GREEN COVER

By – Dr. Pradhi Rajeev

Today’s Major Global Problems
• Global Warming
• Green House Effect
• Urban Heat Island formation
• Increasing Health Problems
• Unsustainable Growth
• Many more that is directly or
indirectly related to air pollution
Impact of green cover and built-up area in Delhi
• The study shows that normalised differential vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface temperature
(LST) are negatively correlated with each other as vegetation has a cooling effect on the land surface
temperature whereas normalized differential built-up index (NDBI) and LST are positively correlated
with each other.
• The studies show a change in the distribution of vegetation cover and gradually increase in the built-up
land which results in the increase in land surface temperature to about 3.31 °C in the last 14 years.

Kumari et al., 2018

Kumari et al., 2018
 • In 2003 the range of land surface temperature was 21.43 °C to 41.91 °C whereas in
2017 it increased to 31.39 °C to 45.22 °C.
• On an average area under forest in NCT of Delhi in 2003 was 11.47% which slightly
increased to 12.73% in 2015.
• At district level, the area under forest is highest, 41.66%, in New Delhi district in 2003
which increased to 49.29% in 2015 mainly because of various aforestation programmes and
management activities by Department of Forest, Government of Delhi.

Kumari et al., 2018

• With annual urban expansion rate of 38.64% largely in
scrubland over the last 44 years, peri-urban landscape around
Delhi turned from a mosaic dominated by scrub and crop
fields to a mosaic dominated by built-up areas and green
spaces, with expansion of dense vegetation at an annual rate
of 1.04%.
• Policies of forest conservation/restoration and raising
awareness about ecological security could offset
environmental degradation due to urbanisation, encroachment
and logging. By 2028, the urban agglomeration of Delhi is
projected to be the most populous city in the world with
population of 36.57 million (United Nations 2018).
• Thus, peri-urban Delhi will face tremendous ecological stress
from urbanisation in near future.
• The study suggests that Master Plan of Delhi should
discourage urban expansion in cultivated land, encourage
development of green infrastructure and novel ecosystems
with high aesthetic values in scrubs and firm up the existing
legal mechanisms of forest conservation/compensatory
afforestation.
Bangalore: Silicon
Valley of India
• Analyses of multi-resolution remote
sensing data reveals that built-up area
has increased from 7.97% (1973) to
58.33% (2012).
• Dense vegetation cover of 68.27%
(1973) decreased to >25% (2012).
• They have found that that there is
about one tree for every 7 persons at
present, which is inadequate to
remove repiratory carbon.
• On an average, there should be 8
trees for every person to sequester
human respiratory carbon or to have
adequate oxygen.
Bharath et al., 2018
Green Belt
• Green belt, a region of open space surrounding a city and maintained
in an undeveloped open condition either through the use of zoning
laws or by designation as parkland, is the best option to reduce air
pollution.

• It does not require a complicated design but it is a simple framework

that assumes that urban areas need open space and breathing spaces
around them – for that to happen, the form and size of urban areas
should be contained.
Purpose of green belt
• reduces the pollutant concentration in the atmosphere,

• improves urban air quality,

• moderates temperature and

• provides an opportunity for city

residents to experience a natural,
undeveloped environment close
at hand.
History
• Old Testament outlines a proposal for a green belt around
the Levite towns in the Land of Israel.

• United Kingdom in the 1930s

• Ottawa Greenbelt and

Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt in
Ontario, Canada

• An act of the Swedish parliament from 1994 has declared a

series of parks in Stockholm and the adjacent municipality
of Solna to its north a "national city park" called Ekoparken
 Criticism
Critics opinion for a well established green belt says that it is for-
• exacerbating high housing prices by concentrating demand within the zone and stifling competitive forces in general.
• increasing urban sprawl
• a land reserve for future freeways and other highways.

