How to dramatically lower city temperatures

Image caption: The urban heat island effect in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28, 2018. [Image: NOAA]. Article by Hessam Azarijafari and Randolph E. Kirchain. Fast Company – June 21, 2021.

If done right, light-colored, reflective pavement can cool urban areas.

When heat waves hit, people start looking for anything that might lower the temperature. One solution is right beneath our feet: pavement.

Think about how hot the soles of your shoes can get when you’re walking on dark pavement or asphalt. A hot street isn’t just hot to touch – it also raises the surrounding air temperature.

Research shows that building lighter-colored, more reflective roads has the potential to lower air temperatures by more than 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit (1.4 C) and, in the process, reduce the frequency of heat waves by 41% across U.S. cities. But reflective surfaces have to be used strategically – the wrong placement can actually heat up nearby buildings instead of cooling things down. […]

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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.