obtained from a survey conducted to determine the obstacles of green roofs application in Malaysia.

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II.

METHODOLOGIES

To determine the factors that hinder the green roofs application, a questionnaire survey was conducted among architects within the area of Klang Valley. This area was chosen due to the reason of most architects who have been involved in sustainable projects were based in Klang Valley. Architects were selected because of their involvement in the design stage of the buildings. The architects were selected from the members of Board of Architects Malaysia. The architects were approached via email to conduct an online survey. The questionnaire surveys were distributed to a total of 350 respondents, only 75 questionnaires were obtained for analysis. The survey was conducted using online services from www.surveymonkey.com. The data collected were analyzed using appropriate software for quantitative research which is the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS). Cronbach’s alpha was applied to determine how well the variables positively correlated to one another for quantitative research. According to Sekaran [1] the closer Cronbach’s alpha to 1, the higher the internal consistency reliability and if the alpha is lower than 0.65 it can be excluded from the research instrument. Table 1 indicates Cronbach’s alpha generated prior to further analysis, the alpha value is more than 0.65, thus reliable for quantitative analysis. TABLE I.

CRONBACH’S ALPHA FOR INTERNAL VALIDITY

Cronbach's Alpha

Cronbach's Alpha Based on Standardized Items

N of Items

.971

.969

11

Studies by Vivian [2] used the relative importance index (RII) to determine the relative importance of the various benefits and constraints on green roofs in Hong Kong. Thus, the RII was adopted because of the similar method use by Vivian to identify the benefits of green roofs in Hong Kong. In this research, RII was used to investigate the data and to rank the obstacles of adopting green roof according to their influences [3], the equation is shown below: Relative importance index (RII) =

, (0 RII 1)


In this equation, w is the weighting scores given by the respondents ranging from 1 to 5 where 1 is strongly disagree and 5 is strongly agree, A is the possible highest score for each factor (in this case is 5), and N is the total number of responses concerning that factors. TABLE II.

OBSTACLES IN ADOPTING GREEN ROOF

Percent Obstacles

Strongly Disagree

Past Failure of green roofs Difficult & High Cost Complicated & Hard To Maintain

Disagree

Slightly Agree

Agree

Strongly

RII

Rank

Agree

0

8

20

53

19

0.765

9

0

4

12

36

48

0.856

4

0

3

11

49

37

0.837

7

0

0

13

34

53

0.891

1

0

0

15

37

48

0.867

3

0

3

11

49

37

0.843

5

0

4

16

33

47

0.880

2

0

0

13

34

53

0.840

6

0

7

13

33

47

0.832

8

Limited Local Expertise and and inexperienced green roof professionals Lack of Scientific Research Fear of Unknown Risk Higher Cost of Materials Supply Design Standards & Guidelines Susceptible To Fire

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From the results shown in Table 2, most of the respondents have agreed that these obstacles exist to adopt green roofs in Malaysia. The findings shows that the major obstacle in adopting green roofs in Malaysia are; limited local expertise and higher cost of materials supply with the RII of 0.891 and 0.880 respectively. The past failure of green roof application is not a major obstacle, which rank lowest with RII 0.765. Figure 1 was generated based on RII in table 1. Relative Importance Index (RII) Past Failure

Susceptible To Fire

Design Standards & Guidelines

0.9 0.85 0.8 0.75 0.7

Higher Cost of Materials Supply

III.

Complicated & Hard To Maintain

Limited Local Expertise

Fear of Unknown Risk

Figure 1.

Difficult & High Cost

Lack of Scientific Research

Relative importance index rank

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

From the extensive literature review, nine factors were identified as contributor to the obstacles of the application of green roofs in Malaysia. The results show that these obstacles exist towards adoption of green roofs application in Malaysia. Thus, it indicates that Malaysia is not prepared to adopt the element of green roofs into their building. A. Past Failure Table 1 shows that 53% respondent agree, 20% slightly agree, 19% strongly agree, and 8% disagree that the past failure of green roofs application were seen as an obstacles to fully apply green roofs system. Research done by Zuriea et al [4] indicated that the current existing buildings in Malaysia face serious issues regarding green roofs. One of the important issues among the building practitioners was the lack of green roof application. In order to encourage more building practitioners in Malaysia to adopt green roof, this problem need to be addressed. Therefore, actions must be taken to raise awareness among building practitioners to practice green roof since it offers many benefits for a better environment. B. Difficult and high cost From table 1, it shows that 45% of the respondents strongly agree that green roofs are difficult to construct and it involves high cost. Meanwhile, 36% of the respondents agree, 12% slightly agree, and 4% disagree with this factor. This is

