“Smart” surfaces could chill broiling cities

Cities could reduce peak temperatures by replacing hot, dark surfaces — streets, rooftops, playgrounds and parking lots — with cooler alternatives, Jennifer A. Kingson writes for Axios What’s Next.

• Cities have been adding “cool roof” policies and “cool pavement” programs — but will only get meaningful results from plans that involve all heat-trapping surfaces, says Greg Kats, founder and CEO of the Smart Surfaces Coalition.
• The advocacy group is working to coax cities to devise systemic plans to banish dark, impervious surfaces and replace them with green, porous and reflective ones.

The 3-year-old coalition is working with Baltimore to try to make the city a model of what can be done.

• A comprehensive strategywill (ideally) blitz the Charm City with reflective roofs and highways, solar panels, trees, porous pavements, and “urban meadows” — areas of median where mown grass is replaced with unmanicured native grasses.

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Πηγή: axios.com