Research on Domestic and Foreign Rooftop Planting Policy as a Heat Island Countermeasure: A Case Study of the Rooftop Planting Policies in Tokyo, Kitakyushu and Berlin

Abstract

Various heat island countermeasures have been promoted by public bodies in Japan, such as local government, but most are model business and trial initiatives. Since long-term, continuous action is required to counter the heat island effect, it is to be hoped that there will be a shift toward institutional and regulatory action. Therefore we have collated some examples of institutional heat island-related initiatives by both Japanese and overseas local governments, and hope that our research will prove to be a useful resource to Japanese local governments developing heat island effect countermeasures in the future. We have focused not solely on specific heat island countermeasures, but on various general measures which may contribute to reducing the heat island effect. From this standpoint, we look at green roof policy in Germany and green roof policy in local government in Japan.