Effect of Pavement albedo

on surface heating in urban canyons in hot and

humid climate of Nepal

Submitted To: Submitted By:

Department of Architecture Supriya Thapa
Pulchowk Campus 078MSEEB019
 Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Need and Importance of the Study
3. Problem Statement
4. Objectives
5. Methodology
6. Literature review
7. Introduction of case area
8. Climate Analysis
9. Discussion

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1. Introduction

• The availability of limited land makes the urban vertically and dense designed. The
phenomenon of vertical residential design forms a building cliff called urban canyon
phenomenon (Firdausah & Wonorahardjo,2018).

• For larger areas of a city the thermal response is a function of the aggregation of urban
canyon units (Masson,2000).

• 30% of solar thermal energy is absorbed and stored by canyon material and released at
night with the result increasing the ambient temperature. The increasing of the air temperature
in the urban at night and the temperature difference between urban and peri urban is an
indication of heat island phenomenon (Nunez & Oke,1977).

• Santamouris et.al found a high intensity of the heat island with an increase in air temperature
of 13°C around the canyon at night due to anthropogenic heat and the use of heat
absorbing material.

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1. Introduction

• (Speak,2022) mentioned local physical characteristics of the sites : Sky View Factor (SVF),
tree shade, ground surface cover, and canyon effect, can affect human exposure to
potentially uncomfortable thermal conditions during a typical summer.

• Akbari (1997) reported that the UHI measured at the canopy layer may exhibit high spatial
and temporal variation as a result of the variable thermal properties of the urban
construction materials that in combination with the three-dimensional geometry of built-up
surfaces modifies neighboring air temperatures.

• Out of the material properties, albedo is the most important with regards to how pavements
interact thermally with the environment when exposed to sunlight. Thermal emittance,
thermal conductivity, and specific heat capacity of the materials are second order factors (Li et
al, 2013).

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2. Need and Importance of the study

• Thermally comfortable streets promote walkability and sustainability. Street design is an

important issue in bioclimatic urban development to mitigate thermal discomfort in pedestrian
level.
• Since, the temperature ranges between 22°C to 41°C in Subtropical region of Nepal, it is
difficult to carry out outdoor activities during daytime.
• In the context of Nepal, there are not many research done to reduce the surface temperature
to make the streets walkable in hot summer days.
• This research will help urban planners, policy makers, designers to create framework for high
performing street in hot and humid region of Nepal.

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2. Need and Importance of the study
Primary factors
• Traffic
• Soil characteristics
• Weather
• Construction considerations
• Recycling
• Cost of construction

Secondary factors
• Performance of the similar pavement in the area
• Adjacent existing pavement
• Conservation of material and energy
• Availability of local materials
• Traffic safety
• Carrying out the experiments
• Promotions of competition
• Preferences of local industries
Figure: Pavement type selection process
Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport Department of Roads

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 3. Problem statement
• Climate change is unavoidable and its effects will be higher in coming days. The most affected
area by climate change is urban outdoor areas as indoor spaces can be conditioned through
mechanical means.

• The amount and the intensity of outdoor activities are affected by the level of the discomfort
experienced by the inhabitants when they are exposed to the climatic conditions in these outdoor
spaces (WILSON, et al., 2008).

• During the summertime, elevated surface and air temperatures can have a number of
undesirable health and environmental impacts causing increased human and ecosystem
discomfort, UHI would exacerbate heat waves, which can lead to serious health issues.

• The UHI can worsen air quality by promoting ground-level ozone formation.

• Despite the problem, designers are more attracted to the impact of environmental forces on
indoor climate of the buildings, design strategies, and passive solar gains rather than outdoor
thermal comfort (Shafaghat, et al., 2016) .

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 4. Objective
The objective of the study is:

• to investigate the thermal structure (air and surface temperature) of various pavement on
regular street canyons and examine the pedestrian thermal comfort.

5. Methodology-Research Framework
Literature Review Qualitative data

Case Study Quantitative data

Field data measurement

• Pavement material
• Air temperature
• Surface temperature
Methods
Results Conclusion
Questionnaire survey

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6. Literature Review- key theories
6.1. Urban canyon, Solar irradiance and microclimate

Figure: Illustration of Sky view factor in a street

canyon
Dirksen, M. et. Al (2019)

• The sky view factor (SVF) is the ratio of the visible sky area of a point in space to the
total sky area.

• The limits of this ratio range between 0, which refers to an entirely obstructed
sky, and a value of 1, which represents a totally unobstructed sky (Lin et al. 2012).

