Vegetation Types and its Pattern

Water Bodies
Climate Responsive Architecture

Presented by:

Name - Diethokuolie Medom

Class - B.Arch (3rd Sem)
Roll no. - 212131008
School - R.S.A (Architecture)
 Vegetation Types
• The natural vegetation is the endowments of nature. They grow naturally by following the climatic variables.

• The types of natural vegetation differ according to precipitation, soil, climate, and topography. The cultivated
crops and fruits, orchards form part of vegetation, but not natural vegetation.

• India is bestowed with a wide range of flora and fauna. Due to diverse geographical and climatic conditions,
an extensive range of natural vegetation grows in India.

• The natural vegetation of India and types of vegetation in India are important topics covered under both
geography and ecology and environment
 Types of Natural Vegetation in India
• Tropical Evergreen Rain Forests –

• It has copious vegetation of all kinds – trees, shrubs, and creepers giving it a multilayered structure.

• The Tropical Evergreen rain forests are found in the areas where precipitation is more than 200 cm.

• They are largely found in the Northeastern regions of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Assam, Nagaland, the
Western Ghats, the Tarai areas of the Himalayas, and the Andaman groups of Islands.
 • Structures in Tropical forests-

• The main characteristic of tropical designed homes are tropical plants and flowers inside the house and
outside in the garden or in the whole yard.
• Deciduous or Monsoon type of forests-

• The precipitation in this area is between 100 cm and 200 cm. Teak is the dominant species seen in the area.

• The trees in this forest shed their leaves during dry winter and dry summer. Based on the availability of
water, these forests are again divided into moist and dry deciduous.

• The Deciduous forests are found on the lower slope of the Himalayas, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Bihar,
Orissa, Karnataka, Maharashtra Jharkhand, and the adjoining areas.
• Structures in Deciduous or Monsoon type of forests-

Jorhat, Assam Kongtong Village, Meghalaya

• Dry deciduous forests-

• These forests grow in areas where the precipitation is between 50 cm and 100 cm.

• These are mainly seen in the areas of the Central Deccan plateau, Punjab, Haryana, parts of Uttar Pradesh,
Madhya Pradesh, and South-east of Rajasthan.
• Mountain Forests/Montane Forests-

• Montane forests are those found in mountains. Mountain forests differ significantly along the slopes of the
mountain.

• On the higher slope, temperate conifer trees like pine, fir, and oak grow. At the higher elevation of the
Himalayas, rhododendrons and junipers are found. Further, then these vegetation zones, alpine grasslands
appear up to the snowfield.
 Houses in Mountain Forests/Montane Forests-

• Another characteristic of many mountain houses is their strong emphasis on site-specific design for the
preservation of nature.
• Tidal or Mangrove forests-

• The tidal or mangrove forests grow by the side of the coast and on the edges of the deltas e.g., the deltas
of the Cauvery, Krishna, Mahanadi, Godavari, and Ganga.

• This forest is an important factor in the timber industry as they provide timber and firewood. Palm and
coconut trees beautify the coastal strip.
 Structures in Tidal or Mangrove forests-

• Due to the water, house in mangroves are usually built on rafts or small columns
• Some houses are attached to nearby trees and acts as a boat. These house can be detached during high
tides and used a floating structure.
• Semi-deserts and Deserts vegetations –

• This area receives rainfall of less than 50 cm.

• Thorny bushes, acacia, and Babul are found in this vegetation region.

• The plants found in this region store water in their stem to endure during the drought. These vegetation are
found in parts of Gujarat’s, Punjab, and Rajasthan.
 Structures in Semi-deserts and Deserts vegetations –

• In addition to the traditional thick walls, courtyards and covered patios or porches, the orientation of the
home allows the architect to plan for protection from the sun in summer but allow for sun penetration into
the interior in winter.
 Pattern of Vegetation
• Vegetation patterns happen in a vegetation community and they are characterized by specific and
repetitive patterns.
• The formation of vegetation patterns is a combination of many phenomena and usually includes some
form of a directional aspect.

• The presence of vegetation on roofs adds sun protection but also additional thermal insulation. The
substrate itself of the vegetation cover already collaborates in improving the energy efficiency of the roof
due to its thermal properties.
• Vegetation improves the quality of the buildings
integrated both inside and as part of its enclosure.

• But in addition the vegetation integrated in the

buildings improves the environmental and visual quality
of the buildings

• The vegetation therefore provides environmental

benefits but also social and economic benefits
• The vegetation integrated in the enclosure of the building provides additional thermal insulation,
protection from solar radiation and regulates the temperature. Both vertical walls and sloping roofs.

• During the winter it protects from wind and humidity. However, in summer, it protects against excessive
heating of interior spaces by blocking solar radiation.

• In dry climates the vegetation integrated in the architecture humidifies the environment by cooling the
air between 1ºC and 5ºC.
• On the other hand, vegetation also improves the environmental quality in the cities since, among other
benefits, it mitigates the urban- heat island effect by reducing the temperature in its surroundings.
 Water Bodies
• Water is one of the most important natural resources on earth and it can be found in various forms on
earth.

• There are various water bodies which divide into categories of salt and fresh as well as small and large.

• Bodies of water come in different shapes and sizes from small ponds to rivers and expansive oceans.
Each body of Water contains a different ecosystem with plants, animals, and fish unique to its
environment.

“You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.”
– Rabindranath Tagore
• Types of Water Bodies-

• Oceans

• Oceans are the biggest bodies of water on earth which cover at least 71% of the surface of the earth.

• The entire marine saltwater which you see on earth ultimately ends up in the World Ocean.

• However, the way our continents are arranged, it makes it easier to differentiate between specific ocean
basins.

