Surface temperature of the urban fabric plays an important role in the
microclimate, the energy performance of the buildings and the comfort conditions of
city dwellers. Pavements (roads, parking spaces etc.) cover a significant percentage of a
city’s surface and their thermal characteristics play a dominant role in the formation of
the urban heat island effect, which refers to the temperature increase in urban areas
compared to rural settings. This paper reports the technologies related to cool paving
materials, their thermal and optical properties and the benefits of their use in the urban
structures. It also presents the experimental assessment of cool colored thin layer
asphalt and the estimation of the potential to improve the urban microclimate.
Keywords: Cool pavements, urban heat island, reduction of cooling demand,
computational fluid dynamics.