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perhaps due to the leaking problems that constantly surfaced in the green roofs system. Some of the leaking problems might be difficult to identify and require high cost to be repaired compared to a conventional roof. However, this issue usually arises from faulty design, faulty workmanship, and lack of maintenance work [5]. This issue must be overcome through appropriate use of expertise in design and maintenance. Over the years, new technologies have been introduced in order to solve problems concerning green roof leaks. From the previous study, it was suggested that one of the method to repair leaking problems was by removing a large amount of growing media in order to expose the membrane to locate the leak. However, there were companies that specialize in using leak detection equipment that can locate the leak through Electric Field Vector Mapping (EFVM) such as Detec Systems, Levelton, and International Leak Detection. Green roofs generally consume more cost rather than conventional roofs in terms of preliminary expenditure. However, taking into consideration of the whole life cost of the buildings, green roofs can really provide minimum expenditure over of this cost [6]. C. Complicated and hard to maintain The analysis from the survey has shown that 49% of respondent agree, 37% strongly agree, 11% slightly agree, and 3% disagree that green roofs are tedious and complicated when it comes to maintenance. Generally, in countries such as Germany, the maintenance of green roof was done by company that specializes in green roofs system. A proper maintenance of green roofs can prevent it from leaking. In the case of Malaysia, studies by Zuriea et al [4] indicated that the problems occur in existing green roofs in Malaysia is because of the lack of knowledge from facilities manager and technician. The maintenance of green roofs should not be handled by building maintenance, it however, should be done by specialized company in order to prevent problems from occurring. Therefore, the maintenance of green roofs should be taken seriously by users, otherwise the green roofs will be a burden to building owner on the future. D. Limited local expertise Table 1 shows that more than half of the respondent (53%) strongly agree, 34% agree, and 13% were slightly agree that with the limitation of local expertise and inexperienced green roof professionals, it creates a challenge to implement green roofs in Malaysia. Without local expertise, knowledge, and experienced green roof professionals, it will be a challenge to implement green roofs in Malaysia. That is why implementation of green roofs in Malaysia is still at a poor level. Studies by Zuriea [4] indicated that there are lack of experience among facilities manager and maintenance crew in reference with green roof that ultimately lead to poor maintenance and some other problems unsolved. It is very important to have local expertise in green roof systems that specialize in installing, maintaining, and problems solving.


Thus, this factors need to be overcome in order to further implement green roof in Malaysia. E. Lack of scientific research In table 1, 48% of the respondents strongly agree, 37% agree, and 15% slightly agree that the lack of scientific research on green roofs technology is seen as an obstacle. Research on green roofs in Malaysia is still low to be compared with our neighborhood country, Singapore. In Singapore, they have their own green roof research group and associations which are responsible to conduct research on green roofs which are adopted in Singapore [7]. Therefore, government and academician from the local and international universities can collaborate to conduct research in order to identify the potential factors that contribute to the successful implementation of green roof in Malaysia. Malaysia can make an example of what has been done by other countries that have succeeded in implementing green roof system. For example, German, Japan, Singapore and etc which have been long associated in green rooftop technology and have a lot of experience in doing sustainable green roof system. F. Fear of unknown risk Table 1 shows that 49% of respondent agree, 37% strongly agree, 11% slightly agree, and 3% disagree that fear of the unknown risk is one of the factors that contribute to the low application of green roofs in Malaysia. Furthermore, the percentage of fear of the application increases when new technologies from other countries are adopted into building industry. Since the green roofs concept is newly applied into the building industry in Malaysia, most of the building players are not ready to adopt this technology. This is because of the high cost of installation and maintenance. Without proper guidance from government, it is difficult for building practitioners to adopt the new technology like green roofs in Malaysia. G. Higher cost of materials supply Table 1 shows that 47% strongly agree, 33% agree, 16% slightly agree, 4% disagree that the high cost of materials to supply for installation has become an obstacles to adopt green roofs in Malaysia. In Germany, the cost of installation of green roofs is not really high compared to North America [5]. This is due to lack of green roof installer, lack of economies scale, and lack of materials supplies. In case of Malaysia, it is difficult to get green roofs installer and specialist companies for green roofs system. Thus, due to the limitation of green roofs suppliers in Malaysia, it will result to high cost of installation and materials for green roof. More demand on green roofs should be created in order to encourage more companies to be involved in green roofs system. Research by Ismail et al [8] stated that providing incentive is a successful strategy to promote green roofs to the industry players as what has been done by Germany, Canada, Japan, and Singapore. Thus, Malaysia need to provide such incentives to encourage