But there are plenty of its positive effects for which it has to be preferred over other developments.
• It provides both a breath of fresh air for the 30 million people living in or near to our largest towns and cities.
• Green belt grown around the factories and industrial premises improves the condition of land, mitigates air pollution ,
reduces the level of noise pollution and enhance the aesthetics of an area.
How does plantation reduces pollution?
• Pollutants are absorbed most efficiently by plant foliage near the canopy surface, where the
diffusion process is high due to favourable light conditions.

• Particulates are deposited on the plant surface by three processes –

1. sedimentation by the gravity action,
2. impaction under the influence of eddy currents, and
3. deposition under the influence of precipitation.
Thus ,decreasing the concentration of pollutant in ambient air , these types of plants act as
pollutant sink.
• Gases may be bound or dissolved on exterior surfaces or taken up by the plants via stomata.
• For effective removal of pollutants, it is necessary that the plants grow under conditions of
adequate nutritional supply (for health and vigour of growth), without water stress (to
maintain openness of stomatal apertures and form of epidermal structures ), and are well-
exposed to atmospheric conditions of light and breeze (away from engineering structures
hindering free flow of air) to maintain free interaction with gases.

• Choosing plant species for cultivation in green belts, weightage has to be given to the natural
factor of bio-climate.
Requires of ideal plant for green belt
• Fast growth rate for quick development of a canopy;
• Strong branches for a durable canopy to withstand storms;
• Large leaf size for enhanced retention of pollutants;
• Dense foliage for better trapping of pollutants;
• Relatively good tolerance to insects and diseases,
• Tolerance to soil compaction and nutrient stress, and
• Long life span for, an extended longevity of the green belt itself.
Trees to be used
Petroleum refinery plant and other industries
Common name Scientific name
• Safed siris Albizia procera
• Bandar holla Duabanga grandiflora
• Bandicoot berry leea indica
• Sal Shorea robusta
• Pithraj tree Aphanamixis polystachya
• Java pulm syzgium cumini
• Giant cane Arundo donax
• Indian gooseberry phyllanthus emblica
Cement plant
Common name Scientific name
• Mango mangifera indica
• Sisham Dalbergia Sisso
• Bamboo phyllostachys aurea
• Jamun Eugenia jambolana
• China rose hibiscus rosasinensis

To control noise :-
• Pyracantha coccinea
• Cotoneaster horizontalis decne
• Berberis thunbergii
Design of Green belt

1. General information about the area in developing effective green belts.

2. Design of green belt for different pollutant loads and environmental conditions
3. Identify and screen pollutant- tolerant plant species for urban industrial areas and
determine how the selected species use air pollutants
4. Identify clones that are air pollutant resistant and propagate them for large scale
plantation
5. Provide planting materials of pollutant tolerant clones for green belt development
6. Suggest measures that will improve the effectiveness of the existing green belts
Two approaches are recognised while designing green belt :
• Source Oriented
• Receptor Oriented

• The belt width is determined on various basis.

• For petroleum refinery and industries – varies from 400-1000m

depending upon the load of pollutant emitting from it.
• For roadside plantation throughout the city – 30-50m
Tolerance level of trees to be planted
• We derive an empirical number indicating the air pollution tolerance index (APTI). The four
parameters used in deriving the APTI are leaf extract pH, ascorbic acid, total chlorophyll and
relative water contents. The value of the above parameters are treated according to the following
formula which has been suggested by the authors to obtain the APTI value of a given plant species.
APTI= [A(T+P) +R]/10
• Where A is the ascorbic acid content, T is the total chlorophyll, p is the leaf extract pH and R is the
relative water content of the leaf.
EFFECTS
1) Reduction of CO2 level

• Absorb CO2 and other dangerous

gasses and, in turn, replenish the
atmosphere with oxygen.

• Produce enough oxygen on each

acre for 18 people every day.

