Cool Pavement Pilot Study
Cool pavement is an adaptational strategy aimed to mitigate the effects of extreme heat. The City of Austin laid down over 6 lane miles of cool pavement in a neighborhood in South East Austin and asked the Co-Lab to evaluate it's efficacy. Since the pavement has been laid down the Co-Lab has been engaged in various efforts to evaluate this mitigation strategy including field measurements, remote sensing, modeling, and social science approaches. Extreme urban heat has become an intense focus of study for cities as heat is the largest weather related killer in the US. One strategy cities have been evaluating is reflective pavement.
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Reflective pavements work by increasing the albedo of the road surface to stop the absorption of shortwave solar radiation. Other cities have tried to evaluate reflective pavements and have so far come up with mixed/ inconclusive results. During the summer of 2024 the city of Austin laid down 6.5 lane miles of reflective pavements as a pilot project in South East Austin. To evaluate this adaptation method several strategies have been utilized.
2- Meter air temperature measurements
Handheld surface temperature measurements
Remote sensing based surface temperature measurements
A social science based blind experiement
A survey of local residents.
This study is currently ongoing and will continue to be updated as more data becomes available.
Lead Partners
