Empirical research and proposed planning methodology for the greening of urban buildings to achieve low-carbon effects

Building coverage in urban areas is gradually increasing, inducing a lack of green spaces—a common problem for sustainable urban development. Greenery on buildings has significant low-carbon effects and it becomes an innovative approach to reduce loss of urban green spaces. This paper focused on the planning methodology for urban building greening and established the content framework including the investigation and analysis, planning proposal, and management policies. In addition, the key issues that affect planning scientificity and implementation were discussed. Quantitative models on greening potential were developed, and a combined policy system comprising incentives and mandatory measures was established. Shenzhen is a typical Chinese city densely built-up with a shortage of green spaces. The city was taken as the empirical research object to analyze the current scale and compositional, and the distributional characteristics of building greening planning. Method of estimating the low-carbon effects of building greening was proposed. The results indicate that the carbon reduction effect of existing building greening was 1.96%, which reached 5.55% under the planning scenario. Finally, the paper emphasized the need for a planning methodology to realize the large-scale refurbishment of existing buildings, and discussed the issue of planning implementation being highly dependent on public policies.