One Billion People More Resilient
light pavement
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Policy Solution

Light pavement

Incentive

Summary

Light-colored materials and reflective coatings or overlays serve to reflect heat instead of absorbing and retaining it. In addition to decreasing temperatures, these treatments can also extend the pavement lifetime.

Implementation

Provide incentives through rebates, zoning provision incentives, and green building incentives to encourage property owners to use light or reflective paving.

Considerations for Use

Consider who uses the pavements, how, and what is surrounding the area to determine if reflective pavements are appropriate to implement. Local technology and product availability may also determine implementation cost.

Overview

  • Climate:

    Cold, Hot/Dry, Hot/Humid, Temperate
  • Policy Levers:

    IncentiveFinancial and non-financial incentives to encourage stakeholders to implement heat risk reduction and preparedness solutions, including rebates, tax credits, expedited permitting, development/zoning bonuses, and more.
  • Trigger Points:

    City planning processesIncludes city initiatives such as the development of climate action plan, pathway to zero-energy, master plan, transit plan, energy mapping etc.
    Introducing new or updated zoning/codesIncludes codes, zoning requirements or by-laws pertaining to urban planning and building construction activity.
    No-regrets actions (low cost/low effort but substantial benefit)Interventions that are relatively low-cost and low effort (in terms of requisite dependencies) but have substantial environmental and/or social benefits.
  • Intervention Types:

    Buildings and Built Form
  • Sectors:

    Public Works, Transportation

Case Studies

Impact

  • Target Beneficiaries:

    Heat-vulnerable communities, Property owners, Residents
  • Phase of Impact:

    Risk reduction and mitigation
  • Metrics:

    Total area repaved

Implementation

  • Intervention Scale:

    Site
  • Authority and Governance:

    City government
  • Implementation Timeline:

    Short-term (1-2 Years)
  • Implementation Stakeholders:

    City government, Private developers, Property owners and managers
  • Funding Sources:

    Public investment
  • Capacity to Act:

    High

Benefits

  • Cost-Benefit:

    Low
  • Public Good:

    Medium
  • GHG Reduction:

    N/A
  • Co-benefits (Climate/Environmental):

    N/A
  • Co-benefits (Social/Economic):

    N/A