Start-up potential of Eco-engineered vertical vegetation (green walls) for nutrient recycling, food production, energy conservation and landscape improvement on AIT Eco-campus | |
| Author | Reddy, Chinnam Trinadh |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.JNTUK-16-08 |
| Subject(s) | Wetlands--Environmental aspects Pollution--Measurement--Quality control Plant nutrients |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Environmental Engineering and Management |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no. JNTUK-16-08 |
| Abstract | People have a perception that green walls are expensive and difficult to maintain. But green walls require very less effort to install and easy to maintain. Green walls also provide various benefits environmentally and economically. Irrigation of the green walls with wastewater from wetlands provided greater benefits as compared to tap water, as it was nutritionally rich in various elements such as phosphorous and ammonium nitrogen. The study was conducted to evaluate the various physical parameters of green walls such as growth rate, leaf transpiration rate, wall surface temperature and percentage of coverage. The growth rate had been compared for the walls fed on normal tap water and nutrient waste water, plants such as bitter melon(Luffa acutangula), blue trumpet vine (Thunbergia laurifolia), white dipladenia(Mandevilla boliviensis)and morning glory (Ipomoea purpurea)have been fed with wastewater which is rich in nutrients. The comparison proved that the plants which were irrigated with nutrient wastewater showed the best results in growth rate, it is also economically feasible in two ways, as the nutrients are recycled from wastewater which didn’t require additional nutrients to buy and as wastewater was directly fed, reduction in the cost for the requirement of treated water for irrigation was made possible. This research was carried out at 3 different sites which were inside AIT at AIT solutions building (east facing wall), Student village 2 (SV2) house no. 35 (north facing wall), rain shaded passage opposite to EEM department and EEM passage (east-facing wall). When growth rate was analyzed, the plants irrigated with nutrient water had twice the growth rate that of plants irrigated with nutrient rich wetland water. The growth of white Dipladenia was three times at EEM passage and twice at SV2 as compared to growth at AIT solutions because the first two sites were irrigated with nutrient waste water and third site was irrigated with normal tap water respectively. This clearly shows the impact of wastewater recycling and reducing the use of treated water for irrigation as wastewater had better results. Similar results were obtained in the growth of blue trumpet vine; the growth rate was 2 times higher of the plants irrigated with nutrient wastewater as compared to that of plants irrigated with normal tap water. Green walls also favored in reducing the surface wall temperature by almost 4.5° C during the peak stages at 12:00 pm sounding its high potential to cause cooling effect on the surface of the wall. |
| Year | 2016 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Thesis ; no. JNTUK-16-08 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Previous Degree Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Kainada, India (JNTUK) |
| Chairperson(s) | Shipin, Oleg V.;Vilas Nitivattananon |
| Examination Committee(s) | Annachhatre, Ajit P.;Soni, Peeyush |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | AIT Fellowship |
| Degree | Thesis (M. Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2016 |