In August 2021, the International Society for Concrete Pavements (ISCP) reported on COOL PAVEMENTS in Phoenix, Arizona and Boston, Massachusetts with the research and results in an article titled “Boston: 3° Cooler w/”Cool Pavements” Phoenix: Infrared Drone Confirms Concrete’s ALWAYS Cooler! +L. Scofield’s 12th ICCP Workshop #10”: www.concretepavements.org/2021/08/25/boston-3-cooler-wcool-pavements-phoenix-infrared-drone-confirms-concretes-always-cooler-l-scofields-12th-iccp-workshop-10/
In September, the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) held a webinar on this research and results titled “Addressing Climate Challenges with Cool Pavements: A Case Study of Boston and Phoenix”: IT WAS HELD:
Thursday | September 23, 2021, and presented by Dr. Randolph Kirchain, Co-Director-CSHub.
IT IS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE! Please go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqsLQiap0xA
Click to go to VIDEO on YouTube.
By mid-century, 2 out of every 3 persons on the planet will be living in urban areas. These growing urban populations face two simultaneous climate challenges:
• Extreme heat events attributed to urban heat island (UHI) effects and
• Global climate change (GCC)
In response, cities are seeking actions that address UHI without compromising progress toward global climate goals. This webinar will discuss CSHub research to understand to what extent and in what contexts cool pavements can actually provide both UHI and GCC benefits. To answer these questions, the researchers at MIT CSHub have developed a modeling framework that captures the interactions between pavements and the climate, the adjacent buildings, and the vehicles that drive on them.
The model framework is applied to detailed case analyses of Boston and Phoenix and shows that increasing pavement albedo lowers urban air temperatures and leads to lower net GHG emissions in almost all neighborhoods in both cities. The total GWP savings intensity depends on the characteristics of the neighborhood including both its morphology (i.e., the arrangement of the buildings and streets) and road traffic. Probabilistic results show that cool pavement strategies can offset 1.0−3.0% and 0.7−6.0% of the total GHG emissions of the U.S. cities Boston and Phoenix, respectively, for a 50-year analysis period. The worldwide range of savings can be as large as 5.0−44.7 Gt of CO2 eq. To realize these benefits, a paradigm shift in pavement strategy selection is required in most neighborhoods.
The CSHub Webinar Series offers information of general interest to members of the building, paving, and construction communities, as well as to educators, students, journalists, and law and policy-makers interested in the environmental and economic impacts of decision-making concerning infrastructure.
For more information, please go to: http://calendar.mit.edu/event/cshub_webinars_cool_pavements#.YTux3S2cY_V
or: http://calendar.mit.edu/event/cshub_webinars_cool_pavements#.YT7cVi2cY_W
For VIDEOS of all of the recent CSHub WEBINARS, please go to the MIT CSHub YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UCBrCkKzcb1jinN2Cg4AMPMA
For a schedule of upcoming webinars, please go to: https://cshub.mit.edu/news/public-webinars