Manfred Köhler

Neubrandenburg University of Applied Sciences · Landscape ecology

Various studies have confirmed the implications of Vertical Greening System (VGS) as a nature-based solution to climate change mitigation. Even though VGSs are well established in operational terms, the design framework is still poor at managing social, economic, and environmental performance. This study through comprehensive review of studies and...

Urban warming and the formation of heat islands in urban areas are topics of growing importance. The continuous reduction of vegetation in urban spaces, an increase in extreme weather events, and a global warming trend pose significant challenges to the future of urban environments. Extensive green roofs make a significant contribution to reducing...

The reduction in evaporative surfaces in cities is one driver for longer and hotter summers. Greening building surfaces can help to mitigate the loss of vegetated cover. Typical extensive green roof structures, such as sedum-based solutions, survive in dry periods, but how can green roofs be made to be more effective for the longer hot and dry peri...

Urban environments are characterized by dense development and paved ground with reduced evapotranspiration rates. These areas store sensible and latent heat, providing the base for typical urban heat island effects. Green roof installations are one possible strategy to reintroduce evaporative surfaces into cities. If green roofs are irrigated, they...

Approximately 10 km2 of new green roofs are built in Germany every year. About 85% of these are Extensive Green Roofs (EGR). An EGR with several research features was installed on new buildings belonging to the University of Applied Sciences Neubrandenburg in 1999. The results of the almost 20-year permanent survey of the climate effects of the gre...

Reflections Different plant species can grow on green roofs. Sedum species and their cultivars are dominant on typical extensive green roofs. Simple green cover is preferred for its low maintenance requirements and for its array of connected ecosystem services, such as evaporative cooling, additional building insulation, and rain water management....

Cities can support biodiversity and provide the ecosystem services upon which life depends. Green roofs are increasingly common in cities and could be designed to increase biodiversity, but community assembly and succession patterns on green roofs are poorly documented. We used long-term vegetation surveys at 6 extensive green roofs and sampled a 1...

Green roofs may contribute to biodiversity conservation. However, these habitats are not typically planted to support biodiversity and are not monitored to see how communities change over time. Plants on green roofs must be adapted to high stress caused by drought and severe temperatures. Over several generations, plant functional diversity may dec...

Das Überwachungssystem basiert auf Kleinlysimetern mit einer Genauigkeit von 2 g und einer maximalen Gewichtskapazität von 60 kg. Mit dieser Technik ist es möglich, die tatsächliche Evapotranspiration von Gründächern mit einer Grundfläche von 0,25 m² zu bemessen. Ziel ist es, die klimatischen Auswirkeungen von Dachbegrünung zu quantifizieren. Durch...

27 techniques de gestion des eaux pluviales, actuellement en vigueur, ont été étudiées à différentes échelles: à l'échelle des immeubles (bâtiments végétalisés, utilisation d'eau de pluie), à l'échelle du quartier (infiltration, dépavage, lacs artificiels et cours d'eau, traitement décentralisé) et enfin à l'échelle du bassin versant (traitement ce...

In the last years a lot of studies were focus on green roofs in different regions and zone on the continent. The study location is in Germany, at the University of Applied Sciences Neubrandenburg and lasted 2 weeks in summer of 2014. To determine temperature were used 6 devices Data Logger LOG. The temperature differences between a green roof and a...

Kurzfassung Der Regenwasserabfluss von versiegelten Flächen kann zu erheblichen Beeinträchtigungen von Flüssen und Seen führen. Durch das schnelle Ableiten des Regenwassers bleibt das positive Potenzial für die Stadtbevölkerung und die Umwelt zudem oft ungenutzt. Für eine nachhaltige Regenwasserbewirtschaftung stehen eine Vielzahl von Maßnahmen auf...

Integrated planning of stormwater management requires a quantitative description of positive and negative effects of possible measures. We suggest quantifying these effects with generic performance indicators within eight categories: building physics and services, landscape quality, urban climate, biodiversity, groundwater, surface water, direct co...

In the effort to a durable development, is put increasingly more emphasis on the reduction of pollution, of energy consumption, of carbon emissions for, both, private buildings and industrial buildings. One way to reduce this factor is the implementation of vertical vegetal walls with climbing plants or separated structures, so-called vertical gard...

Recommendations for planners and architects on rainwater management are based mainly on findings from the monitoring of a new building project for the Institute of Physics at the Humboldt University Berlin‘s Adlershof campus, a project in which innovative rainwater management and facadegreening approaches were planned and implemented and that has s...

In Germany, the construction of extensive greenroofs has been a tradition for over 100 years. This study picked up older Berlin research conducted in 1960, 1982, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1995 and compared it with current findings (Poll, 2008). The older research was made either on the old “Tar-Paper-Greenroofs” (TPG-roofs), established between 1880 and 19...

Building facades are under permanent environmental influences, such as sun and acid rain, which age and can ultimately destroy them. Living wall systems can protect facades and offer similar benefits to those gained from installing a green roof. A view back in history shows that vegetated facades are not new technology but can offer multiple benefi...

Green roofs (roofs with a vegetated surface and substrate) provide ecosystem services in urban areas, including improved storm-water management, better regulation of building temperatures, reduced urban heat-island effects, and increased urban wildlife habitat. This article reviews the evidence for these benefits and examines the biotic and abiotic...

In this paper, I evaluated the long-term vegetation dynamics of two extensive green roof (EGR) installations in Berlin. The first, installed on two inner-city residential buildings in 1985, consisted of 10 sections ("sub-roofs") with a combined area of 650 square meters. The 10 sub-roofs differed in exposure and slope. Ten plant species were initia...

The green roof technology has its origin in several different countries and in various climates. Green roofs have become an important element of sustainable architecture. Actually green roofs are spreading out worldwide (1,2). Green roofs can be divided into three categories: • Spontaneous green roofs • Extensive green light weight roofs with low m...

The urban heat load is being increasingly conceived as a mayor problem in many cities. In Germany urban climate has become an important factor in urban planning since the late seventies. The expression of the "Urban Heat Island" (UHI) was established then. Urban heat islands can occur in different climate zones. On a hot summer day in cities like B...

Within the last decades, the trend to ever larger dwellings and the increases in industry and traffic have resulted in the continuous growth of cities. The settlement surface in Germany has doubled within the last 40 years and present growth amounts to 1.1% per year. In the USA, the built on surface extends by 3% per year; in Brazil this number may...

Green roofs are still often seen as a pure aesthetical element in architecture, as a spleen of some “greenies”. In fact green roofs already contribute, to some extent, to a better microclimate through evaporation, filtering of dust from the air and a decrease in temperatures at the rooftop. In cities like Berlin and Munich many green roofs have alr...

RIO 02 - World Climate & Energy Event, January 6-11, 2002 PHOTOVOLTAIC-PANELS ON GREENED ROOFS - POSITIVE INTERACTION BETWEEN TWO ELEMENTS OF SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE Manfred Köhler (1), Marco Schmidt (2), Michael Laar (3), Ulrike Wachsmann (4), Stefan Krauter (5) (1) University of Applied Sciences Neubrandenburg, Germany, manfred.koehler@fh-...

The authors of this paper are working on the ecological effects of greened roofs. What are the ecological functions of plants growing on roofs? Are there any benefits for the inhabitants of cities? Urbanisation is increasing worldwide. As more and more urban areas are paved over, precipitation increasingly runs off directly into surface waters. Thi...

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Berlin, 1987.