• The higher the SVF the more solar radiation will potentially be received by a horizontal
surface, and studies have reported a positive correlation between moderate to high
sky view factor (SVF) values and land surface temperature (LST).
Figure: Illustration of Sky view factor in a street
canyon
Oke, T. et. Al (2017)

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 6. Literature Review- key theories
6.2. Urban canyon albedo

• The albedo quantifies

the reflecting power of
a surface on a scale
from 0 (no sunlight
reflected) to 1 (all
sunlight reflected).
Fig: Interconnections between surface albedo, urban canyon albedo, outdoor thermal comfort and building indoor thermal environment
(Salvati et. Al, 2022)

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6. Literature Review- key theories
6.3. Albedo and Surface temperature

Fig: The albedo of common urban surface materials

(Taleghani & Berardi, 2017)

Fig: The albedo of various urban surface materials

Source: http://thebritishgeographer.weebly.com/urban-climates.html
• Experiments have confirmed that reflective pavements effectively decrease the pavement
surface temperature.
Fig: Thermal infrared and visible images of a road
• Conventional asphalt pavements can be more reflective by using chip seal techniques
with light and dark segments.
(sealing the surface with light-colored aggregates by coating the surface with high near- The light segment is about 17°C cooler than the dark
infrared radiation reflectance and/or by doping the surface with reflective pigments. segment
Source: https://heatisland.lbl.gov/coolscience/cool-
• Conventional concrete pavements can be more reflective by filling concrete with white pavements
filler, by using light-colored cementitious mixture , and by white topping
techniques.
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6. Literature Review- Research Findings

Fig: The difference between the predicted air temperature in each of the urban canyon scenarios and the measured temperature at the respective reference
weather stations, at 12:00 (Erel et. Al., 2013)

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6. Literature Review- Research Findings
S.N Title Author Published Findings
year
1. The effect of ground Tatasufumi Kusuda 1994 • Changing surface albedo alone, by application
cover on earth of white paint to dark asphalt, was reported
temperature. to have resulted in a reduction of maximum
daily surface temperature of over 7°C.

2. Mitigation of urban heat Arthur H. Rosenfeld, 1995 • application of practical changes in the albedo
islands: materials, utility Hashem Akbari, Sarah Bretz, of materials, could reduce summertime peak
programs, updates. Beth L. Fishman, Dan air temperature by as much as 1.5 °C.
M. Kurn, David Sailor,
Haider Taha

3. Development of a zero- Silva, H., Bhardwaj, R., 2009 • air temperature reductions could be
dimensional meso scale Phelan, P., Golden, J., achieved ranging from 0.5 to 5°C, depending
thermal model for urban Grossman-Clarke, S., on assumptions regarding the extent of high
climate. albedo surfaces.

4. Improving the N. Gaitani, A.Spanou, A. 2011 • a potential air temperature reduction of 1–2 °C
microclimate in urban Lagoudaki in a public square through implementation of
areas: a case study in cool paving.
the centre of Athens

13
6. Literature Review- Research Findings
S.N Title Author Published Findings
year
5. Environmental Design of Santamouris, M. 2012 • cool pavements reduced the peak ambient air
Urban Buildings: An temperature by up to 1.9 °C, and the ground
Integrated Approach. surface temperature was reduced by 12 °C.
Taylor & Francis
6. Using advanced cool Mattheos Santamouris, 2012 • a maximum temperature difference of 7.6 °C between
materials in the urban A. Synnefa & T. Karlessi conventional tiles and cool pavement’ on a hot
built environment to summer day was obtained.
mitigate heat islands and • a park renovation project in Athens, Greece,
improve thermal comfort implementing high-albedo paving resulted in a
conditions decrease of 1.9 °C in peak temperatures.
• the reduction of peak air temperature is estimated at
0.57–2.3 °C for every 0.1 increase in urban albedo,
equivalent to a total effect of 1–3.5 °C.
7. Heat mitigation strategies Taleghani, M., Tenpierik, M., 2014 • the air temperature was reduced by 1.3 °C compared
in winter and summer: van den Dobbelsteen, A., to a dark pavement (albedo of 0.37) in the
field measurements in Sailor, D.J., temperate climate of Portland
temperate climates.
8. Comparing the effects of Wang, Y., Berardi, U., Akbari, 2016 • it would be possible to reduce the average air
urban heat island H. temperature by up to 0.8 °C at mid-day and 0.6 °C at
mitigation strategies for mid-night during the hot summer days
Toronto, Canada

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6. Literature Review- Research Findings
S.N Title Author Published Findings
year
1. Urban canyon albedo and Yinghong Qin 2015 • reflective pavements can be used only if an urban
its implication on the use canyon has an aspect ratio no greater than 1.0.
of reflective cool
pavements
2. Impact of reflective Agnese Salvati, Maria 2022 • increasing surface reflectance in urban canyons has a
materials on urban Kolokotroni, Alkis detrimental impact on outdoor thermal comfort, due to
canyon albedo, outdoor Kotopouleas, Richard increased interreflections between surfaces
and indoor microclimates Watkins,
Renganathan Giridharan,
Marialena Nikolopoulou
3. Effect of high-albedo Evyatar Erell , David 2013 • use of high-albedo materials in canyon surfaces may
materials on pedestrian Pearlmutter , Daniel Boneh, lower air temperature, the reduction is not enough to
heat stress in urban Pua Bar Kutiel offset increased radiant loads. As a result,
street canyons pedestrian thermal comfort may in fact be
compromised.
4. The effect of pavement Mohammad Taleghani, 2017 • although the increase of reflectivity of pavement
characteristics on Umberto Berardi reduces the air temperature, it reduces the thermal
pedestrians' thermal comfort at the pedestrian level.
comfort in Toronto

