ROOFTOP GARDENING A SOURCE OF ENVIRONMENT CONSERVATION AND CROP PRODUCTION WITH CHANGING CLIMATE FOR DHAKA CITY

Abstract
The cities of the world are facing serious problems due to environmental hazards. The Department of Agricultural Extension has been implementing a pilot project on expansion of roof gardening in the Dhaka city since 2018 to reduce the increasing temperature, air pollution and for food production. However, no study has been conducted to find out the suitable technologies for producing fresh, safe and nutritious foods in the roof garden and to investigate the role of this roof garden on environment conservation for the Dhaka city dwellers with changing climate. Therefore, a research based roof garden model was developed at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University with the financial help of NATP-2 project. The experimental results showed that roof garden reduced upper surface temperature of roof more than 9°C and lower surface temperature of roof by 1.74°C and believe to reduce the electricity consumption for cooling the room of the top floor of the building during summer season. The oxygen and carbon dioxide percent were higher and lower, respectively in the garden than the bare roof. Therefore, the results suggest that urban crop production and environmental balance can be achieved to a certain extent by increasing the intensity of roof gardening in the Dhaka city