Mathematical models allow quantitative estimates of the impact of novel building materials – including roofing and paving materials – which represent a significant proportion of the surface area of the urban landscape, and represent a key vector for impacts from heat and solar radiation to the urban environment. This study will develop models of urban heat flux and building energy consumption with the ultimate goal of exploring new cooler roofing and paving materials which can improve the thermal storage, emissivity and shortwave reflectivity of surfaces. The evaluated treatments for rooftop application represent a large potential improvement to rooftop surface temperatures, surface heat fluxes, and building energy use. Potential benefits will be assessed by modeling the change in rooftop surface temperature associated with these materials. These rooftop surface temperatures will then be used to estimate the impacts to the external urban environment and indoor thermal environments of the building itself, with evaluations being conducted across a variety of common urban building archetypes for five international cities.

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Healthy Urban Environments