Results are in for a Los Angeles cool pavement experiment
"Pavement that reflects, rather than absorbs sunlight, has emerged as a tool cities are considering to mitigate the increasing danger of extreme heat.
GAF funded the recently released peer-reviewed study, although the company had no role in the study’s design, data collection, modeling or analysis of the results. The research found that during an extreme heat event, the cool pavement-covered area saw ambient air temperatures that were as much as 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than those in the adjacent neighborhood. On sunny days, ambient air temperatures were reduced by up to 2.1 degrees Fahrenheit.
During summer nights, they were reduced by up to 0.5 degrees Fahrenheit. The coating also lowered surface temperatures by up to around 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
What does that mean for the people who live in Pacoima? Melanie Torres, a resident and the Pacoima Beautiful’s Cool Community Project organizing manager, said she’s felt a difference. Pacoima Beautiful is a local environmental justice organization and helped GAF and Climate Resolve with community engagement for the reflective pavement project.
Torres often eats lunch in one of the parks where the coating is deployed. “I can just sit on the grass near the basketball court and feel just the breeze — and not necessarily a hot breeze,” she said. A food vendor who frequents the neighborhood told Torres that “she feels the difference in the breeze more than anything.
Torres said she hasn’t heard any complaints about the reflective pavement coating during her community engagement efforts. However, reflective pavement is not immune to criticism.
Some researchers have found that the solar energy reflected off cool pavement can actually increase how hot pedestrians feel. Taha, however, said that his study indicated an “improvement in thermal sensation,” noting that every location within Pacoima has “its own dynamics” that could lead to slightly different results. Mean radiant temperature — a measurement of thermal comfort — “goes up and down. It’s not always cooler,” he said. “The overwhelming effect is the cooling.”
But no matter how effective reflective coatings are, they can’t beat shade, V. Kelly Turner, associate director of the University of California’s Los Angeles Luskin Center for Innovation and an associate professor of urban planning and geography, said in an email. Shade can cool people by up to 30 degrees Celsius, or 54 degrees Fahrenheit, in hot, dry environments, she said."
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9 tons = 20,000 lbs!!!