The City of Phoenix Street Transportation Department recently initiated the Cool Pavement Pilot Program. With this project, the city plans to apply the product CoolSeal by GuardTop®, which is a water-based asphalt emulsion seal coat designed to achieve lower pavement surface temperatures through its lighter color and reflectivity.

A joint study between Arizona State University researchers — led by Ariane Middel and Jenni Vanos — and the City of Phoenix, and sponsored by the Healthy Urban Environments Initiative, will quantify and evaluate the effectiveness of the CoolSeal product in mitigating urban heat considering various heat metrics (air temperature, surface temperature and radiant temperature). This one-year project will also assess the product performance and life cycle.

For more information about this project, read the azCentral article "'Cool pavement' experiments help urban planners find ways to ease rising temperatures."

Photo: Ariane Middel, an assistant professor and senior sustainability scientist at ASU, works with her weather robot on the Tempe campus. Photo by Ken Fagan/ASU Now