Performance of Paving Materials in Outdoor Landscaping

Many developments today, have made the human lifestyle more comfortable but seem to be concerned only about the technical and economic viability rather than the environment or the user comfort. Hence, these developments are causing severe environmental issues such as global warming, heat island effect, losing the natural appearance etc. The selection of construction materials considering their properties is vital with respect to sustainable outdoor development. Materials such as clay bricks, asphalts, concrete etc.; are used and since recent times, concrete block pavements have become an attractive engineering and economical material in the construction of walkways, worldwide. However, there are many drawbacks with respect to user comfort via temperature effect in the use of these materials. Therefore, the study of temperature effects of materials, which are used for outdoor developments is important. Accordingly, this research was done to evaluate and compare the thermal performance of existing paving materials used for outdoor development in Sri Lanka. Separate sections were paved with different paving materials and same colour was applied on the surface to avoid the colour effect. The results obtained were evaluated and the thermal performances were compared. The results indicated that the material and its surface colour of surface influenced thermal performance.