Trainers and participants at the recent Building a Green City seminar in Mashhad were given an interesting tour of the City's open spaces. The tour included a visit to two retrofitted green roofs on the City Hall and the main building of the parks organisation.
Park's Department's Green Roof Mashhad Iran
Mashhad enjoys a steppe climate of hot summers and cool winter. Temperatures rise to more than 30 degrees in summer and normally fall one or two degrees below zero in winter. Average annual rainfall is around 350mm per year but can vary considerably and the long-term trend is downwards. Therefore establishing green roofs in this climate presents some challenges which the city have willingly accepted. The green roof on the City Hall is approximately 500 sq. m. and has a 150mm deep substrate rich in organic compost and is irrigated. It is planted with Sedum species, blue fescue grass,
Mashhad City Hall's green roof
Mesembryanthemum and species of Frankenia. The 400 sq. m. green roof on the roof of the parks organization main building has a 150mm deep conventional extensive green roof substrate which includes pumice, perlite and compost. There is a sprinkler irrigation system and the roof is accessible to staff, who can use a small pavilion which has a table and seating. The roof has been plug planted with a similar range of plants to those found on the City Hall, all readily available ornamental species. The Parks Organisation will be monitoring these roofs to see how they fare.
Intensive green roof on a Private Residence in Mashhad, Iran
Building a Green City - Mashhad Iran was held between 16th to 19th May, the City of Mashhad, Iran Mashad City in association with Metropolis held a training course on the greening of cities with special attention to green roofs and living walls.
Presentations were made by speakers from Iran, India, Canada and the UK.
Dr Bahrainy, Professor of Urban Design at the University of Tehran spoke on the subjects of sustainability, the ‘urban village’ and urban heat islands
Dr Kafi, Head of Landscape Engineering at the Dept. of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture at Tehran University spoke about his interest in using Iranian native species, traditional knowledge and xeriscapes.
Dr Teki Surrayya, Head of the Dept. of Management Studies at Adikavi Nannaya University, Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh , India, spoke on urban agriculture and innovative financial instruments for funding green infrastructure
Mr. Salami, General Director of the Parks and Green Spaces Organisation of Mashhad Municipality described the city’s parks and impressive programme of tree planting and care and other public realm improvements
Owen Rose, architect and Head of Montreal’s Urban Ecology Centre, Quebec, Canada spoke about healthy neighbourhoods, active transportation, urban density, citizen participation in urban greening and Montreal’s green roofs.
Gary Grant of the Green Roof Consultancy and guest blogger at Livingroofs.org focussed on ecosystem services, water sensitive cities, green roofs and livings walls
