High albedo materials to counteract heat waves in cities: An assessment of meteorology, buildings energy needs and pedestrian thermal comfort

Falasca, Serena; Ciancio, Virgilio; Salata, Ferdinando; Golasi, Iacopo; Rosso, Federica; Curci, Gabriele

doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.106242

Cited by 102 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Albedo refers to the ratio of the reflected solar radiation from a surface to the incoming solar radiation on that surface [77,100]. Lower albedo leads to reduced reflection and increased absorption of solar radiation, and consequently to a higher surface net radiation and temperature.…”

Section: Increasing Albedomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The mean albedo of urban surfaces is typically around 0.2, which means that approximately 20% of the incoming solar radiation is reflected [98]. For example, asphalt, which is the main material for streets, has albedo values between 0.12 and 0.24 [100]. To mitigate UHI, deliberately increasing the albedo of urban surfaces, such as having cool/white roofs, high reflective walls and roads, has drawn widespread attention.…”

Section: Increasing Albedomentioning

confidence: 99%

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Urban Heat Island and Its Interaction with Heatwaves: A Review of Studies on Mesoscale

et al. 2021

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With rapid urbanization, population growth and anthropogenic activities, an increasing number of major cities across the globe are facing severe urban heat islands (UHI). UHI can cause complex impacts on the urban environment and human health, and it may bring more severe effects under heatwave (HW) conditions. In this paper, a holistic review is conducted to articulate the findings of the synergies between UHI and HW and corresponding mitigation measures proposed by the research community. It is worth pointing out that most studies show that urban areas are more vulnerable than rural areas during HWs, but the opposite is also observed in some studies. Changes in urban energy budget and major drivers are discussed and compared to explain such discrepancies. Recent studies also indicate that increasing albedo, vegetation fraction and irrigation can lower the urban temperature during HWs. Research gaps in this topic necessitate more studies concerning vulnerable cities in developing countries. Moreover, multidisciplinary studies considering factors such as UHI, HW, human comfort, pollution dispersion and the efficacy of mitigation measures should be conducted to provide more accurate and explicit guidance to urban planners and policymakers.

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Section: Increasing Albedomentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Increasing Albedomentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Heat Island and Its Interaction with Heatwaves: A Review of Studies on Mesoscale

et al. 2021

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“…Such situation will lead to a less accentuated growth rate of energy consumption than in the past and a decreasing use of non-renewable energy resources [6]. Over the past 20 years, there has been considerable research [7,8] done to optimize building envelopes [9,10] and their systems [11,12]. The technological repercussions of these researches combined with national and international regulations that impose the enhancement of energy efficiency on buildings (both existing and new) started an eco-friendly process that reduced energy consumption in the residential sector.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience of a Building to Future Climate Conditions in Three European Cities

et al. 2019

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Building energy need simulations are usually performed using input files that contain information about the averaged weather data based on historical patterns. Therefore, the simulations performed are not able to provide information about possible future scenarios due to climate change. In this work, future trends of building energy demands due to the climate change across Europe were studied by comparing three time steps (present, 2050, and -2080) in three different European cities, characterized by different Köppen-Geiger climatic classes. A residential building with modern architectural features was taken into consideration for the simulations. Future climate conditions were reached by applying the effects of climate changes to current hourly meteorological data though the climate change tool world weather file generator (CCWorldWeatherGen) tool, according to the guidelines established by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In order to examine the resilience of the building, the simulations carried out were compared with respect to: peak power, median values of the power, and energy consumed by heating and cooling system. The observed trend shows a general reduction in the energy needs for heating (–46% for Aberdeen, –80% for Palermo, –36% for Prague in 2080 compared to the present) and increase (occurrence for Aberdeen) in cooling requirements. These results imply a revaluation of system size.

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“…Hence, the use of air conditioning in the building sector and the cooling energy consumption have greatly increased. The huge amount of energy demand can be controlled in several ways, such as promoting behavioural change (Hafner et al, 2019), actively building envelope systems (Luo et al, 2019), assessing the urban environment (Mauree et al, 2019) and evaluating materials (albedo) (Falasca et al, 2019). In particular, utilising novel methods will decrease the global energy demand from buildings by up to 47% in 2050 and 61% in 2100 (Levesque et al, 2019).…”

Section: Building Energy Usementioning

confidence: 99%

Building form and energy efficiency in tropical climates: A case study of Penang, Malaysia

Mohsenzadeh

Marzbali

Tilaki

et al. 2021

urbe, Rev. Bras. Gest. Urbana

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Malaysia is a nation that has undergone a massive development based on its abundance of fuel supply. The imbalance ratio between gross domestic products and energy demand clearly indicates the need to promote energy-efficiency strategies in the country. This study investigates the relationship between building shape and energy consumption by considering the control of excessive solar radiation in a tropical climate. In the first step, four basic plan geometries, namely, square, rectangle, triangle and circle shapes, are studied to determine the optimal building shape in terms of energy consumption in Penang, Malaysia. Results of simulation analysis using DesignBuilder software (Version 5.4.0) reveal that the circle is the most suitable form in terms of energy performance. In the second step, all buildings with extended shapes based on the optimal shape obtained from the first step are simulated under the same condition to analyse the thermal behaviour of different building forms. Amongst four alternative extended cases, Case 3 with 90 cm depth and without vertical offset from the top of the window has superior energy performance and sufficient natural daylight. This study contributes to enhance energy efficiency of new buildings by incorporating design strategies in the design process.

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High albedo materials to counteract heat waves in cities: An assessment of meteorology, buildings energy needs and pedestrian thermal comfort

Cited by 102 publications

References 61 publications

Urban Heat Island and Its Interaction with Heatwaves: A Review of Studies on Mesoscale

Urban Heat Island and Its Interaction with Heatwaves: A Review of Studies on Mesoscale

Resilience of a Building to Future Climate Conditions in Three European Cities

Building form and energy efficiency in tropical climates: A case study of Penang, Malaysia

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