Rapid assessment checklist for green roof ecosystem services in Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

Background A green roof is a man-made ecosystem created when a rooftop is covered with substrate and vegetation. Although green roof ecosystems (GREs) are able to provide ecosystem services, there is currently no assessment tool available to specifically evaluate this. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a rapid assessment checklist (RAC) to assess GRE services (GRES), which was developed and tested on 10 green roofs in Bangkok, Thailand. Results The RAC consisted of 46 proxy indicators (33 qualitative and 13 quantitative indicators) encompassing various aspects of GRESs. The GRES values or scores varied according to structural differences in the green roofs. The average score (from a maximum of 100) of total ecosystem services was 61 +/- 7, which could be inferred as a good performance in ecosystem service provision. The highest scores were obtained from the regulating services at 68 +/- 7. The lowest average score was 53 +/- 11 from the provisioning services. Conclusions The RAC was able to evaluate the levels of GRES provided by the selected green roofs, enabling the meaningful comparison of their potential capability to provide GRES. Therefore, this RAC could be an innovative tool for evaluation of four categories of GRES.