Increasing Solar Reflectivity of Building Envelope Materials to Mitigate Urban Heat Islands: State-of-the-Art Review
The Urban Heat Island (UHI), a consequence of urban development, leads to elevated temperatures within cities compared to their rural counterparts. This phenomenon results from factors such as urban designs, anthropogenic heat emissions, and materials that absorb and retain solar radiation in the bu...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-11-01
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| Series: | Buildings |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/13/11/2868 |
| _version_ | 1797459847870939136 |
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| author | Bahador Ziaeemehr Zahra Jandaghian Hua Ge Michael Lacasse Travis Moore |
| author_facet | Bahador Ziaeemehr Zahra Jandaghian Hua Ge Michael Lacasse Travis Moore |
| author_sort | Bahador Ziaeemehr |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The Urban Heat Island (UHI), a consequence of urban development, leads to elevated temperatures within cities compared to their rural counterparts. This phenomenon results from factors such as urban designs, anthropogenic heat emissions, and materials that absorb and retain solar radiation in the built environment. Materials commonly used in cities, like concrete, asphalt, and stone, capture solar energy and subsequently emit it as heat into the surroundings. Consequently, this phenomenon amplifies summertime cooling energy demands in buildings. To mitigate the UHI impacts, various mitigation strategies have emerged that include but are not limited to using higher solar reflectivity materials, known as “cool materials”, and increasing vegetation and greenery in urban areas. Cool materials have high reflectivity and emissivity, effectively reflecting solar radiation while emitting absorbed heat through radiative cooling. Increasing the solar reflectivity of building envelope materials is a promising sustainable solution to lessen the UHI effects. This state-of-the-art review summarizes the UHI causes and effects, states the mitigation strategies, describes the cool building envelope materials, explains the solar reflectivity index measurements, indicates the building and micro-climate simulations, highlights the performance evaluation of using cool building envelope materials, points out the research gaps, and proposes future research opportunities. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T16:57:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7bdc06e72eb84fee8d47ed5830c01d9f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2075-5309 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T16:57:44Z |
| publishDate | 2023-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Buildings |
| spelling | doaj.art-7bdc06e72eb84fee8d47ed5830c01d9f2023-11-24T14:33:44ZengMDPI AGBuildings2075-53092023-11-011311286810.3390/buildings13112868Increasing Solar Reflectivity of Building Envelope Materials to Mitigate Urban Heat Islands: State-of-the-Art ReviewBahador Ziaeemehr0Zahra Jandaghian1Hua Ge2Michael Lacasse3Travis Moore4Department of Building, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, QC H3G 1M8, CanadaConstruction Research Centre, National Research Council Canada, Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6, CanadaDepartment of Building, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, QC H3G 1M8, CanadaConstruction Research Centre, National Research Council Canada, Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6, CanadaConstruction Research Centre, National Research Council Canada, Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6, CanadaThe Urban Heat Island (UHI), a consequence of urban development, leads to elevated temperatures within cities compared to their rural counterparts. This phenomenon results from factors such as urban designs, anthropogenic heat emissions, and materials that absorb and retain solar radiation in the built environment. Materials commonly used in cities, like concrete, asphalt, and stone, capture solar energy and subsequently emit it as heat into the surroundings. Consequently, this phenomenon amplifies summertime cooling energy demands in buildings. To mitigate the UHI impacts, various mitigation strategies have emerged that include but are not limited to using higher solar reflectivity materials, known as “cool materials”, and increasing vegetation and greenery in urban areas. Cool materials have high reflectivity and emissivity, effectively reflecting solar radiation while emitting absorbed heat through radiative cooling. Increasing the solar reflectivity of building envelope materials is a promising sustainable solution to lessen the UHI effects. This state-of-the-art review summarizes the UHI causes and effects, states the mitigation strategies, describes the cool building envelope materials, explains the solar reflectivity index measurements, indicates the building and micro-climate simulations, highlights the performance evaluation of using cool building envelope materials, points out the research gaps, and proposes future research opportunities.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/13/11/2868urban heat island (UHI)solar reflectivity indexsolar emissivitybuilding envelope materialscool materials |
| spellingShingle | Bahador Ziaeemehr Zahra Jandaghian Hua Ge Michael Lacasse Travis Moore Increasing Solar Reflectivity of Building Envelope Materials to Mitigate Urban Heat Islands: State-of-the-Art Review Buildings urban heat island (UHI) solar reflectivity index solar emissivity building envelope materials cool materials |
| title | Increasing Solar Reflectivity of Building Envelope Materials to Mitigate Urban Heat Islands: State-of-the-Art Review |
| title_full | Increasing Solar Reflectivity of Building Envelope Materials to Mitigate Urban Heat Islands: State-of-the-Art Review |
| title_fullStr | Increasing Solar Reflectivity of Building Envelope Materials to Mitigate Urban Heat Islands: State-of-the-Art Review |
| title_full_unstemmed | Increasing Solar Reflectivity of Building Envelope Materials to Mitigate Urban Heat Islands: State-of-the-Art Review |
| title_short | Increasing Solar Reflectivity of Building Envelope Materials to Mitigate Urban Heat Islands: State-of-the-Art Review |
| title_sort | increasing solar reflectivity of building envelope materials to mitigate urban heat islands state of the art review |
| topic | urban heat island (UHI) solar reflectivity index solar emissivity building envelope materials cool materials |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/13/11/2868 |
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