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 6. Literature Review- A case of Nangal, Punjab
• Nangal has a Humid subtropical, dry winter climate
• Sandwitched between Himachal Pradesh and Punjab
• Extreme hot and humid summers with mild to moderate cold winters
• Temperature goes as high as 42 °C in summer and as low as 5 °C in winters.
• Use of Precast concrete pavement in both city as well as suburb areas of Nangal.

Fig: Concrete surface as cool pavement in city as well as suburb area

Source: Meteoblue, 13th Feb, 2023

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7. Introduction to Case area
• The site is located in Birgunj Metropolitan City.
• Street 1, named linked road, touches the Tribhuvan Highway and is E-W
axis oriented.
• Street 2, named GP road, connects the Adarsha road to the Ghadiarwa
pokhari and is N-S axis oriented.

Fig: Location of Birgunj metropolitan City

Source: Google map, 13th Feb,2023

• Both streets has mixed use buildings

with mostly commercial activities in the
ground floor.
• Street 1, has Asphalt pavement whereas
Street 2 has concrete pavement.
• Both streets are under influence of same
microclimatic condition.

Fig: Street 1, Linked road Fig: Street 2, GP road Fig: Map of Birgunj metropolitan City
Source: birgunjmun.gov.np

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8. Climate Analysis- Temperature
• The climate of Birgunj is sub-tropical monsoon with a very hot and humid
summer.
• People feel very warm and muggy throughout the summer.
• Climate data for the Birgunj are acquired from Meteoblue and Climate
Consultant.

35
30
25
20
Source: Meteoblue, 13 Feb, 2023
th
15
• According to Meteoblue, the average annual maximum temperature is 31.6 °C 10
and average annual minimum temperature is 17.9 °C. 5
• Temperature remains more than 30°C from July to October and above 35 °C
0
from April to June which may exceed to above 40 °C during April to June. Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
• According to climate consultant, the average annual maximum temperature is
Avg temperature ( celcius)
29 °C and average annual minimum temperature is 14 °C. Source: Climate Consultant

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 8. Climate Analysis- Relative Humidity

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Relative Humidity ( percentage)

Source: Climate Consultant

Source: Climate Consultant
• According to climate consultant, the Relative humidity is between 60-80 % throughout the year at some
part of the day.
• It is relatively high from May to November at Noon.
• RH reaches above 80% during August to February in the morning.
• Also, Birgunj experiences a low RH from February to April at daytime.

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8. Climate Analysis- Rainfall and precipitation

Source: Meteoblue, 13th Feb, 2023

• According to Meteoblue, the sky is clear and sunny from October to May with a few partly cloudy days.
• It is cloudy from June to September with a few days of overcast.
• There is moderate rainfall in April to September.
• The region receives rainfall between 2-5mm rainfall per day during July, else the region remains dry most of the year.
• There is no or less rainfall from October to March

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8. Climate Analysis- Wind Speed
6

5
5
4
4 4 4 4 4
3
3
2
2 2 2 2 2
1

0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Wind Speed (mph)

Source: Climate Consultant

Source: Meteoblue, 13th Feb, 2023

• The wind is calm to light breeze( less that 5 mph) throughout the
year providing less air flow.
• The wind speed is highest during February to September( 5-10
mph) around noon.
• Wind is blowing from South-West (SW) to North-East (NE). Source: Meteoblue, 13th Feb, 2023

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8. Climate Analysis- Psychrometric Chart

• Winter comfort ranges from 22 °C to 26 °C

• Summer comfort range from 25 °C to 28 °C
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 9. Discussion
• Cool pavements decrease heat absorbed at the Earth's surface and thus can lower surface temperatures.

• The materials used for the pavements of urban spaces and sidewalks affect pedestrians' comfort significantly.

• Dark materials store solar radiation during the day and reradiate it overnight.

• Reversely, cool materials, given their high albedo, are often proposed for mitigating UHI issues.

• Due to increased surface inter reflections in urban canyons, rising surface reflectance has a negative effect on
outdoor thermal comfort.

• Since, the temperature ranges between 24°C to 39°C in Sub tropical region of Nepal, it is difficult to carry out outdoor
activities during daytime.

• Hence a study will be carried out for the validation of key theories explained and its relation with the thermal comfort of
pedestrian will be examined.

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THANK YOU!

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