Cool Pavement Strategies for Urban Heat Island Mitigation in Suburban Phoenix, Arizona

Urban areas are characterized by a large proportion of artificial surfaces, such as concrete and asphalt, which absorb and store more heat than natural vegetation, leading to the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Cool pavements, walls, and roofs have been suggested as a solution to mitigate UHI, but their effectiveness depends on local land-use patterns and surrounding urban forms. Meteorological data was collected using a mobile platform in the Power Ranch community of Gilbert, Arizona in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, a region that experiences harsh summer temperatures. The warmest hour recorded during data collection was 13 August 2015 at 5:00 p.m., with a far-field air temperature of about 42 ∘ C and a low wind speed of 0.45 m/s from East-Southeast (ESE). An uncoupled pavement-urban canyon Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model was developed and validated to study the microclimate of the area. Five scenarios were studied to investigate the effects of different pavements on UHI, replacing all pavements with surfaces of progressively higher albedo: New asphalt concrete, typical concrete, reflective concrete, making only roofs and walls reflective, and finally replacing all artificial surfaces with a reflective coating. While new asphalt surfaces increased the surrounding 2 m air temperatures by up to 0.5 ∘ C, replacing aged asphalt with typical concrete with higher albedo did not significantly decrease it. Reflective concrete pavements decreased air temperature by 0.2–0.4 ∘ C and reflective roofs and walls by 0.4–0.7 ∘ C, while replacing all roofs, walls, and pavements with a reflective coating led to a more significant decrease, of up to 0.8–1.0 ∘ C. Residences downstream of major collector roads experienced a decreased air temperature at the higher end of these ranges. However, large areas of natural surfaces for this community had a significant effect on downstream air temperatures, which limits the UHI mitigation potential of these strategies.

[1]  J. Roesler,et al.  Thermal and optical characterization of asphalt field cores for microscale urban heat island analysis , 2019, Construction and Building Materials.

[2]  Pudong Liu,et al.  Combined Effects of the Surface Urban Heat Island with Landscape Composition and Configuration Based on Remote Sensing: A Case Study of Shanghai, China , 2019, Sustainability.

[3]  F. Haghighat,et al.  Urban heat island, urban climate maps and urban development policies and action plans , 2019, Environmental Technology & Innovation.

[4]  Tsuyoshi Fujita,et al.  Simulation-Based Evaluation of the Effect of Green Roofs in Office Building Districts on Mitigating the Urban Heat Island Effect and Reducing CO2 Emissions , 2019, Sustainability.

[5]  B. Maiheu,et al.  Impact of urban microclimate on summertime building cooling demand: A parametric analysis for Antwerp, Belgium , 2018, Applied Energy.

[6]  J. Roesler,et al.  Use phase assessment of photocatalytic cool pavements , 2018, Journal of Cleaner Production.

[7]  Rajashree Kotharkar,et al.  Urban Heat Island studies in South Asia: A critical review , 2018, Urban Climate.

[8]  Yan Liu,et al.  Urban heat island effect: A systematic review of spatio-temporal factors, data, methods, and mitigation measures , 2018, Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinformation.

[9]  C. McAlpine,et al.  The impact of urbanization and climate change on urban temperatures: a systematic review , 2017, Landscape Ecology.

[10]  Abbas Mohajerani,et al.  The urban heat island effect, its causes, and mitigation, with reference to the thermal properties of asphalt concrete. , 2017, Journal of environmental management.

[11]  J. Roesler,et al.  Microscale Heat Island Characterization of Rigid Pavements , 2017 .

[12]  José A. Sobrino,et al.  A Review on Remote Sensing of Urban Heat and Cool Islands , 2017 .

[13]  J. Silfwerbrand.  Bonded Concrete Overlays , 2017 .

[14]  M. Santamouris,et al.  Using reflective pavements to mitigate urban heat island in warm climates - Results from a large scale urban mitigation project , 2017, Urban Climate.

[15]  H. Akbari,et al.  Urban heat island mitigation strategies: a state-of-the-art review on Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Hong Kong , 2017 .

[16]  S. Myint,et al.  Effects of landscape composition and pattern on land surface temperature: An urban heat island study in the megacities of Southeast Asia. , 2017, The Science of the total environment.

[17]  Zhi-Hua Wang,et al.  Effect of pavement thermal properties on mitigating urban heat islands: A multi-scale modeling case study in Phoenix , 2016 .

[18]  Kathrin J. Ward,et al.  Heat waves and urban heat islands in Europe: A review of relevant drivers. , 2016, The Science of the total environment.

[19]  Hui Li,et al.  Information synthesis and preliminary case study for life cycle assessment of reflective coatings for cool pavements , 2016 .

[20]  Hans Hagen,et al.  A Data-Driven Approach to Categorize Climatic Microenvironments , 2016, EnvirVis@EuroVis.

[21]  G. D. Jenerette,et al.  Micro-scale urban surface temperatures are related to land-cover features and residential heat related health impacts in Phoenix, AZ USA , 2016, Landscape Ecology.

