G. Pérez et al.

Building and Environment 206 (2021) 108320

cell volumes is lower in the east facade, followed by the south and west
ones. This is clearly seen in Fig. 12.
The vegetation distribution on each facade is described and analysed
in the following sections. As no significant differences are found be­
tween replicates, the following results refer to rep 1.
These results perfectly reflect the development of vegetation on each
facade. The variation in the results obtained on different facades illus­
trates the influence of microclimate on plant development. Thus, in this
specific location there is a constant south-westerly breeze, which slows
the growth of vegetation on these two facades. This fact has already been
observed in previous studies to characterize leaf density, using tradi­
tional techniques for measuring the LAI [10,14]. In the case of the
eastern facade, which is more protected from the local dominant breeze,
year after year the vegetation generally has a higher growth, which was
well characterized in the largest volume recorded.
As for the difference in volume between the south and west facades,
although in a normal year these orientations reach a similar volume, at
the time of the 3D data gathering, a couple of plants located on the left
zone of the south facade were suffering from a disease that decreased the
number and volume of the leaves and consequently the total volume of
this facade orientation. For this reason, a lower volume of 1.356 m3 (rep
1) was measured on the south facade as compared to the 1.843 m3 (rep
1) reached on the west facade. Fig. 13. East facade. The colour scale indicates the vegetation depth (i.e. dis­
tance of the vegetation from the wall). (For interpretation of the references to
colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of
3.3. Per-facade vegetation volume analysis this article.)

The distribution of the vegetation on each facade is commented and
analysed in the following sections. Visual representations of its spatial
distribution are shown in Figs. 13–15. A multifactorial linear model was
adjusted to the rep 1 data (N = 2700) to assess the effect of factors Row
and Column and their interaction on each facade. Results are presented
in Tables 3–5.
3.3.1. East facade
As shown in Fig. 13, the spatial distribution of vegetation on the east
facade is not uniform. The vegetation depth ranges from 30 cm to more
than 60 cm with a decreasing pattern in height. The results of the sta­
tistical analysis prove the significance of factors Row and Column and of
their interaction (all p-values < 0.0001). What and where are the dif­
ferences in Table 3. When analysing the rows or columns individually, it
is possible to obtain a rough approach to the real situation. For example,
columns 2 and 3 have significantly higher cell volume averages than
column 1. Moreover, the average cell volume in row 1 is significantly
higher than it is in row 2 and row 3. However, this is not entirely true for
the entire height of the column or length of the row. Thus, the least
vegetated region is region 7, closely followed by regions 8, 9, 4 and 1.
The most vegetated regions are regions 2 and 3, followed by regions 6
and 5. It is reasonable to have more vegetation close to the roots of the
plants with a decreasing pattern in height, and that is clearly seen in the
row results.
Differences in columns can usually be explained when some plants
are less vigorous than others. That happens when plants are not properly
rooted or when soil properties are variable along the facade width.
However, in the case of this east facade, the lower volume in column 1
was the consequence of a disease that mainly affected the plants located
in the southeast corner that took place at the time of the measurements.
This fact not only implied a decrease in the volume of columns 2 and 3 of
the south facade but also affected column 1 of this east facade as can be
clearly observed in Fig. 13.
This event was specific to the year and time of the data collection and
after this disease the plants again recovered normally. This fact high­
lights, on the one hand, the influence that a disease can have on the
vegetation volume and consequently on the ability to produce shade and
provide energy savings during the cooling period, and on the other hand,
as previous authors have highlighted, the importance of maintenance
operations when vertical greening systems are used [4].
3.3.2. South facade
Fig. 14 shows the high variability of the south facade, with vegeta­
tion depth ranging from 15 cm to 55 cm. Visual observation shows low
vegetation development in regions 3 and 9, and in region 6 to a lesser

Fig. 12. Vegetation volume distribution histograms. Count (vertical) vs. cell unit volume (horizontal) for the three facades: (a) east (N = 900); (b) south (N = 900);
(c) west (N = 900).