Reflective Pavements

Heat island phenomenon rises the temperature of cities, increases the energy demand for cooling and deteriorates comfort conditions in the urban environment. To counterbalance the impact of the phenomenon, important mitigation techniques have been proposed and developed. The use of cool pavements presenting substantially lower surface temperature and reduced sensible heat flux to the atmosphere, appears to be one of the most important proposed mitigation solutions. The present paper investigates and describes the actual state of the art on the field of cool pavements.