• The Pacific Ocean is the largest one. Then we have the Atlantic Ocean followed by the Indian Ocean.
Finally, we have the Southern Ocean and then the Arctic Ocean.
• The ocean plays an important role in shaping our climate and weather patterns.

• Warm ocean waters provide the energy to fuel storm systems that provide fresh water vital to all living
things. Understanding and predicting precipitation is critical to farmers who decide which crops to plant,
and how deep, based in part on soil moisture levels.
 Current movement of oceans

• Currents may carry cool or warm water which affects the climate of the land nearby

• Land areas near cool water often have cool temperature while areas near warm currents have warm
temperatures.
• Seas-

• These can be basically called sub-sections of the oceans. The coastal reaches of the oceans where they are
surrounded by land masses are known as seas.

• All seas are saline or salty.

• There are three major types of seas:

• i) Nearly enclosed seas

• ii) Partly enclosed seas

• iii) Hypersaline lakes.

The Seven Seas
• Lakes-

• These are inland bodies of water and found either with freshwater or saltwater. Lakes are also enclosed by
land and some even categorize the Caspian Sea as a lake.

• There is no precise difference between the lake and a pond.

• Lakes affect climate in a lot of different ways. They’re a heat sink, so it takes them a long time to heat up to
air temperature or cool down enough to freeze. Lake breezes can warm the climate in winter or cool it in
summer.

• Lakes also bring storms in winter, they bring winter snow squalls.

• Lake water stores a lot of heat energy. It takes a lot of warm air for a lake to heat up. That’s why a deep lake
is still nice and cool, even when it’s broiling outside.
• When it’s a big lake like the Great Lakes, sometimes
those lake breezes collide with unstable air during
summer afternoons.

• That’s when you’ll get pop-up thunderstorms all

along the lake breeze front.

• Lake-effect snow is caused when cold Arctic air

sweeps over the open water of a big lake and picks
up some of its moisture.

• It hangs onto that moisture until it hits dry land. Then

all that moisture lets go and falls as narrow streamers
of snow.
• Rivers and Streams-

• These are basically bodies of water in motion. In other words, the water which flows on the earth’s surface
creates rivers and streams.

• Streams can be said to be the smaller version of the rivers. They consist of freshwater which ends up in the
ocean through the constant flow of rivers and streams.

• Rivers are quite an important source of water as well as energy. In addition to that, they are also used
greatly for transportation purposes and as fishing grounds.

• Nile in Africa is one of the longest rivers in the world in addition to the River Amazon in South America.
Furthermore, we have River Mississippi, Congo, Mackenzie and more.
• Glaciers-

• Glaciers are frozen bodies of water. They are also a kind of water body only which moves slowly similar to
frozen rivers.

• All the glaciers, ice caps, glacial ice and all are millions of years old. They cover almost 10% of the earth’s
land area and are sources of freshwater.

• Most of the world’s glaciers exist in the polar regions, in areas like Greenland, the Canadian Arctic, and
Antarctica. Glaciers also can be found closer to the Equator in some mountain regions.

• The Andes Mountain range in South America contains some of the world’s largest tropical glaciers. About 2
percent of all the water on Earth is frozen in glaciers.

• Glaciers can range in age from a couple hundred to thousands of years old.
• The Bergschrund is the crevasse
separating the horizontal of the
glacier and the vertical of the
mountain. It is the void left after the
glacier detaches from the stagnant,
loyal to the mountain ice left above.

• A glacier is a pile of snow and ice. In

cold regions (either towards the poles
or at high altitudes), more snow falls
(accumulates) than melts (ablates) in
the summer season. If the snowpack
starts to remain over the summer
months, it will gradually build up into
a glacier over a period of years.

• A crevasse is a deep, wedge-shaped
opening in a moving mass of ice
called a glacier.
• As ice flows downhill, it either reaches warmer climates, or it
reaches the ocean. This causes various processes of melt, or
ablation, to occur. In a land-terminating glacier the main processes
of ablation will be surface melt,
• EFECTS OF MELTING GLACIERS-

• This loss of ice has already reached 335 billion tonnes per year, which is 30% of the current rate of ocean
growth.
• Effects of glaciers melting- SOLUTIONS TO AVOID MELTING GLACIERS-

• Sea Level Rise • Stop climate change

• Impact on the climate • Slow down their erosion

• Combine artificial icebergs

• Disappearance of species
• Increase their thickness
• Less fresh water
• Effect of Water Bodies in a Space-

• Water plays an important role in the formation of human life.

• Water is clear, fluid, calm, and quiet. The architecture utilizes all these water features and so the
relationship between man and water can be shown in the architecture of any space.

• Water is a multidimensional object which appears in various fields:

i) Environmentally: Is a natural resource for living

ii) Socially: A sensitive basis for developing human activities
iii) Financially: It influences tourism, agriculture, fisheries, etc
iv) Culturally: Related to folklore, mythology, art, and religion
v) Aesthetically: Represented as a beautiful element of nature
• Bodies of water create microclimates in a way that water loses and gains heat slower than the surrounding
land. This helps the air take in moisture from the water and create a humid climate.

• Bodies of water such as rivers and lakes work as cooling sources for the surrounding region.

• They absorb the radiation from the sun and cool the surrounding area through the process of evaporation
and condensation.

• This is why when you are out on a river, lake, or sea, the climate is much cooler than on the land.

• This is because the way water reacts to heat is much different than how the surface reacts to heat. Land
traps heat while water bodies evaporate to make the region cooler.
• Uses of water in Architecture-

Running Stream Water Garden Still Garden

Active Water Edging Orienting