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Top Ways to Keep Pavement Cool
Did you know that dark pavements absorb 80%-95% of sunlight? If you have ever walked outside on the asphalt barefoot in the middle of the summertime this probably isn’t too surprising. Unfortunately, the pavement’s surface isn’t the only thing that becomes hotter. The surrounding air is warmed by the hot pavement creating urban heat islands and impacting global warming.
These heat islands are significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas without pavement that can absorb heat. That’s why environmentalists have been continuously researching and implementing solutions to make pavements cooler.
What are “Cool Pavements”
In order to understand how to solve this problem, it is first important to understand how solar energy is received by pavements and how it affects the surrounding atmosphere.
Solar energy is absorbed by the asphalt and then released back into the surrounding areas increasing the temperature.
The term “cool pavements” simply highlights new innovative pavement technologies that store less heat and work to keep surface temperatures cooler than traditional methods. Here are some potential examples of ways to keep pavement cool.
Implementing Solar Reflectance
One of the main focuses on potentially keeping pavements cooler is solar reflectance. Cities are trying to incorporate light color materials into their pavement in order to make it more difficult for pavements to absorb heat.
Most of the asphalt pavements we see are colored black which has shown to be a problem for increasing surface temperatures. An example of this is Coolseal, which is a light gray material that is proven to decrease surface temperature and increase solar reflectance by 33%.
Using Cooler Materials
Conventional asphalt pavement is combined using light materials with high albedo, there are a multitude of different materials that can be mixed in. albedo simply refers to how a surface reflects light. Another solution is “whitetopping” which is basically doing the same thing but with cement. Instead of deconstructing roadways, cement would be used to repair them with a thin layer over the top of the asphalt.
Permeable pavements would allow water to drain through the surface in order to help cool the surface. This water would then be used to recharge groundwater supply or would be sent to a resourceful stormwater system in order to decrease the amount of warm water runoff.
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