Reducing Urban Heat Islands by Developing Cool Pavements

  • Muhammet Vefa AkpınarEmail author
  • Sedat Sevin
Part of the Green Energy and Technology book series (GREEN)


In this study, albedo’s effect on surface temperature and thermal gradient of concrete pavement was investigated. A concrete pavement in KTU campus area was coated with high-reflectance paint and was compared to the uncoated surface. Sixty percent higher albedo values were measured on the coated area than uncoated area due to high reflectance of pavement material. Also, surface temperature and heat gradients of paint-coated surface were 40% and 38%, respectively, lower than the uncoated surface of the coated surface. Considering the albedo effects, high-reflective pavements can reduce the heat island effects five times compared to asphalt pavements. In conclusion, the street pavements should be painted with highly reflected paints which can prevent the solar reflection as a result of the heat island effect significantly.


Albedo Cool pavement Urban heat island Surface temperature Solar reflection 


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© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Civil Engineering DepartmentKaradeniz Teknik ÜniversitesiTrabzonTurkey
  2. 2.Gümüşhane Üniversitesi, Civil EngineeringGümüşhaneTurkey

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