Estimating the potential of U.S. urban infrastructure albedo enhancement as climate mitigation in the face of climate variability
The climate mitigation potential of U.S. urban infrastructure albedo enhancement is explored using multidecadal regional climate simulations. Increasing albedo from 0.2 to 0.4 results in summer daytime surface temperature decreases of 1.5°C, substantial reductions in health-related heat (50% decreas...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111819 |
| _version_ | 1811089162026090496 |
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| author | Xu, L. Monier, E. Schlosser, A. Kirchain, R. Gregory, J. |
| author_facet | Xu, L. Monier, E. Schlosser, A. Kirchain, R. Gregory, J. |
| author_sort | Xu, L. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The climate mitigation potential of U.S. urban infrastructure albedo enhancement is explored using multidecadal regional climate simulations. Increasing albedo from 0.2 to 0.4 results in summer daytime surface temperature decreases of 1.5°C, substantial reductions in health-related heat (50% decrease in days with danger heat advisory) and decreases in energy demand for air conditioning (15% decrease in cooling degree days) over the U.S. urban areas. No significant impact is found outside urban areas. Most regional modeling studies rely on short simulations; here, we use multidecadal simulations to extract the forced signal from the noise of climate variability. Achieving a ±0.5°C margin of error for the projected impacts of urban albedo enhancement at a 95% confidence level entails using at least 5 simulation years. Finally, single-year higher-resolution simulations, requiring the same computing power as the multidecadal coarser-resolution simulations, add little value other than confirming the overall magnitude of our estimates. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:14:41Z |
| format | Working Paper |
| id | mit-1721.1/111819 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:14:41Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1118192019-04-12T20:09:55Z Estimating the potential of U.S. urban infrastructure albedo enhancement as climate mitigation in the face of climate variability Xu, L. Monier, E. Schlosser, A. Kirchain, R. Gregory, J. The climate mitigation potential of U.S. urban infrastructure albedo enhancement is explored using multidecadal regional climate simulations. Increasing albedo from 0.2 to 0.4 results in summer daytime surface temperature decreases of 1.5°C, substantial reductions in health-related heat (50% decrease in days with danger heat advisory) and decreases in energy demand for air conditioning (15% decrease in cooling degree days) over the U.S. urban areas. No significant impact is found outside urban areas. Most regional modeling studies rely on short simulations; here, we use multidecadal simulations to extract the forced signal from the noise of climate variability. Achieving a ±0.5°C margin of error for the projected impacts of urban albedo enhancement at a 95% confidence level entails using at least 5 simulation years. Finally, single-year higher-resolution simulations, requiring the same computing power as the multidecadal coarser-resolution simulations, add little value other than confirming the overall magnitude of our estimates. This work was supported by the Concrete Sustainability Hub at MIT, with sponsorship provided by the Portland Cement Association and the RMC Research & Education Foundation, and by the US Department of Energy, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, under grant DE-FG02-94ER61937. The MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change is funded by a number of federal agencies and a consortium of 40 industrial and foundation sponsors. For a complete list of sponsors, see http://globalchange.mit.edu. 2017-10-06T21:35:02Z 2017-10-06T21:35:02Z 2017-09 Working Paper http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111819 Report 319 en_US MIT Joint Program Report Series;319 application/pdf MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change |
| spellingShingle | Xu, L. Monier, E. Schlosser, A. Kirchain, R. Gregory, J. Estimating the potential of U.S. urban infrastructure albedo enhancement as climate mitigation in the face of climate variability |
| title | Estimating the potential of U.S. urban infrastructure albedo enhancement as climate mitigation in the face of climate variability |
| title_full | Estimating the potential of U.S. urban infrastructure albedo enhancement as climate mitigation in the face of climate variability |
| title_fullStr | Estimating the potential of U.S. urban infrastructure albedo enhancement as climate mitigation in the face of climate variability |
| title_full_unstemmed | Estimating the potential of U.S. urban infrastructure albedo enhancement as climate mitigation in the face of climate variability |
| title_short | Estimating the potential of U.S. urban infrastructure albedo enhancement as climate mitigation in the face of climate variability |
| title_sort | estimating the potential of u s urban infrastructure albedo enhancement as climate mitigation in the face of climate variability |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111819 |
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