Summers are growing more dangerous, especially in cities where the warming effects of big asphalt and concrete buildings compound already high temperatures, according to the BBC.
However, retroreflectors are a simple and inexpensive technique to cool urban settings with large structures.
According to a study published on Monday in the journal Nature Cities, buildings with retroreflective material installed had a temperature decrease of up to 36 degrees Fahrenheit.
Elie Bou-Zeid, co-author of the study and professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton University, stated that lowering building temperatures is “very, very important” for pedestrians at street level “because those walls radiate a lot of heat on you.”
He went on to say that cooling those surfaces by 36 degrees would “significantly increase your comfort.”Cities are much warmer than their surrounding suburbs and rural areas due to the way they are constructed. Tall buildings, dark roofs, asphalt, and concrete absorb sunlight and reflect it back into the environment as heat, resulting in the so-called urban heat island effect.
