Urban heat: can white roofs help cool world’s warming cities?
- Date:
- Author(s)/Creator(s):
- Publisher(s)/Producter(s):
Yale Environment 360
Description
Light, reflective surfaces can have a dramatic impact in cooling the surrounding air – in cities, but in the countryside too. Whitewashed walls, arrays of photovoltaic cells, and stubble-filled fields can all provide local relief during the sweltering decades ahead. But policymakers beware. It doesn’t always work like that. There can be unintended consequences, both on temperature and other aspects of climate, like rainfall. Even local geoengineering needs to be handled with care.
Policy Quality
6
Subject(s)
Roofs
urban heat islands
Cool roofs