[22]  Sushobhan Sen,et al.  Aging albedo model for asphalt pavement surfaces , 2016 .

[23]  Rajashree Kotharkar,et al.  Land Use, Land Cover, and Population Density Impact on the Formation of Canopy Urban Heat Islands through Traverse Survey in the Nagpur Urban Area, India , 2016 .

[24]  A. Middel,et al.  Sensor lag correction for mobile urban microclimate measurements , 2015 .

[25]  Yinghong Qin,et al.  A review on the development of cool pavements to mitigate urban heat island effect , 2015 .

[26]  B. Turner,et al.  Remote sensing of the surface urban heat island and land architecture in Phoenix, Arizona: Combined effects of land composition and configuration and cadastral-demographic-economic factors , 2015 .

[27]  Robert A. Taylor,et al.  Urban Heat Island: Mechanisms, Implications, and Possible Remedies , 2015 .

[28]  Neil Debbage,et al.  The urban heat island effect and city contiguity , 2015, Comput. Environ. Urban Syst..

[29]  V. Dorer,et al.  Influence of morphologies on the microclimate in urban neighbourhoods , 2015 .

[30]  C. Cartalis,et al.  On the impact of urban heat island and global warming on the power demand and electricity consumption of buildings—A review , 2015 .

[31]  William A. Gough,et al.  The impact of urbanization and the urban heat island effect on day to day temperature variation , 2015 .

[32]  Z. Ren,et al.  Estimation of the Relationship Between Urban Vegetation Configuration and Land Surface Temperature with Remote Sensing , 2015, Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing.

[33]  Xiaoxiao Li,et al.  Object-based land-cover classification for metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, using aerial photography , 2014, Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinformation.

[34]  Matheos Santamouris,et al.  Studying the effect of “cool” coatings in street urban canyons and its potential as a heat island mitigation technique , 2014 .

[35]  S. Myint,et al.  Spatial configuration of anthropogenic land cover impacts on urban warming , 2014 .

[36]  A. Pisello,et al.  Experimental Analysis of Natural Gravel Covering as Cool Roofing and Cool Pavement , 2014 .

[37]  M. Santamouris.  Cooling the cities – A review of reflective and green roof mitigation technologies to fight heat island and improve comfort in urban environments , 2014 .

[38]  M. Oppenheimer,et al.  The effectiveness of cool and green roofs as urban heat island mitigation strategies , 2014 .

[39]  S. Guhathakurta,et al.  Impact of urban form and design on mid-afternoon microclimate in Phoenix Local Climate Zones , 2014 .

[40]  J. Beringer,et al.  Assessing practical measures to reduce urban heat: Green and cool roofs , 2013 .

[41]  M. Santamouris.  Using cool pavements as a mitigation strategy to fight urban heat island—A review of the actual developments , 2013 .

[42]  Weichun Ma,et al.  Analysis of land use/land cover change, population shift, and their effects on spatiotemporal patterns of urban heat islands in metropolitan Shanghai, China , 2013 .

[43]  Michele Zinzi,et al.  Optical and thermal characterisation of cool asphalts to mitigate urban temperatures and building cooling demand , 2013 .

[44]  Christopher S. Galletti,et al.  Landscape configuration and urban heat island effects: assessing the relationship between landscape characteristics and land surface temperature in Phoenix, Arizona , 2013, Landscape Ecology.

[45]  H. Akbari,et al.  Global cooling updates: Reflective roofs and pavements , 2012 .

[46]  L. Kleerekoper,et al.  How to make a city climate-proof, addressing the urban heat island effect , 2012 .

[47]  H. Takebayashi,et al.  Study on Surface Heat Budget of Various Pavements for Urban Heat Island Mitigation , 2012 .

[48]  Matthew D. Miller.  The impacts of Atlanta’s urban sprawl on forest cover and fragmentation , 2012 .

[49]  A. Brazel,et al.  Urban Heat Island Research in Phoenix, Arizona: Theoretical Contributions and Policy Applications , 2012 .

[50]  M. Santamouris,et al.  Using advanced cool materials in the urban built environment to mitigate heat islands and improve thermal comfort conditions , 2011 .

[51]  M. Cadenasso,et al.  Does spatial configuration matter? Understanding the effects of land cover pattern on land surface temperature in urban landscapes , 2011 .

[52]  Jörg Franke,et al.  The COST 732 Best Practice Guideline for CFD simulation of flows in the urban environment: a summary , 2011 .

[53]  H. Frumkin,et al.  Urban Form and Extreme Heat Events: Are Sprawling Cities More Vulnerable to Climate Change Than Compact Cities? , 2010, Environmental health perspectives.

[54]  Rizwan Ahmed Memon,et al.  An investigation of urban heat island intensity (UHII) as an indicator of urban heating , 2009 .

[55]  J. Remacle,et al.  Gmsh: A 3‐D finite element mesh generator with built‐in pre‐ and post‐processing facilities , 2009 .

