Cool Pavements

Abstract

Cool pavements designate alternative pavements designed to reduce their contribution to urban heating. Urban heating generally refers to the sensible heat exchanged with the atmosphere by urban materials but can also include the radiative load they impose on pedestrians. In either case, pavement surface temperature is a very important parameter, which cool pavements seek to decrease compared with standard pavement designs. The energy balance of a pavement surface or very thin pavement slab helps identify the outbound flows which cool pavements attempt to promote and fundamental physical principles which govern them. On this basis, cool pavements can be classified as reflective pavements, green and evaporative pavements, high inertia or phase changing pavements as well as conductive or heatharvesting pavements. This chapter presents the urban heat island and the urban heating phenomena and provides an overview of cool pavement technologies, detailing areas which require further scientific investigation.