Enhancing Urban Thermal Environment and Energy Sustainability With Temperature‐Adaptive Radiative Roofs
Abstract Urban overheating presents significant challenges to public health and energy sustainability. Conventional radiative cooling strategies, such as cool roofs with high albedo, lead to undesired winter cooling and increased space heating demand for cities with cold winters, a phenomenon known...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Earth's Future |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EF005246 |
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| author | Keer Zhang Lei Zhao Keith Oleson Xinchang “Cathy” Li Xuhui Lee |
| author_facet | Keer Zhang Lei Zhao Keith Oleson Xinchang “Cathy” Li Xuhui Lee |
| author_sort | Keer Zhang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Urban overheating presents significant challenges to public health and energy sustainability. Conventional radiative cooling strategies, such as cool roofs with high albedo, lead to undesired winter cooling and increased space heating demand for cities with cold winters, a phenomenon known as heating energy penalty. A novel roof coating with high albedo and temperature‐adaptive emissivity (TAE)—low emissivity during cold conditions and high emissivity during hot conditions—has the potential to mitigate winter heating energy penalty. In this study, we implement this roof coating in a global climate model to evaluate its impact on air temperature and building energy demand for space heating and cooling in global cities. Adopting roofs with TAE increases global urban air temperature by up to +0.54°C in the winter (99th percentile; mean change +0.16°C) but has negligible effects on summer urban air temperature (mean change +0.05°C). Combining TAE with high albedo effectively provides summer cooling and does not increase building energy demand in the winter, particularly for mid‐latitude cities. Sensitivities of air temperature to changes in emissivity and albedo are associated with local “apparent” net longwave radiation and incoming solar radiation, respectively. We propose a simple parameterization of air temperature responses to emissivity and albedo to facilitate the development of city‐specific radiative mitigation strategies. This study emphasizes the necessity of developing mitigation approaches specific to local cloudiness. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5a7d4c14299d4d98889ac47a6ecbd88d |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2328-4277 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Earth's Future |
| spelling | doaj-art-5a7d4c14299d4d98889ac47a6ecbd88d2025-01-28T15:40:37ZengWileyEarth's Future2328-42772025-01-01131n/an/a10.1029/2024EF005246Enhancing Urban Thermal Environment and Energy Sustainability With Temperature‐Adaptive Radiative RoofsKeer Zhang0Lei Zhao1Keith Oleson2Xinchang “Cathy” Li3Xuhui Lee4School of the Environment Yale University New Haven CT USADepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign Urbana IL USANSF National Center for Atmospheric Research Boulder CO USADepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign Urbana IL USASchool of the Environment Yale University New Haven CT USAAbstract Urban overheating presents significant challenges to public health and energy sustainability. Conventional radiative cooling strategies, such as cool roofs with high albedo, lead to undesired winter cooling and increased space heating demand for cities with cold winters, a phenomenon known as heating energy penalty. A novel roof coating with high albedo and temperature‐adaptive emissivity (TAE)—low emissivity during cold conditions and high emissivity during hot conditions—has the potential to mitigate winter heating energy penalty. In this study, we implement this roof coating in a global climate model to evaluate its impact on air temperature and building energy demand for space heating and cooling in global cities. Adopting roofs with TAE increases global urban air temperature by up to +0.54°C in the winter (99th percentile; mean change +0.16°C) but has negligible effects on summer urban air temperature (mean change +0.05°C). Combining TAE with high albedo effectively provides summer cooling and does not increase building energy demand in the winter, particularly for mid‐latitude cities. Sensitivities of air temperature to changes in emissivity and albedo are associated with local “apparent” net longwave radiation and incoming solar radiation, respectively. We propose a simple parameterization of air temperature responses to emissivity and albedo to facilitate the development of city‐specific radiative mitigation strategies. This study emphasizes the necessity of developing mitigation approaches specific to local cloudiness.https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EF005246urban climateheat mitigationbuilding sustainabilitytemperature‐adaptive radiative coatingglobal climate model |
| spellingShingle | Keer Zhang Lei Zhao Keith Oleson Xinchang “Cathy” Li Xuhui Lee Enhancing Urban Thermal Environment and Energy Sustainability With Temperature‐Adaptive Radiative Roofs Earth's Future urban climate heat mitigation building sustainability temperature‐adaptive radiative coating global climate model |
| title | Enhancing Urban Thermal Environment and Energy Sustainability With Temperature‐Adaptive Radiative Roofs |
| title_full | Enhancing Urban Thermal Environment and Energy Sustainability With Temperature‐Adaptive Radiative Roofs |
| title_fullStr | Enhancing Urban Thermal Environment and Energy Sustainability With Temperature‐Adaptive Radiative Roofs |
| title_full_unstemmed | Enhancing Urban Thermal Environment and Energy Sustainability With Temperature‐Adaptive Radiative Roofs |
| title_short | Enhancing Urban Thermal Environment and Energy Sustainability With Temperature‐Adaptive Radiative Roofs |
| title_sort | enhancing urban thermal environment and energy sustainability with temperature adaptive radiative roofs |
| topic | urban climate heat mitigation building sustainability temperature‐adaptive radiative coating global climate model |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EF005246 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT keerzhang enhancingurbanthermalenvironmentandenergysustainabilitywithtemperatureadaptiveradiativeroofs AT leizhao enhancingurbanthermalenvironmentandenergysustainabilitywithtemperatureadaptiveradiativeroofs AT keitholeson enhancingurbanthermalenvironmentandenergysustainabilitywithtemperatureadaptiveradiativeroofs AT xinchangcathyli enhancingurbanthermalenvironmentandenergysustainabilitywithtemperatureadaptiveradiativeroofs AT xuhuilee enhancingurbanthermalenvironmentandenergysustainabilitywithtemperatureadaptiveradiativeroofs |