Reflective Parking Lots for Microscale Urban Heat Island Mitigation

Paved surfaces, especially parking lots, occupy a significant proportion of the horizontal surface area in cities. The low albedo of many of these parking lots contribute to the urban heat island (UHI) and affect the local microclimate around them. The albedo of six parking lots in Champaign-Urbana, U.S., was measured using a ground-based albedometer and was found to vary between 0.18 and 0.28, with a statistically significant variation in albedo at different points within each parking lot. The numerical model ENVI-met was then employed to model the microclimate around one of these lots to examine the potential of increasing its albedo to mitigate UHI. The higher albedo decreased the air temperature over the parking lot by about 1°C. Furthermore, the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), which combines the effects of air temperature, reflected radiation, wind speed, clothing, metabolism, and humidity, demonstrated that increasing the albedo of the parking lot could improve overall pedestrian thermal comfort and even eliminate it during several hours of the day, and thus mitigate the UHI effect.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1177/0361198120919401
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/03611981
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © National Academy of Sciences: Transportation Research Board 2020.
• Authors:
  • Sen, Sushobhan
  • Fernandèz, Juan Pablo Ricardo Mendèz-Ruiz
  • Roesler, Jeffery
• Publication Date: 2020-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 663-671
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
  • Volume: 2674
  • Issue Number: 8
  • Publisher: Sage Publications, Incorporated
  • ISSN: 0361-1981
  • EISSN: 2169-4052
  • Serial URL: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/trr

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Atmospheric temperature; Environmental impacts; Heat; Parking lots; Pavements; Reflectivity; Solar radiation
• Geographic Terms: Champaign (Illinois); Urbana (Illinois)
• Subject Areas: Environment; Highways; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01746867
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Jul 28 2020 4:30PM