PAVEMENT ALBEDO'S IMPACT ON URBAN CLIMATE: INSIGHTS FROM MIT'S CONCRETE SUSTAINABILITY HUB RESEARCH

Abstract: Climate change is causing the Earth's temperature to rise, which also increases city temperatures and exacerbates the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. One strategy cities have used to lower temperatures is increasing the albedo of roofs and pavements. Albedo measures the fraction of solar energy reflected by the Earth’s surface, with lighter, higher albedo surfaces reflecting more energy than lower albedo, darker surfaces. While discussions on pavement albedo typically focus on UHI; pavement albedo affects Global Warming Potential through the four different mechanisms – UHI, Radiative Forcing (RF), Building Energy Demand (BED), and Pavement Vehicle Interaction (PVI). However, accounting pavement albedo impacts on climate change is extremely complicated due to interconnection of these mechanisms in that specific pavements and building’s context.

This paper will provide an overview of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Concrete Sustainability Hub and the International Grooving and Grinding Association research findings on albedo and its impact on climate change. It will also examine how these research findings apply to urban areas, particularly in cities like Phoenix Arizona, and identify potential strategies for implementing higher albedo pavements to address climate change challenges. Finally, it will look at how pavement albedo Global Warming Potential (GWP) savings compare to other GWP saving from reducing the embodied CO2 by using low carbon construction materials, such as the of the low carbon asphalt and concrete, used to build the pavement and how these can be used together.