• Absorb enough CO2 on each acre,

over a year's time, to equal the
amount you produce when you
drive your car 26,000 miles.
2) Reduction of NOx and Suspended particulates level
Nitrogen dioxide can be reduced by as much as 40% &
fine particulates by 60% .
3)Urban heat island
• It is a term used to describe the fact that temperatures within a city are
usually several degrees warmer (as much as 150C) than those in the
surrounding countryside.
• The principal cause of urban heat islands is the large amount of land
surface that is covered with stone and stone-like materials, such as
concrete buildings and pavement. These are efficient radiators that
absorb solar energy and reradiate it as heat, usually continuing this re-
radiation long after the sun goes down.
4) Industries and Refineries
A 13.5 MMTPA petroleum refinery in the west coast of India has set up
a 500m wide green belt along its periphery based on the model. The
refinery has undertaken plantation and landscaping and about 200,000
grown up trees and innumerable flowering bushes are a part of its plant
and township. In the 2 km corridor connecting the refinery plant area to
the township, over 15,000 trees are in existence.
A 500m wide green belt with an area of 96 acres in the downwind
direction with more than 200,000 trees has been developed to reduce
pollution maintain ecological balance as well as soothe aesthetic sense.
Types of trees planted are of indigenous nature viz. Leucaena
leucocephala, Albizia lebbeck benth, Eucalyptus, A. indica, Shisham,
Delbergia sisoo, Tamarindus indica, etc.
Notable Examples
1) Australia
• Adelaide Parklands
• The Green Wedge Shire

2)Brazil
• São Paulo City Green Belt Biosphere Reserve - GBBR
3)Canada
• Ottawa Greenbelt -
• Greenbelt (Golden Horseshoe)
• British Columbia
• Quebec
• São Paulo City Green Belt Biosphere Reserve

• Quebec
4)Mainland Europe
• European Green Belt
• Banjica Forest, Belgrade
• Stockholm Eco park
• German Green Belt
• Coulée verte du sud parisien
• Coulée verte du nord parisien
• Promenade plantée
• Vienna Woods, Austria
5)New Zealand
• Dunedin's Town Belt
6)Pakistan
• Islamabad
7)Philippines
• Makati City's green belt
8)Thailand
• Bangkok's Bang Krachao Green
9)South Korea
• Seoul
10)United Kingdom
• The Metropolitan Green Belt (5,133 km²)
• The North West Green Belt (2,578 km²)
• South and West Yorkshire Green Belt (2,556 km²)
• West Midlands Green Belt (2,315 km²)
•
11)United States

• U.S. states of Oregon, Washington and Tennessee

• Twin Cities, Minnesota; Virginia Beach, Virginia; Lexington, Kentucky; and Miami-Dade County, Florida
• San Francisco Bay Area
• Staten Island Greenbelt and Brooklyn-Queens Greenway in New York City
• Barton Creek Greenbelt, Austin
• Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Boise Greenbelt, Boise, Idaho
• The Jungle, Seattle
12) India
• Sambhalpur belt, Orissa
• Acording to the instruction of NEERI, near West Coast every
petroleum refinery green belt development is necessary.
• CPCB, New Delhi started the development of green belt in Delhi
GREEN COMPOSITES
By- Dr. Pradhi Rajeev
Green composites for buildings
• Composites – A single substance formed by two physically and chemically different
materials are combined with a distinct interface between the materials .
• Different materials are generally differentiated as matrix phase and dispersed phase
(reinforcement).
• Reinforcement is the load bearing member whereas matrix bonds the reinforcing
material together and distributes the load among them.
• Green composites- polymer composites made of natural fibers and bio-polymers.
• Natural fibers – coir, flax, sisal, hemp, bamboo, jute, bagasse.
• Bio-polymers – starch, poly lactic acid (PLA), furan, cellulose acetate
• Matrix material can also be clay and lime.
Cork has a very high cost per unit weight but the density is much lower than all the other materials so its cost per unit
volume is low. As an insulation material, glass fiber is used as a random mass so its density and cost per unit volume will
be much lower than indicated.
• High-density natural building materials such as slate and limestone perform well, but low-density
natural materials including wood, natural fibers, and wool are superior to metal alloys, polymers,
polymer foams, and composite materials.