IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v18y2026i14p7153-d1989991.html

A Systematic Review of Vertical Greenery: Environmental Impacts, Architectural Innovations, and Future Directions

Author

Listed:
  • Yiming Shao

    (School of Architecture, Nanjing Tech University, 30 Puzhu South Road, Nanjing 211816, China)

  • Ding Ding

    (School of Architecture, Nanjing Tech University, 30 Puzhu South Road, Nanjing 211816, China)

  • Jingyang Zhao

    (School of Architecture, Nanjing Tech University, 30 Puzhu South Road, Nanjing 211816, China)

Abstract

Vertical greenery is increasingly applied in modern cities for environmental improvement and landscape enhancement. Given the insufficient coverage of recent developments in research and practice by prior reviews, this paper conducts a systematic review based on literature from Web of Science and global patent databases following PRISMA guidelines, with CiteSpace used for bibliometric analysis. This study summarizes the theoretical achievements of vertical greenery in ecological environment, building energy efficiency and technical materials. It also analyzes practical innovations via patent mining—a new supplement compared with traditional reviews. The environmental impacts of both outdoor and indoor vertical greenery are elaborated on: outdoor systems improve urban microclimate, noise control and air quality; indoor systems enhance indoor comfort, air purification and people’s mental status. Current innovations are categorized into structure and equipment, intelligent management, and social–cultural values. The outcomes of this work offer practical guidance for the design, construction and maintenance of vertical greenery in real projects. This paper also identifies future research priorities for the long-term development of vertical greenery.

Suggested Citation

  • Yiming Shao & Ding Ding & Jingyang Zhao, 2026. "A Systematic Review of Vertical Greenery: Environmental Impacts, Architectural Innovations, and Future Directions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-44, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:18:y:2026:i:14:p:7153-:d:1989991
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/18/14/7153/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/18/14/7153/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:18:y:2026:i:14:p:7153-:d:1989991. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.