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This study aims to formulate a user-friendly pre-design model that could be a decision support tool for green wall systems to assist designers in selecting an optimal green wall system aligned with specified performance criteria while concurrently addressing project requirements linked to social and economic parameters. This approach seeks to enhance overall project satisfaction for the designer and the owner.

A correlation between the green wall context and design requirements and its performance on the buildings have been defined by considering its social and economic parameters, which represented the owner preferences to ensure the most satisfaction from installation as it achieves the required performance that is defined by the designer such as maximizing thermal insulation, improving indoor air quality, reducing the needed heating and cooling loads, etc. and also to achieve the satisfaction in social and economic requirements defined by the owner such as system installation cost, system maintenance cost, adding beauty value, etc.

The research developed an easy pre-design model to be a tool for green wall system decision-making for the most suitable system, which contains three main steps: the first one is defining the required performance of the green wall (designer requirements), the second step is limiting the context of the project which is made by designer and the owner requirements and finally the third step is choosing the system components that ensures achieving the requirements of both owners and designer, related to the building and climate context.

The added value lies in developing a green wall decision-making tool, essentially a pre-design model. This model considers the correlation between the project’s context, encompassing climate and building conditions. It provides a structured approach for decision-making in the early stages of green wall design. It offers valuable insights into the optimal choices related to system type, installation methods and plant characteristics. This enhanced decision-making tool contributes to more informed and efficient design processes, considering each project’s specific needs and conditions.

Green roofs are strategies for the ecological intensification of cities and a measure of meeting some of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). They have widely been adopted as an adaptation strategy against an urban heat island (UHI). However, they are conventionally soil-based making it difficult and expensive to adopt as a strategy for greening existing buildings (GEB). This paper, therefore, develops a novel green roof system using climbers for thermal-radiative performance. The paper explores the vitality of climbing species as a nature-based strategy for GEB, and for the ecological improvement of the predominantly used cool roofs in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Simulation for the same building Kejetia Central Market (KCM) Redevelopment; the existing aluminium roof (AL), soil-based extensive green roof (GR1) and the proposed green roof using climbing plants (GR2) were performed using ENVI-met. The AL and GR1 were developed as reference models to evaluate and compare thermal-radiative performance of the conceptual model (GR2). The long wave radiation emission (Q_lw), mean radiant temperature (MRT) and outdoor air temperature (T_a) of all three roofing systems were simulated under clear sky conditions to assess the performance and plant vitality considering water access, leaf temperature (T_f) and latent heat flux (LE₀) of GR1 and GR2.

There was no short wave radiation (Q_sw) absorption at the GR2 substrate since the climbers have no underlying soil mass, recording daily mean average Q_lw emission of 435.17 Wm⁻². The soil of GR1, however, absorbed Q_sw of 390.11 Wm⁻² and a Q_lw emission of 16.20 wm⁻² higher than the GR2. The AL recorded the lowest Q_lw value of 75.43 Wm⁻². Also, the stomatal resistance (r_s) was higher in GR1 while GR2 recorded a higher average mean transpiration flux of 0.03 g/sm³. This indicates a higher chance of survival of the climbers. The T_a of GR2 recording 0.45°C lower than the GR1 could be a good UHI adaptation strategy.

No previous research on climbers for green roof systems was found for comparison, so the KCM project provided a unique confluence of dynamic events including the opportunity for block-scale impact assessment of the proposed GEB strategy. Notwithstanding, the single case study allowed a focussed exploration of the novel theory of redefining green roof systems with climbers. Moreover, the simulation was computationally expensive, and engaging multiple case studies were found to be overly exhaustive to arrive at the same meaningful conclusion. As a novelty, therefore, this research provides an alternative theory to the soil-based green roof phenomenon.

The thermal-radiative performance of green roofs could be improved with the use of climbers. The reduction of the intensity of UHI would lead to improved thermal comfort and building energy savings. Also, very little dependence on the volume of soil would require little structural load consideration thereby leading not only to cheaper green roof construction but their higher demand, adoption and implementation in SSA and other low-income economies of the global south.

The reduction of the consumption of topsoil and water for irrigation could avoid the negative environmental impacts of land degradation and pollution which have a deleterious impact on human health. This fulfils SDG 12 which seeks to ensure responsible consumption of products. This requires the need to advance the research for improvement and training of local built environment practitioners with new skills for installation to ensure social inclusiveness in the combat against the intractable forces of negative climate impacts.

Climbers are mostly known for green walls, but their innovative use for green roof systems has not been attempted and adopted; it could present a cost-effective strategy for the GEB. The proposed green roof system with climbers apart from becoming a successful strategy for UHI adaptation was also able to record an estimated 568% savings on topsoil consumption with an impact on the reduction of pollution from excavation. The research provides an initial insight into design options, potentials and limitations on the use of climbers for green roofs to guide future research and experimental verification.

Knife crime and serious violent crime (SVC) among youth has been growing at an alarming rate in the UK (Harding and Allen, 2021). Community and school-based intervention and prevention services to tackle knife crime are being developed with some evaluation; however, these are independent and of varied quality and rigour. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to record the approaches being developed and synthesise existing evidence of the impact and effectiveness of programmes to reduce knife crime. In addition, the complex factors contributing to knife crime and SVC are discussed.

A systematic approach was used to conduct this knife crime intervention evidence review using two search engines and four databases. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to ensure focus and relevance. The results of searches and decisions by the research team were recorded at each stage using Preferred Reporting Items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA).

Some evidence underpins the development of services to reduce knife crime. Much of the evidence comes from government funded project reports, intervention and prevention services reports, with few studies evaluating the efficacy of intervention programmes at present. Some studies that measured immediate impact in line with the programme’s aims were found and demonstrated positive results.

This systematic review specifically synthesised the evidence and data derived from knife crime and weapon carrying interventions and preventions, integrating both grey and published literature, with a novel discussion that highlights the importance of outcome evaluations and issues with measuring the success of individual level interventions and their contributions to the overall reduction of violence.