CONTENTS List of Figures and Tables vii List of Acronyms and Abbreviations xiii Chapter 1 What is a Heat Island? 1 Heat island definition 1 Impacts of heat islands 2 Characteristics of heat islands 2 Chapter 2 Causes of the Heat Island 15 Introduction 15 Energy balance 16 Reduced evaporation 17 Increased heat storage 18 Increased net radiation 20 Reduced convection 21 Increased anthropogenic heat 22 Interplay of heat island causes 23 Chapter 3 Measuring and Modelling Heat Islands 27 Measuring heat islands 27 Modelling heat islands35 Chapter 4 From Heat Islands to Cool Communities 43 Typical land use characteristics 43 Typical roofing materials 46 Cool roofing materials48 Typical paving materials49 Cool paving materials 51 Thermal properties of materials 52 Cooling with trees and vegetation 52 Potential for cooling 53 Chapter 5 All About Cool Roofing 57 Introduction 57 Cool roofing definition 57 Types of cool roofing63 Benefits of cool roofing 71 Other cool roof considerations 79 Chapter 6 All About Cool Paving 85 What is cool paving? 85 Types of cool paving 85 Benefits of cool paving 100 Other cool paving considerations 103 Chapter 7 Cooling with Trees and Vegetation 109 Introduction 109 Benefits and costs of trees and vegetation 109 Effective landscaping for cooling 121 Green roofing, or garden roofing 128 Chapter 8 Community Benefits from Heat Island Mitigation139 Introduction 139 Temperature reductions 139 Energy savings140 Air quality improvements141 Human comfort and health improvements 146 Stormwater run-off reductions148 Maintenance and waste reduction 150 Quality of life benefits 151 Chapter 9 Cool Community Action Plan 155 Motivate 155 Investigate158 Educate 162 Demonstrate 164 Initiate 167 Legislate 172 More action opportunities 177 The cool revolution183 Index 187