Implementation resources
When considering cool pavements for your city or community, the following tools can simplify the decision-making process. The below materials serve as additional resources to demonstrate the range of cool pavement solutions that can be implemented where you live, as well as the policy guidance to lock in the maximum benefit for your area.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Reducing Urban Heat Islands: Compendium of Strategies – Cool Pavements: A detailed description of the science, technology, and application of cool pavements in the United States (developed by the U.S. EPA)
- Cool Pavement Primer: A resource that reviews key information and summarizes the topic in a way that you can share and present to others who want to learn more about cool pavements (developed by the Heat Island Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
- Cool Roofs and Pavements Toolkit: A comprehensive informational primer and implementation guide to help spread the adoption of reflective urban surfaces worldwide (developed by the Global Cool Cities Alliance)
- How Walkable Cities can Curb Heat Island Effect: A blog post from America Walks describing the connection between walkability, urban design and heat island effect.
Cool pavement case studies
Cool pavements are now being introduced throughout California in various contexts. Cities are looking to incorporate cool pavements as climate adaptation planning measures, and school districts are trying to cool their schoolyards by using more reflective outdoor surfaces. Learn how some California entities are approaching the adoption of cool pavements in the following case studies.
Cool pavements as a climate adaptation measure
California cities are taking measures to prepare for a changing climate by developing climate adaptation plans. A recent example of this planning comes from Chula Vista, CA, where planning efforts have explored measures to mitigate high urban air temperatures that lead to high demand for building air conditioning. Chula Vista initially identified eleven climate adaptation strategies that could mitigate heat islands, decrease energy demand, and improve air and water quality. The city then drafted an implementation plan for each of its identified adaptation strategies, including cool pavements.
The implementation plan for cool pavements spans a two-year exploratory project to learn more about the local prospects for cool pavements. The ultimate goal of the cool pavements implementation plan is to develop a new municipal policy that incorporates cool paving materials into new street and parking lot projects. The city commissioned a comprehensive cool pavements study to evaluate and test multiple technologies, taking into account the costs, benefits, drawbacks, performance, and incentive opportunities for each technology.
Chula Vista’s Cool Pavements Study identifies several technologies that offer high urban heat island reduction potential, such as light-colored cement concrete products and cool pavement coatings, as well as possible funding sources for a new pavements program. The study sets forth criteria for suitable cool pavement pilot sites and for performance monitoring of the pilots to assess solar reflectance, thermal emittance, durability, stormwater effects, and noise over time. The results of this pilot program will inform Chula Vista’s guidelines for new paving as well as for pavement maintenance within five years from the study’s date of publication.[1]
Footnote:
[1]City of Chula Vista. 2012. Cool Pavements Study. Retrieved from: http://www.chulavistaca.gov/clean/PDF/CVCoolPavementsStudy_DRAFT9-7-12.pdf. Accessed June 2013.