Climate change is turning up the heat faster and more intensely. Many countries are experiencing higher numbers of heat alert days and more record-breaking summer temperatures. Most of the impact is in cities, where buildings, streets and other parts of urban environments generate extra heat. But some cities are taking steps to reduce rising temperatures. They are cultivating urban forests to provide shade, installing water features to cool the air and redesigning buildings in ways that shield people from heat. Another remedy — developed by Fulton Schools Assistant Professor Ariane Middel, an urban climatologist, and her colleagues — are new solar reflective road pavements that keep asphalt and other street surfaces from reflecting much of the heat of the sun.

See Also: Does gravel landscape negatively impact the urban heat island effect in Arizona? KJZZ News (PBS) , August 7
Ariane Middel talks about the comparative cooling effects — or lack of them — among common landscaping surface materials.