A New Method for Sensing Soil Water Content in Green Roofs Using Plant Microbial Fuel Cells.

Green roofs have many benefits, but in countries with semiarid climates the amount of water needed for irrigation is a limiting factor for their maintenance. The use of drought-tolerant plants such as species, reduces the water requirements in the dry season, but, even so, in semiarid environments these can reach up to 60 L m per day. Continuous substrate/soil water content monitoring would facilitate the efficient use of this critical resource.