Vetiver: An Amazing Plant for the Green City

Abstract

The Vetiver System promises a natural solution to mitigate the effects of climate change due to global warming caused by the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. With its automobiles, factories, concrete and asphalt, air conditioners, people dumping their garbage, etc., the city is a major contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions. One low-cost solution is to employ the Green City philosophy, which is based on the concept that plants can bring social, economic and environmental benefits to the city dwellers. Plants are keys to our sense of well-being and belonging to a place that is called ‘home’. The new concept of the Green City is to improve the liveable conditions of urban surroundings and benefit the well-being of citizens living there. The ideal Green City is more than just being green, i.e. it has to be clean, cool, safe and beautiful. Among the most unique plants other than trees that can make a city green is the vetiver, an amazing grass with exceptional properties.

Vetiver can make a city greener as a road boundary, at roundabouts and in landscaping parks and resorts. It can make a city cleaner through: (i) its pond embankment filtration, various techniques in domestic, industrial and agricultural wastewater treatments, and water purification; (ii) rehabilitation of contaminated or polluted water with the treatment of eutrophicated water, removal of effluents, heavy metals and toxic substances; (iii) treatments of landfills and garbage dumps with the removal of agrochemicals and pesticides, and absorption of heavy metals – a new approach of phytoremediation; and (4) dust reduction. It can make a city cooler using its evapo-transpiration function, heat reduction and the cooling and refreshing effects of its dried massive roots. It can make a city safer serving as a windbreak and utilizing its ability to stabilize slopes of the road, riverbanks, ponds, and shorelines. And finally, being a grass with a beautiful form and aesthetic value, it can make a city more beautiful when used as an ornamental plant in landscaping, or as a decorative potted plant. Vetiver-based Green City employs simple and low-cost technology, which is sustainable and has low maintenance costs.