16. Cool Pavements

This chapter deals with Urban Heat Island (UHI) mitigation and cool pavements. It starts with a brief introduction on UHI and various mitigation approaches including cool pavements. The urban cityscape is covered with man-made materials that absorb the sun’s energy. Dark colored roads and roofs have replaced surface area which was once predominantly vegetated lands. Impervious pavements cover a large amount of urban surface area, typically 30–45 %. For these reasons summertime ambient temperatures in cities are typically warmer than those of rural areas. Heat islands lead to increased air conditioning use which puts a strain on a city’s energy grid. To supply this extra wattage, power plants must work harder and as a result emit more carbon. Therefore, the heat island effect contributes to environmental problems including air quality and climate change. One solution to this problem is the implementation of cool pavement technologies in areas of where less stringent structural requirements exist, such as parking lots and low volume roads. Cool pavements are a class of materials that exhibit enhanced cooling by means of increased reflectivity or increased convection. This chapter correlates heat island effect to climate change as well as outlining the different cool pavement technologies which may help to mitigate climate change effects.