Cool roofs could be most effective at reducing outdoor urban
temperatures in London compared with other roof top and vegetation
interventions: a mesoscale urban climate modelling study
Abstract
Comprehensive studies comparing impacts of building and street levels
interventions on air temperature at metropolitan scales are still
lacking despite increased urban heat-related mortality and morbidity. We
therefore model the impact of 9 interventions on air temperatures at 2 m
during 2 hot days from the summer 2018 in the Greater London Authority
area using the WRF BEP-BEM climate model. We find that on average cool
roofs most effectively reduce temperatures (~ -1.2°C), outperforming green roofs
(~ 0°C), solar panels
(~ -0.3°C) and street
level vegetation (~ -0.3°C). Application of air conditioning
across London increase air temperatures by ~ +0.15°C but related energetic consumption
could be covered by energy production from solar panels. Current
realistic deployments of green roofs and solar panels are ineffective at
large scale reduction of temperatures. We provide a detailed
decomposition of the surface energy balance to explain changes in air
temperature and guide future decision-making.