ABSTRACT
Green infrastructure is increasingly becoming popular in cities to counter the negative effects of urbanization, decreasing green cover, and climate change. Vertical greening systems (VGSs) are one such green infrastructure and are gaining recognition as they lead to effective utilization of vertical spaces to increase the green cover in urban areas. These not only help increase the aesthetics of the neighborhood and provide general benefits to society but also result in passive thermal regulation of a building and its surroundings, leading to building energy savings. In this study, a review of the existing literature on vertical greening systems, with a focus on thermal performance and building energy transfer, is provided. The system is simplified and explained mathematically, which is essential when optimizing the design for maximum building energy savings in the long run. It is difficult to compare 176the results of different studies due to the differences in study parameters and the dynamic nature of the system. If VGSs are to be used as a future solution and implemented on large scales, it is necessary to devise a methodology to standardize the system and define universal performance indicators to compare different VGSs. This work proposes such indicators and provides a directional approach for future studies.