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and create awareness in the implementation of green roofs system throughout the country as incentives are proven to be a great instrument to increase the application of the green roof system. H. No design standards and guidelines Table 1 shows that 53% of respondents strongly agree, 34% agree, and 13% slightly agree that one of the obstacles to adopt green roofs in Malaysia is because no design standards and guidelines on green roofs provided. Studies by Aziz & Ismail [9] indicated that there are no design standards and guidelines in Malaysia on green roofs systems. Unlike other countries that has been adopting green roofs for so many years such as Germany and Japan, they have their own standards and guidelines for green roofs system [10]. While in Germany, the German Landscape Research, Development and Construction Society (FLL) has developed standards on green roofs for over 25 years [11]. Most of the buildings in Germany are equipped with green roofs and the numbers are over 800 buildings with green roofs. In Asia, Japan is considered as the pioneer in green roofs. They are also known as the first to mandate that all of new construction must include 20 percent of building vegetation [12]. Therefore, there are urgent needs to develop such local standards and guidelines for green roofs in Malaysia. I. Believe that green roof is susceptible to fire Table 1 shows that 47% of respondent strongly agree, 33% agree, 13% slightly agree, and 7% disagree that green roof is susceptible to fire. This conclusively means that the respondents believe that one of the obstacles in adopting green roofs was due to this factor. Refers to the guide by ABG [6], fire is likely to occur on bitumen exposed roof rather than green roofs. This is because of the planting scheme that consists of sedums and wild flowers. Thus, these plans are succulent which makes it not easily burn due to the high water content. These perceptions exist due to the lack of knowledge about green roofs. Thus, there is no high potential that green roofs is susceptible to fire, more likely green roof prevent fire from occur. IV.

CONCLUSION

Since green roofs provide numerous benefits towards the environment, developed countries such as Germany and Japan have utilised it as a way to mitigate urban heat island and to reduce global warming. Even though Malaysia is still new to this concept, it can be improved by solving the factors that have become obstacles in adopting green roofs. Without any steps taken to solve these problems, green roofs will not be able to be widely applied in Malaysia. Currently, people are looking forward to see accumulation of green roof application but there are several factors that hinder the adoption of green roof application in Malaysia. With the successful green roof implementation in neighbourhood country Singapore, green roof has become more popular in Malaysia. Thus, in order to encourage building practitioners to adopt green roofs, all of


the obstacles that have been identified in this research must be overcome. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The researchers wish to express their gratitude for the financial support from Universiti Teknologi MARA under the purview of Research Intensive Faculty Fund 600-RMI/DANA 5/3/RIF (205/2012), Research Management Institute and MOHE (Minister of Higher Education) under Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) 600-RMI/SSP/FRGS 5/3/FSP (37/2011). REFERENCES [1] [2]

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of Architecture, Planning & Surveying UiTM Shah Alam, 2010, pp. 97104. [5] Metro Vancouver, "Design Considerations For The Implementation of Green Roofs," 2009. [6] ABG Ltd., "Guide To Green Roofs," ed, 2010. [7] IGRA, "The First Drive-Through Roof Garden in Singapore," International Green Roof Association Global Networking for Green Roofs2007. [8] Z. Ismail, et al., "Comparative Study on Green Roof Mechanism In Developed Countries," presented at the 2012 IEEE Symposium on Business, Engineering and Industrial Applications (ISBEIA), Bandung, Indonesia, 2012. [9] H. A. Aziz and Z. Ismail, "Design Guideline For Sustainable Green Roof System," presented at the 2011 IEEE Symposium on Business, Engineering and Industrial Applications (ISBEIA), Langkawi, Malaysia, 2011. [10] D. S. C. M. Hui, "Development of technical guidelines for green roof systems in Hong Kong," in Joint Symposium 2010 on Low Carbon High Performance Buildings, Hong Kong, 2010. [11] P. M. Philippi, "Introduction To The German FLL-Guideline For The Planning, Execution and Upkeep of Green Roof Sites," 2005. [12] C. G. Wark and W. W. Wark, "Green Roof Specifications and Standards," The Construction Specifier, vol. 56, 2003.