In partnership with TKI, our team will advance mitigation of urban heat on three strands of activities: (1) Modeling impact of alternative roof surface coatings and paving technologies; (2) Development of novel asphalt pavement binders to integrate reflective properties; and (3) Field demonstration of mitigation approaches. Let us describe these activities in more detail.

Roof Surface Coatings: Recent developments in material science have produced prototype roof surface coatings (such as hierarchically porous polymer materials) with solar reflectivity of 0.95 (20 % higher than that of existing rooftop technologies), and emissivities that are > 0.97 (compared with ~0.92 for existing coatings). We propose a study that integrates models from building to city scales, to quantify these effects and develop an assessment of the market by exploring tradeoffs between desired cooling in summer and less desirable cooling in winter.

Asphalt pavement binder and reflective pavement modifications. The ASU research team in partnership with TKI scientists will investigate the use of modified asphalt binders to function as a high-performance material with thermal resistance properties. The modification proposed is hypothesized to increase the asphalt mixture resistance to flow and improve temperature susceptibility. Expected applications are in hot climates and mitigate problems related to rutting and thermal cracking as well as contribute to urban cooling.

Modeling and field testing of results. Through collaboration with Maricopa County, ASU has established a Healthy Urban Environment (HUE) initiative to develop, demonstrate and deploy technologies that mitigate urban heat and air quality such as those to be developed in partnership with TKI.  We will establish a real-world test bed that demonstrates novel paving and coating materials.  The first component of this test bed is in early construction phase and will evaluate the impact of high-albedo radiation reflective paving coatings in a new surface parking lot being developed by Maricopa County.