EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON IMPROVEMENT OF HUMAN THERMAL ENVIRONMENT ON A WATERED PAVEMENT AND A HIGHLY REFLECTIVE PAVEMENT

Abstract

Radiation environment over the watered pavement and the highly reflective pavement, which have been developed for mitigation of the heat island phenomenon, were compared with that over a paved asphalt and natural turf under the same meteorological condition. Possible absorptions of long- and shortwave radiation by a supposed globe placed at 50 cm above these surfaces were calculated. It is found that the highly reflective pavement had a potential to degrade the thermal environment over it due to the increase of reflected solar radiation, while the watered pavement did not have such a side effect. Human thermal environment can be improved more effectively by shading and/or selection of the color of clothes than by changing the types of pavements. The estimated SET^* on the watered pavement showed its superiority over that on the highly reflective pavement from the standpoint of the thermal comfortability at lower leg level.