Use of Vegetation as Biomaterial for Controlling Measures of Human Impact on the Environment

Abstract

In a context of a climate change, bioengineering techniques and biomaterials are needed to reduce the human impact on the environment. Thus, in recent years, living materials have been used in environmental engineering applications. In the present paper, attention is restricted to the vegetation, and a brief review on its use as biomaterial in engineering control techniques is presented. The core of this review is a comprehensive overview of two important techniques using vegetation as living material for measures limiting the human impact both in extra-urban and in urban sites. In particular, the use of vegetation both as living material for soil erosion protection and river's bank stabilization in extra-urban areas and as a part of green roofs or walls added to buildings in urban areas is presented. Considerations about the advantages and disadvantages of these techniques conclude this review.