[56]  A. Synnefa,et al.  On the Use of Cool Materials as a Heat Island Mitigation Strategy , 2008 .

[57]  C. Rosenzweig,et al.  Variations in New York city’s urban heat island strength over time and space , 2008 .

[58]  Brian Stone,et al.  Urban sprawl and air quality in large US cities. , 2008, Journal of environmental management.

[59]  Xixi Lu,et al.  A global comparative analysis of urban form: Applying spatial metrics and remote sensing , 2007 .

[60]  Henning Nuissl,et al.  Does urban sprawl drive changes in the water balance and policy?: The case of Leipzig (Germany) 1870–2003 , 2007 .

[61]  Patricia Gober,et al.  Determinants of changes in the regional urban heat island in metropolitan Phoenix (Arizona, USA) between 1990 and 2004 , 2007 .

[62]  M. Roth,et al.  Temporal dynamics of the urban heat island of Singapore , 2006 .

[63]  Kamil E Kaloush,et al.  Mesoscale and microscale evaluation of surface pavement impacts on the urban heat island effects , 2006 .

[64]  Jay S. Golden,et al.  The Built Environment Induced Urban Heat Island Effect in Rapidly Urbanizing Arid Regions – A Sustainable Urban Engineering Complexity , 2004 .

[65]  R. Sturm,et al.  Suburban sprawl and physical and mental health. , 2004, Public health.

[66]  S. Raudenbush,et al.  Relationship between Urban Sprawl and Physical Activity, Obesity, and Morbidity , 2003, American journal of health promotion : AJHP.

[67]  R. Lathrop,et al.  Land resource impact indicators of urban sprawl , 2003 .

[68]  A. Arnfield.  Two decades of urban climate research: a review of turbulence, exchanges of energy and water, and the urban heat island , 2003 .

[69]  Stanley Q. Kidder,et al.  Urban Heat Island Modeling in Conjunction with Satellite-Derived Surface/Soil Parameters , 1999 .

[70]  Hrvoje Jasak,et al.  A tensorial approach to computational continuum mechanics using object-oriented techniques , 1998 .

[71]  A. Rosenfeld,et al.  COOL COMMUNITIES: STRATEGIES FOR HEAT ISLAND MITIGATION AND SMOG REDUCTION , 1998 .

[72]  T. Shih,et al.  A new k-ϵ eddy viscosity model for high reynolds number turbulent flows , 1995 .

[73]  P. Roache.  Perspective: A Method for Uniform Reporting of Grid Refinement Studies , 1994 .

[74]  E. Mills,et al.  The Causes of Metropolitan Suburbanization , 1993 .

[75]  Jon Wieringa,et al.  Updating the Davenport roughness classification , 1992 .

[76]  B. Launder,et al.  The numerical computation of turbulent flows , 1990 .

[77]  B. Edmonston.  Metropolitan Population Deconcentration in Canada, 1941-1976 , 1983 .

[78]  T. Oke.  The energetic basis of the urban heat island , 1982 .

[79]  T. Oke.  City size and the urban heat island , 1973 .

[80]  M. Taleghani.  Outdoor thermal comfort by different heat mitigation strategies - a review , 2018 .

[81]  B. Blockena,et al.  Impact of urban microclimate on summertime building cooling demand_ A parametric analysis for Antwerp, Belgium , 2018 .

[82]  J. Roesler,et al.  An uncoupled pavement-urban canyon model for heat islands , 2017 .

[83]  Álvaro-Francisco Morote,et al.  Urban sprawl and its effects on water demand: A case study of Alicante, Spain , 2016 .

[84]  A. Holtslag,et al.  Temporal and spatial variability of urban heat island and thermal comfort within the Rotterdam agglomeration , 2015 .

[85]  Hui Li,et al.  Field measurement of albedo for different land cover materials and effects on thermal performance , 2013 .

[86]  Bert Blocken,et al.  Coupled urban wind flow and indoor natural ventilation modelling on a high-resolution grid: A case study for the Amsterdam ArenA stadium , 2010, Environ. Model. Softw..

[87]  Jianguo Wu,et al.  Urban heat islands and landscape heterogeneity: linking spatiotemporal variations in surface temperatures to land-cover and socioeconomic patterns , 2009, Landscape Ecology.

[88]  R. Ewing.  Characteristics, Causes, and Effects of Sprawl: A Literature Review , 2008 .

[89]  Stephen S. Ditchkoff,et al.  Animal behavior in urban ecosystems: Modifications due to human-induced stress , 2006, Urban Ecosystems.

[90]  Y. Yasuoka,et al.  Assessment with satellite data of the urban heat island effects in Asian mega cities , 2006 .

[91]  W. Stefanov,et al.  Investigation of human modifications of landscape and climate in the phoenix Arizona Metropolitan area using master data , 2004 .

[92]  R. A. Antonia,et al.  Rough-Wall Turbulent Boundary Layers , 1991 .